Victorian Disability Worker Commission

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Victorian Disability Worker Commission

The Victorian Disability Worker Commission was established to regulate registered and unregistered disability workers in Victoria. The primary role is to set registration standards for workers and to investigate complaints about worker conduct. The VDW Commission also has authority to prohibit workers from providing disability services and supports in Victoria.

The disability worker regulation scheme aims to:

  • ensure workers have the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications to provide quality services

  • stop people who pose a serious risk of harm from providing disability services in Victoria

  • enable people with disability to exercise greater choice and control in their lives, and

  • ensure people with disability receive high quality services.

Registration is voluntary. Workers who choose to register will be appropriately screened as able to provide quality services. Registered workers will have to meet certain requirements under the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018 to obtain registration.

Code of conduct

The Code of Conduct has been aligned with the NDIS Code of Conduct to promote consistency in the requirements for worker conduct in Victoria, regardless of whether they are funded through the NDIS or other providers.

The Code requires that disability workers, in providing supports or services to people with a disability, must:

  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.

More information

Victorian Disability Worker Commission

Mandatory Notification

Under the new legislation, a disability worker or disability employer must notify the Commission if they reasonably believe that a disability worker has engaged in notifiable conduct.

Four types of conduct must be notified to the Commission:

  1. practicing as a disability worker while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs
  2. engaging in sexual misconduct while practicing as a disability worker
  3. placing the public at risk of harm because the disability worker has an impairment that detrimentally affects (or is likely to affect), the disability worker’s capacity to practice as a disability worker or
  4. placing the public at risk of harm because the disability worker practiced, or is practicing, as a disability worker in a manner that constitutes a significant departure from accepted professional standards.