NDS Sector engagement project

In 2025–26, DHS partnered with National Disability Services (NDS) to deliver a series of events on workplace safety for South Australian disability service providers, and a co-design project on 1:1 line-of-sight support.

Workplace safety in the sector events

National Disability Services (NDS) led a series of in-person ‘safety in the sector’ events about safety, wellbeing, quality and safeguarding, and the ongoing challenge of balancing a client's dignity and human rights against the safety risks to workers.

Australian professionals working in the sector shared their insight on:

Occupational violence — including the risks, the impact on workers, and how to prevent it
active support and what good quality service looks like
psychosocial hazards and everyday harm
quality and safeguarding, including ways to manage risk.

1:1 line-of-sight support project

Alongside these events, NDS delivered a series of co-design workshops to capture sector and community perspectives on best practice for delivering of 1:1 line-of-sight support for people with high medical and physical support needs.

'Line-of-sight' support means one worker is visually aware of, actively attentive to, and able to respond to the needs of the person while this support is required.

Staff from 7 South Australian disability service providers took part, bringing insight from experience in client services, quality and safeguarding, compliance, people and culture, and operations. The DHS Disability Engagement Group also gave feedback to ensure that results were informed by lived experience.

Through this work, NDS identified effective practices, tools and training supports that other organisations could adopt to enhance safety while maintaining person-centred support — consistent with the 2016 NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework and NDIS Practice Standards.

Outcomes

The project found that effective line-of-sight support is best achieved through a combination of practical tools, training, clear processes and solid organisational oversight that prioritises participant safety, dignity, choice and control.

Workshop participants shared tools and practices that could be used when delivering 1:1 line-of-sight support. These included:

visible prompts, such as lanyards or badges
knowing the physical space and mapping out key risk areas and staff placement
clear records and handovers between shifts
ongoing staff training and skill development
strong leadership, supervision and governance.

One point came through clearly across the workshops: these tools are there to support workers' judgement and providers' responsibilities, not replace them.