Choosing & Directing Personal Care Workers (Your Rights)
Your rights with a personal care worker on the NDIS: choosing who supports you, directing how care is done, gender preferences, and raising concerns.
Personal care is intimate work — showering, dressing, toileting — so who delivers it, and how, really matters. On the NDIS, choice and control aren't just nice ideas; they're the foundation of how your support is meant to work. This guide explains your rights to choose your personal care workers, to direct how your care is done, and to change things when they're not right.
Choice and control is the starting point
Your right to choose who supports you
Your right to direct how care is done
Gender, culture and language preferences
Dignity, privacy and consent
When it's not working: changing workers and raising concerns
Self-management gives you the most say
Where this sits in the bigger picture
Frequently asked questions
Do I get to choose who provides my personal care?
Yes — choice and control is a foundation of the NDIS. You have the right to choose your personal care workers and providers, and to change them if the fit isn't right. How much say you have is greatest when you self-manage or plan-manage your funding, but choice applies however your plan is managed.
Can I ask for a worker of a specific gender, culture or language?
Absolutely. Requesting a worker of a particular gender, or one who shares your culture or language, is a reasonable and common part of exercising choice over intimate support. Providers are expected to try to match you appropriately. For personal care especially, feeling comfortable and respected is…
What are my rights around dignity and consent during personal care?
Under the NDIS Code of Conduct, workers must treat you with respect and dignity, protect your privacy, and act with your consent. You have the right to be supported the way you prefer, to have your privacy protected during intimate care, and to say no. Care should always be done with you, not to…
Can I direct how my personal care is done?
Yes. You can direct the way your care is carried out — your routine, your preferences, the order of things — and workers should follow your direction. Directing your own support is part of choice and control, and a good worker will ask and adapt rather than impose their own way of doing things.
What can I do if a personal care worker isn't right for me?
You can ask your provider for a different worker, or change providers altogether — you're not stuck. If a worker behaves unprofessionally or unsafely, you can raise it with the provider, and serious concerns can go to the NDIS Commission, which enforces the Code of Conduct. Raising concerns…
Related guides
- 2:1 (Two-Person) Support on the NDIS: When It's Funded
- 24/7 & Around-the-Clock Complex Care on the NDIS: A Participant & Family Guide
- Assistive Technology for Complex & High-Intensity Needs on the NDIS: A Participant & Family Guide
- How the NDIS Funds Complex AT: Hoists, Beds, Pressure & Respiratory Equipment
- Complex & High-Intensity Support for Children on the NDIS: A Family Guide
- Complex & High-Intensity Personal Care on the NDIS: A Participant & Family Guide