Disability Support Worker | Autism and Complex Behaviour Support

Cosmic Care; Newcastle-Maitland; On-site; AUD 62,000 - 116,000; Part time

Job summary

Cosmic Care Pty Ltd is seeking Disability Support Workers for casual roles across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter. You will work one‑on‑one with participants with autism and complex needs, following established plans and providing personal care where required.

The role emphasizes staying calm, following documented plans, and documenting shift notes. NSW WWCC and First Aid are required; a current driver licence and car are preferred. Training is paid and shifts may include sleepovers.

Qualifications

• Working With Children Check and First Aid required
• NDIS Worker Screening Check required or offered after conditional offer
• Driver licence and car with CTP required
• Availability for weekend or weekday shifts including sleepovers
• Proficient phone/tablet use for rosters and reports

Responsibilities

• Provide one-on-one support in participants' homes or community
• Assist with personal care as specified in plans
• Follow documented support plans and document shift notes
• Maintain safety and respond calmly to distress or behaviours of concern
• Attend paid induction and ongoing training

Skills

Calm under pressure

Reliability

Follow plans

Communication

Education

Certificate III in Individual Support (bonus)

Experience with autism/AAC/de-escalation (bonus)

Job description

Disability Support Worker | Autism and Complex Behaviour Support

Disability Support Worker | Autism and Complex Behaviour Support | Casual | Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter

Pay

$45.28 to $46.70/hr weekdays

$63.39 to $65.38/hr Saturdays

$81.50 to $84.06/hr Sundays

Public holidays higher again

SCHADS Award, SACS Level 2 casual: pay point 2.1 to start, 2.2 with experience.

For the support worker who stays calm when it gets hard

If you are the person colleagues hand the hard shift to, we would like to meet you. We are a small NDIS provider built for complex and intensive support: people with autism, intellectual disability and behaviours of concern, many of them non-speaking.

Years in disability help, but they are not essential. Being calm, reliable and willing to follow a plan exactly matters more. We train the rest.

The honest version

A real shift: you work one‑on‑one, usually solo, in the participant's home or out in the community. You help with showering, toileting and incontinence care on every shift it is needed. You are on your feet for long stretches, near roads and car parks, staying alert the whole time. When a participant becomes distressed in public while strangers watch, your job is to stay calm, follow their plan exactly and keep everyone safe. You give physical guidance the person can let go of. You never catch, lift or take a person's body weight, and you never restrain anyone unless their authorised behaviour support plan includes it and you have been trained and signed off. Afterwards you write clear, factual shift notes to an audited standard.

You follow each participant's documented plans as written. You do not design or change plans, and anything new goes to management to check first. If that sounds restrictive, this is not the job for you. If it sounds like clarity, keep reading.

How we back you

Rostered for consistency: the same people, as far as we can, on purpose. A predictable week is what makes a good day possible for the people we support, and it is what lets you learn someone well enough to do this properly. This is casual work and we will not pretend a roster can never change, but protecting it is the thing we guard hardest.

Trained before you are on your own: a paid induction, training in each participant's plans, and paid buddy shifts with a worker the participant knows.

Never alone with a problem: a director is on call around the clock, and every message to on‑call gets a reply signed by a director.

After a hard shift: a debrief whenever you ask for one, and free, confidential counselling through our employee assistance program.

Paid training: your induction, training on each participant's plan, buddy shifts and the online modules are paid. The paperwork is done on shift, in paid time.

Small provider, two directors, no layers: the people who answer your calls run the company and do the work.

Pay you can see: the pay is in this ad to the cent, and on the first phone call we walk your likely roster through in dollars. Sleepovers are paid under the Award's sleepover provisions: we explain how sleepovers are paid at the phone screen, and confirm the figures in writing before your first roster.

This job is probably not for you if

Personal care, including toileting and incontinence care, is a dealbreaker

You want to design supports or "do it your way" rather than follow documented plans exactly

Daily written records feel like a chore you would cut corners on

You cannot stay calm when a participant is distressed, or when someone is short with you

You need physical work to be light

What you must have

Working With Children Check and First Aid: a NSW Working With Children Check (paid worker) and First Aid (HLTAID011), already held when you apply, at your own cost. Have your Working With Children Check number handy: our application form asks for it.

NDIS Worker Screening Check: if you already hold one, great. If you do not, you cannot apply for it on your own: after we make you a conditional offer, you apply through Service NSW naming Cosmic Care as your employer (the fee is at your cost), and it must be cleared before your first shift.

Licence and car: a current Australian driver licence (red P, green P or full; not a learner's) and a reliable, registered car with a green slip (CTP), kept roadworthy, safe and clean. Comprehensive insurance is encouraged, not required.

Availability: genuine availability for at least one of: weekend day shifts, weekday afternoons and evenings, or weekday sleepovers.

Phone or tablet skills: comfort using a phone or tablet for rosters, notes and incident reports. The NDIS Worker Orientation Module and infection control training are done before you work alone, in paid time if you do not already hold them.

The role's inherent requirements

You need the capability to meet these, with or without reasonable adjustments:

Standing and walking for long periods on uneven ground and in all weather

Bending and kneeling for personal care

Moving quickly to keep a participant safe

Staying alert near roads and car parks

Shifts that vary in length, including sleepovers

Supporting participants through distress and behaviours of concern, including physical aggression

Working alone for long stretches

Staying professional when feedback is blunt

If you would need an adjustment, apply anyway and tell us. Asking never counts against you: it starts a conversation, not a decline.

A Certificate III in Individual Support, or experience with autism, AAC or de‑escalation, is a bonus, not a requirement. We welcome applicants of all ages and backgrounds.

One more thing you should know

If something you see in the course of your work gives you reasonable grounds to suspect a child is at risk of significant harm, reporting it is your own legal duty, not only ours. We train you in it before you work alone.

Privacy

We collect your application to assess you for this role. Only the two directors see your answers, and Peninsula, our HR advisers, only if we need advice. We never share it with other providers or recruiters. If you are not successful, it is kept securely, then destroyed under our records retention schedule. The full notice is the Privacy page on our website.

About Cosmic Care

Cosmic Care Pty Ltd is an NDIS registered provider for people with complex support needs across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter.

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