Blog · 20 June 2026 · 6 min read

SCHADS award and rostering for NDIS providers: getting pay right

The SCHADS award is where many NDIS providers quietly lose margin — or risk underpayment. Here's how to roster and cost shifts with confidence.

Most disability support workers are paid under the SCHADS award (Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services), and it's genuinely complex — penalties, broken shifts, sleepovers, minimum engagements and overtime all interact. Get it wrong and you either erode your margin or risk underpaying staff.

Where providers slip up

  • Missing weekend, evening and public-holiday penalty rates.
  • Not applying minimum engagement periods.
  • Costing shifts at base rate and discovering the real cost at payroll.
  • No clear line between what a shift costs you and what you can claim for it.

Roster with the award built in

Award-aware rostering means every shift is costed correctly as you build the roster — penalties, overtime and public holidays included — so you see margin before you commit, not after. It also makes payroll export clean and fast.

SureHarbor.app interprets SCHADS rates as you roster, costs each shift (with public-holiday penalties applied from a working calendar), and exports payroll-ready timesheets — so you protect your margin and pay people correctly.

Run your NDIS service on one platform. SureHarbor.app brings participants, service agreements, claiming, incidents, worker screening and your NDIS Practice Standards evidence together — Australian-built and audit-ready. See the NDIS Compliance Platform → Free to start.

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