Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010

Who the award covers

Clause 4.1 covers employers throughout Australia in the social and community services, crisis assistance and supported housing, home care and family day care scheme sectors, and their employees in the classifications in Schedules B to F. Those schedules cover social and community services employees, crisis accommodation employees, family day care employees, home care employees in disability care, and home care employees in aged care.

Clause 4.2 lists employees who are not covered, including those covered by the Aged Care Award 2010 and the Nurses Award 2010. This is why a personal care worker in a residential aged care home is generally under the Aged Care Award, while a support worker providing care in a client's home may be under the SCHADS Award. If an enterprise agreement applies to your workplace, check it first, because it may set different terms.

Minimum payments for part-time and casual shifts

Clause 10.5 sets a minimum payment for each shift, or each period of work in a broken shift, worked by a part-time or casual employee. Social and community services employees must be paid for at least 3 hours, except when they are doing disability services work. All other employees, including home care employees and employees doing disability services work, must be paid for at least 2 hours. The minimum applies to each shift and to each period of work in a broken shift, so splitting work into short periods does not reduce it.

Broken shifts

Clause 25.6 allows broken shifts only for social and community services employees doing disability services work and for home care employees. An employer can roster a shift in two periods of work with one unpaid break. By agreement with the employee, a shift can have three periods of work with two unpaid breaks. A broken shift allowance is payable, and it is higher for a shift with two unpaid breaks.

The whole broken shift must fall within a span of 12 hours, and work outside that span is paid at double time. There must be at least 10 hours off between broken shifts on successive days. Each period of work within a broken shift attracts the minimum payment in clause 10.5 for part-time and casual employees, so a short period of work is still paid for at least the minimum.

Sleepovers and the June 2026 changes

Clause 25.7 covers sleepovers, where the employer requires an employee to sleep overnight at the premises where their client is located. The sleepover is a continuous period of 8 hours. The employee must have a separate room with a bed and clean linen, access to facilities, and free board and lodging. A flat sleepover allowance is paid for each night, and any work during the sleepover is paid at overtime rates with a minimum of one hour.

After Federal Court litigation about whether a sleepover breaks a shift, the Fair Work Commission varied the award in [2026] FWCFB 79, operative from 1 June 2026. A sleepover is not a break, so the work before and after it is one shift. By agreement, that shift can include up to 12 ordinary hours, with no more than 8 ordinary hours on either side of the sleepover. Shift loadings are assessed separately for the work before and the work after.

The gender undervaluation review and new classifications

In [2026] FWCFB 137, delivered on 1 June 2026, an Expert Panel of the Fair Work Commission finalised its review of gender based undervaluation in the award and adopted a single classification structure to replace Schedules B, C, E and F. A later decision, [2026] FWCFB 232 of 11 September 2026, set an interim increase of about 15 per cent for home care employees in disability care under Schedule E from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 December 2026, with the new structure starting on 1 October 2027.

Under the new structure, disability support workers enter at a lower level for their first 12 months of relevant industry experience and then progress. The Commission said it intends to reduce the percentages used to calculate allowances, including the broken shift and sleepover allowances, so their dollar value stays the same. Existing employees will be translated into the new structure, with retained rate arrangements for some employees whose current minimum rate would otherwise fall.

Finding the current pay rates

Minimum rates and dollar allowances in the award change through the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review and through decisions such as those above. Rather than relying on a figure from a website, roster app or old pay guide, check the current pay guide for the award published by the Fair Work Ombudsman, or use its Pay and Conditions Tool. NDIS price limits are set separately by the NDIA and do not change automatically when award rates change. For a pay dispute, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman or seek advice.

Questions people ask about the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010

• Does the SCHADS Award apply to NDIS support workers?
• What is the minimum shift length under the SCHADS Award?
• How do broken shifts work under the SCHADS Award?
• How is a sleepover paid under the SCHADS Award?
• What changed for SCHADS sleepovers on 1 June 2026?
• When does the new SCHADS classification structure start?
• Am I covered by the SCHADS Award or the Aged Care Award?