Why this matters for your practice
For an NDIS provider, the SCHADS Award is the single biggest determinant of what it costs to deliver a support hour. It sits directly underneath the NDIA's price limits, and because the two are set by different bodies on different timetables, the gap between them is where a provider's margin lives or dies. When the award moves and the price limit does not, the shortfall comes out of the provider.
It is also the award with the most litigated operational rules in the sector. Broken shifts, minimum engagement periods, travel time between clients and sleepover provisions generate more underpayment claims in disability services than base rates do, because they are the provisions rostering software is most likely to get wrong.
Who the award covers
The SCHADS Award covers employers and employees in four sectors:
- Social and community services, including social work, welfare work, youth work and community development, and the provision of social, community or disability services including personal care and domestic and lifestyle support to a person with disability in a community setting, residential setting, respite centre or day service.
- Home care, meaning personal care, domestic assistance or home maintenance for an older person or a person with disability in a private residence.
- Crisis assistance and supported housing.
- Family day care schemes.
For NDIS purposes, the practical read is that your disability support workers sit in the social and community services stream, while home care disability work (domestic assistance and home maintenance in someone's home) sits under Schedule E. That distinction is not cosmetic, as the next section shows.
Registered and enrolled nurses are covered by the Nurses Award rather than SCHADS, even when they work for a disability provider, and allied health professionals may fall under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award. A mid-sized NDIS provider commonly runs all three instruments at once.
The two changes that reshape the award
The Fair Work Commission's Expert Panel handed down decision [2026] FWCFB 137 on 1 June 2026, finalising SCHADS under the gender-based undervaluation priority awards review. It produced two separate events.
1 October 2026: an interim increase, for a narrow group. Home care disability workers engaged under Schedule E receive an interim increase of 15% from the first full pay period on or after that date, with two exceptions: Level E.4.2 rises 14.96% and Level E.5.2 rises 13.31%. The Panel brought this group forward because home care workers servicing aged care clients have had a 15% interim uplift since 30 June 2023, and it considered the disability equivalent being left behind to be anomalous. This increase does not reach general disability support workers.
1 October 2027: a new classification structure, for everyone. A single integrated structure replaces the award's separate schedules, and every employee is translated into it. A disability support worker with less than 12 months of relevant industry experience enters at Level 2.2 ($1,248.50 per week), moving to Level 3.1 ($1,314.20 per week) after 12 months. A social and community services employee enters at Level 3 on $1,314.20. That figure is not arbitrary: it is the minimum funding point for the work under the NDIS and the Certificate III caring-skills benchmark.
The full sequence, the scope tests and the NDIS pricing squeeze it creates are covered in SCHADS Award changes 2026.
The operational provisions that generate claims
- Minimum engagement periods. A shift must run for a minimum number of hours depending on the employee's classification and employment type. Short client visits scheduled back to back do not each satisfy it.
- Broken shifts. Where a shift is split across the day, the award attracts an allowance and restricts how many breaks are permitted. Rostering a worker across a morning and an evening client without applying the broken shift rules is a frequent finding.
- Travel time and vehicle allowance. Time spent travelling between clients during a shift is generally paid time, and a kilometre allowance applies when the worker uses their own vehicle.
- Sleepovers and 24 hour care. These have their own rates and conditions, distinct from ordinary overnight work.
- Casual conversion and roster change notice. Part-time employees have agreed patterns, and work outside them can attract overtime rather than ordinary rates.
What the Fair Work Ombudsman expects
- Correct sector, stream and level for each employee, documented and reassessed when duties change.
- Base rate plus all applicable penalties, loadings and allowances, including the operational provisions above rather than base pay alone.
- The Annual Wage Review increase from the first full pay period on or after 1 July each year, plus the award-specific changes on 1 October 2026 and 1 October 2027.
- Auditable records and payslips, including start and finish times that let travel and broken shift entitlements be reconstructed.
Common mistakes
- Applying the 1 October 2026 interim increase to all disability workers, when it reaches only Schedule E home care disability staff.
- Treating disability support work and home care disability work as the same thing. They are different streams with different timetables.
- Paying only the client-facing hours, and omitting paid travel between clients within a shift.
- Rostering split shifts without broken shift allowances.
- Assuming the NDIS price limit is the wage. The price limit is what you can charge, not what you must pay, and the award moves independently of it.
- Leaving nurses or allied health staff on SCHADS when their role sits under MA000034 or MA000027.
Frequently asked questions
Which award covers disability support workers?
The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (MA000100), commonly called the SCHADS Award. Disability support workers generally sit in its social and community services stream. Home care disability work, meaning domestic assistance or home maintenance in a person's residence, sits under Schedule E of the same award and is treated separately.
Did all SCHADS workers get a 15 per cent increase on 1 October 2026?
No. The interim increase from the first full pay period on or after 1 October 2026 applies only to home care disability workers engaged under Schedule E, and two classifications receive slightly less (E.4.2 at 14.96 per cent and E.5.2 at 13.31 per cent). General disability support workers are affected by the new classification structure commencing 1 October 2027 instead.
What changes for SCHADS on 1 October 2027?
A single integrated classification structure replaces the award's separate schedules, and every employee is translated into it. A disability support worker with under 12 months of relevant experience enters at Level 2.2 on $1,248.50 per week and moves to Level 3.1 on $1,314.20 after 12 months. Social and community services employees enter at Level 3 on $1,314.20.
Does the SCHADS Award require paying for travel between clients?
Generally yes. Time spent travelling between clients during a shift is treated as paid time, and a kilometre allowance applies where the employee uses their own vehicle. Paying only for client-facing hours is one of the most common underpayment patterns in home care and disability services, and it compounds quickly across a large casual workforce.
Are practice nurses employed by an NDIS provider covered by SCHADS?
No. Registered and enrolled nurses are covered by the Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034) regardless of the type of organisation employing them. A disability provider employing support workers, nurses and allied health staff will typically be running SCHADS, the Nurses Award and the Health Professionals and Support Services Award at the same time.
How does the SCHADS Award interact with NDIS price limits?
They are set independently. The Fair Work Commission sets what you must pay; the NDIA sets what you can charge. When an award increase commences and the corresponding price limit does not move by the same amount on the same date, the difference is absorbed by the provider. The 1 October 2026 and 1 October 2027 changes both need to be modelled against your price limits rather than assumed to be funded.
Related terms
Go deeper
Last reviewed