You shouldn’t just talk to your workers:

• once
• when you have a big problem.

It’s a good idea to regularly talk with your worker about how things are going.

This can fix small problems before they become big problems.

You can think about the questions below.

When will you check in with your worker?

For example, once a week.

Do you have any feedback you want to give?

For example, because they supported you to look for a new place to live, it was much less stressful.

Do you feel comfortable to give feedback to your worker?

If not, what makes it hard to do this?

Are there ways your worker or service provider can support you to give feedback?

For example, by asking you for feedback.

Here is an example to show how answering these questions could help you.

Rhonda is a person with disability who has a support worker called Nan.

Rhonda noticed that Nan was spending lots of time on her phone.

Rhonda didn’t want to upset Nan, so she didn’t tell her service provider straight away.

Rhonda and Nan agreed to talk every 2 weeks about how things are going.

They do this over a cup of tea.

At their next talk, Nan explained that her daughter was sick.

She used her phone to check that her daughter was okay.

Nan also understood that she had to stop using her phone so much at work.

So she asked the childcare centre to call her partner if there was a problem with her child when she was at work.

You can learn more about checking in with your worker on our website.

workforcecapability.ndiscommission.gov.au/ framework/level#gen_checkIn_0_0

It’s a good idea to write down what you talked about with your worker.

You don’t have to write it all down.

You only need to write down the main information.

This includes:

• what you talked about

• things you didn’t agree about

• things you did agree about.

Make sure you share what you write down with your:

• worker
• service provider.

It means everyone can look back on what you talked about.

You should agree about the best way to do this so you can all find what you wrote down.

For example, you could put the main points in a:

• note on the fridge for you and your workers to see

• shared folder that stays with your service provider.

You can put everything you talked about into a text message or an email.

When you send it, everyone will have a copy.

Here is an example of how writing down what you talked about could help you in the future.

Sanjay wanted his worker to support him in a different way.

So he and his worker found the agreement they wrote together.

It talked about:

• what they expected from each other
• how Sanjay wanted his worker to support him.

They talked and created a new agreement about:

• what they expect now
• how Sanjay wants his worker to support him now.