Response to the Draft Care and Support Sector Code of Conduct

The APS welcomed the opportunity to attend a consultation workshop and provide a subsequent written response about the Draft Care and Support Sector Code of Conduct. This consultation considered if the NDIS Code of Conduct could be appropriately adapted and applied across the Commonwealth NDIS, disability, aged care, and veterans' support sectors.

Generally, the APS supported a single code of conduct to guide the care and support services workforce. However, the APS noted the need to avoid unnecessary duplication and administrative burden for AHPRA regulated health professionals, including psychologists, who must comply with professional codes of conduct.

Other recommendations included:

• Revising the draft code of conduct using a Plain Language approach to improve the accessibility of the code for all sectors and roles within the care and support services workforce.
• Developing targeted education and guidance to assist the workforce to understand the application of the code to the various care and support sector contexts and different worker roles.
• Ensuring the code of conduct complaints system is accessible to, and trusted by, diverse consumers and the workforce while also capable of triaging complaints to other appropriate bodies (e.g. AHPRA for registered health professionals).

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