Staff Code of Conduct and Professional Boundaries

Version: 1.0
Effective date: 22 October 2026
Next review: 22 October 2027
Applies to: All employees, mentors, coordinators, managers, directors, contractors and placement students
Policy owner: Director

Why we have this Code

The people we support trust us with their time, their homes, their goals and their information. This Code sets out how everyone who works for Good Company Disability Services earns and keeps that trust.

Every worker is bound by the NDIS Code of Conduct, which is law and applies to all NDIS providers and workers. This Code sets our own standards on top of it. It sits alongside your employment agreement, the SCHADS Award and our other policies. If anything conflicts, the law and your employment agreement apply.

Participants, families and visitors have their own Code of Conduct for participants, families and visitors, which explains what we ask of them.

The NDIS Code of Conduct

Everyone working in NDIS supports must:

1. Act with respect for individual rights to freedom of expression, self-determination and decision-making in accordance with applicable laws and conventions.
2. Respect the privacy of people with disability.
3. Provide supports and services in a safe and competent manner, with care and skill.
4. Act with integrity, honesty and transparency.
5. Promptly take steps to raise and act on concerns about matters that may impact the quality and safety of supports and services provided to people with disability.
6. Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against, and exploitation, neglect and abuse of, people with disability.
7. Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.

Serious breaches of the NDIS Code of Conduct can lead to action by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission against the worker as well as the provider, including banning orders.

Respect, choice and dignity

• The participant decides how and when their supports happen. If they choose to do something differently or decline an activity, respect it and record it without judgement.
• Support people to make their own decisions, including decisions that carry some risk. Explain options clearly and never decide for someone unless the law requires it.
• Build skills rather than doing tasks for people. Coach, prompt and step back.
• Respect every person’s culture, language, faith, gender identity, sexuality and pronouns. See our Cultural Safety Policy.
• Communicate in the way that works for the participant, and use plain language.

Professional boundaries

Boundaries protect participants and they protect you. You must:

• Not contact participants or their families outside scheduled sessions unless the coordination team has asked you to.
• Not give, lend, hold or accept money, and not accept gifts of any value.
• Not handle a participant’s money, cards, bank accounts or passwords, and not sign anything on their behalf.
• Not connect with participants or their families on personal social media, or give them your personal phone number. If they contact you, tell the coordination team.
• Not start a romantic, sexual, financial or business relationship with a participant or a member of their family.
• Not transport a participant outside a scheduled session.
• Not do work outside your role because you were asked to.

The test: if you are wondering whether something crosses a boundary, treat it as though it does. Say “I’ll need to check with Good Company about that”, then check with the coordination team.

What mentors must never do

Our mentors provide capacity-building and community supports. They must never:

• Lift, transfer or physically move a participant (manual handling).
• Give, apply, measure, prepare or check medication. You may remind a participant to take their own medication where their plan says so, but never handle it.
• Use any restrictive practice: physical, chemical, mechanical or environmental restraint, or seclusion. This includes blocking a doorway, holding a door closed, or taking away a phone, keys or food to influence behaviour. See our Behaviour Support Policy.
• Provide personal care, or counselling or therapy outside their qualifications.

If someone asks you to do any of these, decline kindly and firmly, explain that you are not authorised by Good Company, tell the coordination team the same day and record it in an incident report.

Safety, honesty and records

• Never attend work affected by alcohol, drugs, or medication that affects your ability to work safely. Tell the coordination team before your next shift if a prescribed medication may affect you.
• Follow participant plans, risk controls and our safety procedures, including lone-worker and infection control procedures.
• Keep your clearances current: NDIS Worker Screening Check, a Working With Children Check in each state where you support anyone under 18, your driver licence and car insurance where you drive for work. Tell us before anything expires.
• Record what actually happened. Case notes and time records are legal records. Falsifying a record, including recording time not worked or supports not delivered, is serious misconduct.
• Disclose any actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest in writing, as early as possible.
• Do not smoke or vape around participants, and dress appropriately for the setting.

Privacy and social media

• Participant information stays in our secure systems. Never put it in personal messages, group chats, screenshots or your own notes.
• Only access information you need for your role and the people you support.
• Take photos only with the participant’s consent and the coordination team’s confirmation, store them only in our systems, and delete them from your device.
• Never post anything that could identify a participant, their home or their workplace.
• Only use AI tools approved by Good Company, and only as our procedures allow. Never put participant information into personal AI accounts.
• Report any privacy breach immediately, including your own mistakes.

See our Privacy Policy.

Children and young people

Some participants are under 18. Never be alone with a child in a closed or hidden space without a reason in their plan, never communicate with a child privately online or by personal phone, never show favouritism or ask a child to keep a secret, and hand a child over only to a parent, guardian or adult named in their plan. Report any concern about a child’s safety straight away. See our Child Safe Policy.

Respect at work

We do not tolerate bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination or victimisation, from anyone towards anyone, including towards you from a participant, family member or colleague. Treat colleagues with courtesy and support each other to work safely.

Raising concerns: it’s an obligation

If something concerns you about a participant’s safety, wellbeing or rights, including something another worker did or something Good Company did, you must raise it. Tell the coordination team. If the concern is about the coordination team, contact the Director, Joshua Bartlett, directly. You can also contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission or police directly at any time.

You will not be disadvantaged for raising a concern in good faith. The NDIS Act protects people, including current and former workers, who report concerns in good faith to us, the NDIS Commission or police. Report incidents under our Incident Management Policy.

If this Code is breached

Breaches are taken seriously and handled fairly. You will be told what the concern is and given a chance to respond. Depending on how serious it is, the outcome may include extra training and supervision, a formal warning, changes to the work you are offered, or termination of employment. Where the law requires it, we report matters to the NDIS Commission, police or other authorities.

Leaving a situation you reasonably believed was unsafe is never a breach of this Code, as long as you tell the coordination team straight away and help keep the participant safe where you can.

Training and acknowledgement

Every worker reads this Code during induction and confirms in Good Company Learning that they have read and understood it. We ask everyone to confirm it again whenever it changes, and check understanding through regular learning checks and an annual refresher.

Related policies

• Code of Conduct for participants, families and visitors
• Participant Rights & Advocacy Policy
• Child Safe Policy
• Behaviour Support Policy
• Incident Management Policy
• Feedback & Complaints Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Safeguarding & Risk Management Policy
• Cultural Safety Policy

Contact us

Good Company Disability Services Pty Ltd (ABN 58 676 459 484)
Email: hello@goodcompanyds.com.au
Perth office: (08) 9334 6995
Melbourne office: (03) 9069 7866
Office hours: 9:00am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday. Outside office hours, email us or leave a message and we will respond on the next business day. In an emergency, call 000.

Review and approval

This policy is approved by the Director. It is reviewed at least every 12 months, and sooner if the law or NDIS rules change, after a serious incident or complaint that shows a gap, or if a regulator asks us to. The next scheduled review is 22 October 2027.

If a printed or downloaded copy differs from this page, this page is the current version.