Participant Transfer and Mobility Assistance SWMS

For disability and aged care providers, support workers and in-home care teams who assist participants with transfers, repositioning and mobility. It follows the work in order, from reading the participant’s plan and checking equipment to the transfer, walking, falls response and behaviours of concern. Mobile hoist transfers need the Mobile Hoist and Sling Transfer SWMS.

Assisting people with transfers is not high risk construction work, so WHS Regulation s 299 requires a SWMS only if the work is part of high risk construction work. Otherwise the document works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment, and no high risk construction work item is pre-ticked. If support work is carried out during construction work, such as building a ramp, tick the items that apply.

Learn More: What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?
Have you ever been asked to provide a SWMS on a project in Queensland? Read our guide to what a Safe Work Method Statement is and when you need one.

What Is Covered In Our Participant Transfer and Mobility Assistance SWMS?

The job steps run in the order the work is done, from pre-start checks to finishing up. The hazards and controls include:

• Back and shoulder strains in transfers
• Participant falling during a transfer
• Equipment failing or brakes not locked
• Slips and trips in participants’ homes
• Pressure and skin injuries from dragging
• Violence and aggression from a participant
• Working alone in a participant’s home
• Infection from body fluids
• Falls response and lifting from the floor
• Worker fatigue and delayed reporting

High Risk Construction Work

No high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this work is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick the items that apply to your job, such as a fall risk of more than 2 metres or work where powered mobile plant is moving.

Licences, Training and Competency

• Support worker qualification or training for the service (for example disability or aged care) and induction on the participant’s support plan
• Practical training in safe transfer and repositioning techniques and in the equipment used, signed off by a competent person such as an occupational therapist or physiotherapist
• Training in recognising and responding to behaviours of concern, de-escalation and the participant’s behaviour support plan, where one applies
• Training in infection control, including hand hygiene and the use of gloves
• First aid and CPR training; first aider arrangements as the provider’s first aid risk assessment sets out (WHS Regulation s 42 sets no fixed number)
• No high risk work licence class in Schedule 3 applies to transfers and mobility assistance
• Workplace or site induction, including home visit and lone worker procedures

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 60 (hazardous manual tasks); s 48 (remote or isolated work); ss 55A to 55D (meaning of psychosocial hazard and risk, duty to manage psychosocial risks, determining control measures)
• Manual Tasks Involving the Handling of People Advisory Standard 2001 (preserved approved code)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Healthcare and social assistance industry (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (13 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages
• Business, client, job and document details typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• The high risk construction work checklist, worded as WHS Regulation s 291, and the construction project question (s 292)
• A worker and health and safety representative consultation record
• Qualifications, plant, PPE, hazardous chemicals, safety equipment, permits, references and emergency arrangements filled in for this work
• A 5 x 5 risk matrix, and job steps with initial and residual risk scores and the people responsible
• Implementing, monitoring and review requirements, an additional controls log, revision history and a worker sign-on sheet

Review and adjust it for your site, your plant and the way your crew does the job, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. If you have any trouble downloading this SWMS, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.