Category: Support Workers

Supported Independent Living (SIL) is a shared living arrangement of two to seven National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants, with 24/7 tailored in home disability support services. SIL supports people with disability that need assistance with everyday tasks. Each SIL resident is funded individually, and the funding reflects their unique and shared support in home.

Who is eligible for SIL funding?

To access SIL services, you must have a current NDIS plan with allocated funding for SIL included in your plan or Disability Support for Older Australians Program (DSOA) funding.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has a set criterion to access funding for SIL based on ‘reasonable and necessary supports’. To be eligible for SIL funding, you must:

• Provide evidence that you are unable to live without 24/7 supports. This is recognised through a Functional Assessment Report (FAR) undertaken by an Allied Health professional.
• Provide an Identifying Housing Solution’s report by a support coordinator.

SIL eligibility must also consider any informal supports provided by family members, carers, networks, and the community. It is vital that the supports are effective, tailored, and beneficial to the individual. At Nextt, we can help you determine your eligibility for funding.

What support will Nextt provide me? 

Once your eligibility has been determined, it is time to find the right home, and housemates for you to move in with. Nextt currently support many people living in disability accommodation, we have a team of experts available to support you in starting this process. We can assist you by:

• Finding the right people for you to live with ensuring a good match.
• Locating a property that meets your individual needs.
• Supporting you with your transition.

Nextt will support you during all areas of life including:

• Daily living skills.
• Self-care.
• Home and financial management.
• Education support.
• Employment support.
• Social and spiritual events.
• Activities and groups.

Supported Independent Living may suit you if you enjoy living independently but also require some extra support to meet your daily needs. Call us on 1300 369 568, or register your interest here, for more information.

It can be hard to know exactly what to expect from your new disability support worker.  At Nextt, we pride ourselves on getting to know you, including your needs and interests so that we can support you to achieve your personal goals.

We have outlined below some additional information on what you can expect from your support worker at Nextt.

 The role of a disability support worker

The role of your disability support worker is to provide you with assistance and support when you need it most – to help you to live independently and to get more out of life.

Their key role is to support you with your NDIS goals.  Some of the duties and tasks that they may support you to do include:

• Assisting you with daily living, with a focus on self-care and high intensity personal care activities.
• Performing home based tasks such as food preparation and housework.
• Helping you to develop skills and participate in community activities.
• Facilitating daily personal hygiene and dressing tasks.
• Providing community access so you can improve social skills and confidence.
• Assist with high-level manual handling tasks.
• Providing emotional support and friendship.

The qualities of a disability support worker

Disability support workers at Nextt need to have a range of different personal qualities, so that they can provide you with the best possible support.  Some of these qualities include:

Customer service skills: a customer service mindset is extremely important when supporting you to reach your goals, make your own decisions and to live your life independently.

Relationship building skills: we strive to make sure our support workers are genuinely good with people and have the ability to build and maintain meaningful relationships.

Life experience and transferrable skills: we often try to find support workers who have a degree of life experience and transferable skills – for example – return-to-work parents who have had experience supporting someone with disability, can have fantastic transferable skills.

What else you can expect from a Nextt disability support worker:

• Our support workers are provided with a wide range of training so they have the core skills to be effective – and deliver service excellence – in their role.
• Our support workers generally have a vocational qualification in disability or community services.
• Our support workers have all of the required certifications including a current working with children/vulnerable people check, a first aid and CPR certificate and have passed their NDIS Worker Screening Check (or current National Police Records Check) and manual handling check.
• Our support workers have completed the NDIS ‘Quality, Safety and You’ and ‘Infection Prevention and Control for COVID-19 Training’
• Our support workers understand the NDIS Code of Conduct (see below).
• Our support workers have good communication and listening skills and enjoy working with and supporting others.
• Our support workers share our passion for supporting people to ‘get more out of life’.

The NDIS Code of Conduct for Support Workers

The NDIS Code of Conduct requires workers and providers delivering NDIS supports to:

1. Act with respect for individual rights to freedom of expression, self-determination, and decision-making in accordance with applicable laws and conventions.
2. Respect the privacy of people with disability.
3. Provide supports and services in a safe and competent manner with care and skill.
4. Act with integrity, honesty and transparency.
5. Promptly take steps to raise and act on concerns about matters that may impact the quality and safety of supports and services provided to people with disability.
6. Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against, and exploitation, neglect and abuse of, people with disability.
7. Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.

To find out more about the NDIS Code of Conduct, click here.

Working as a Disability Support Worker can be an extremely rewarding career option.  As a Disability Support Worker, you will be providing care and assistance to people with physical and/or mental health disability.  You’ll be supporting people with disability to reach their individual goals, to become more independent and to get much more out of life.

This work can be challenging – but it is also extremely rewarding – knowing you are making a real difference to someone’s life – as well as the lives of their families and the communities in which they live – each-and-every day.

The great news is that there is a great deal of demand for disability support workers.  If you are looking for a job, the demand for support workers has been growing at a staggering rate.  If you are looking to build a long-term career, disability support work is a great path to follow.

What qualifications do you need?

Most disability service providers will require that you have a vocational qualification in disability or community services.  You can get the necessary qualifications from a wide range of registered training organisations including Open Colleges, and TAFE.

What skills do you need?

In addition to training and qualifications, you should also have a range of ‘soft skills’ including resilience and communication skills. You will also need to learn how to work in a team.

What work will you be doing?

One of the best things about working as a Disability Support Worker is that no two days will be the same.  Working as a disability support worker also provides you with the satisfaction that you are making a real difference to people – supporting them to get more out of life.

The work that you will do will depend upon the needs of the people you are supporting – though it may include supporting people with daily living, helping people engage in community activities, performing home based tasks, providing community access, assisting manual handling tasks – and providing emotional support and friendship.

What certifications do you need?

As a Disability Support Worker, you will be working with some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. It is therefore essential that you get a number of certifications including a current working with children/vulnerable people check, a first aid and CPR certificate and that you have passed your NDIS Worker Screening Check (or current National Police Records Check) and manual handling check.

If you’d like to find out more about becoming a disability support worker with Nextt, please call our recruitment team on 1300 576 097, or register your interest on becoming a disability support worker on our support worker page.  You can also download a free copy of our guide to becoming a disability support worker.