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NUPE represents a strong and committed membership working across community-based care services in New Zealand. 

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Our members provide essential care and support to some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable people, including people living with intellectual disabilities, people requiring mental health support, and people who need supported housing and residential care solutions.

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These workers are dedicated, skilled and compassionate. They work tirelessly every day to help people live safely, independently and with dignity within their communities.

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But too often, they are being asked to do this work without the staffing, resources, recognition and workplace protections they deserve.

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A System Under Pressure

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Community-based care can be challenging and, at times, volatile work. Support workers may be responsible for people with complex behavioural, health, disability or mental health needs. Situations can change very quickly, and workers need to know that appropriate staffing, training, supervision and emergency support are available when they need them.

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NUPE believes that the community-based care system is not sufficiently funded to consistently provide the safe and high-quality services that both workers and the people they support deserve. It has become a norm for some employers to operate with deficiencies and fail to operate services that are safe.

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Too often, this results in low staffing levels becoming the accepted norm. Staff may be required to work in unsafe staffing ratios, leaving them vulnerable to serious assaults, injury and significant psychological stress. Workers can find themselves alone, or with insufficient support, while responding to complex behaviour, aggression, medical events or emergency situations.

 

It has become an acceptable norm that operations continue with :

• Insufficient staffing levels

• Unsafe staffing ratios

• Lone working in situations where additional support is required

• Workers being exposed to serious assault and injury

• Excessive overtime and fatigue

• Difficulty recruiting and retaining experienced staff

• High reliance on casual or temporary workers

• Inadequate training and professional development

• Limited access to clinical, managerial and specialist support

• Poorly designed or unsuitable residential environments

• Workers carrying significant responsibility without adequate recognition

• Inconsistent care for the people relying on these services

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Despite the complexity, responsibility and risk involved in this work, many staff working in community-based disability, mental health and supported residential services remain among the lowest-paid workers in New Zealand.

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NUPE believes this must change.

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These are not simply employment issues.

They are issues of health and safety, quality of care, dignity and human rights.

 

Safety for Community Care Workers

 

NUPE advocates strongly for the safety of people working in community-based care.

Safety is achieved through sensible staffing ratios, robust workplace systems and policies, proper training, effective care and supervision, and residential environments that are genuinely fit for purpose.

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It requires employers to understand the real level of risk within each service and resource that service accordingly.

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A staffing model cannot simply be based on the lowest number of workers required to keep a house operating.

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It must consider the needs of the people being supported, behavioural risks, medical requirements, the physical environment, the experience of the workforce and the ability of workers to respond safely when something goes wrong.

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Safe Workers Mean Safer Care

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NUPE strongly believes that protecting workers and providing quality care are not competing priorities. They are directly connected. A worker who is properly trained, adequately supported and working alongside enough colleagues is better able to provide calm, consistent and compassionate care.

 

A fatigued worker operating alone in an unpredictable environment is placed at unnecessary risk — and so too are the people receiving support. Safe community care therefore requires investment in the workforce.

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It means funding services based on the real needs of the people being supported, rather than simply providing the minimum staffing level a budget will allow.

 

A Home and a Workplace

 

There is a unique challenge within community-based residential care.

For the person receiving support, the environment is their home.

For the support worker, that same environment is also their workplace.

 

Both of those realities must be respected.

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People receiving support should be able to live in homes that are welcoming, comfortable and reflective of ordinary community life. At the same time, those homes must provide workers with the legal health and safety protections that every workplace is required to provide.

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The fact that a workplace is also somebody’s home cannot remove an employer’s responsibility to manage foreseeable risks. This means homes need to be fit for purpose.

 

Design, layout, exits, visibility, communication systems, staff facilities, security measures and the ability to respond to emergencies all need to be considered where there are known risks.

 

NUPE believes it is possible to protect the dignity and rights of people receiving care while also providing safe working environments for the people supporting them.

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We should never be forced to choose between the two.

 

Ending Unsafe Lone Working

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One of NUPE's major concerns within community-based care is the use of lone working in environments where there is a foreseeable risk of violence, aggression, medical emergencies or behavioural escalation.

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There will be circumstances where working independently is entirely appropriate.

But where risk assessments identify a genuine possibility of harm, employers must provide staffing and systems capable of responding safely.

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A written policy, personal alarm or emergency telephone number is not a substitute for another trained worker being available when an immediate physical response is required.

 

NUPE will continue challenging unsafe staffing arrangements and advocating for staffing levels that reflect the actual risks associated with each service.

 

Better Training and Professional Recognition

 

Community support work requires considerable skill.

Workers develop expertise in communication, behavioural support, de-escalation, disability support, mental health, medication, safeguarding, cultural competency, crisis response and relationship building.

NUPE believes this workforce should be recognised as a professional and essential part of New Zealand's health and social support system.

Workers deserve:

• Comprehensive induction

• Ongoing professional development

• Regular refresher training

• Effective supervision

• Appropriate behavioural and crisis-response training

• Clear escalation procedures

• Access to specialist advice

• Recognition of experience and additional responsibility

• Fair remuneration

• Genuine career pathways

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Investment in training benefits workers, employers, families and, most importantly, the people receiving support.

 

Supporting Workers After Serious Incidents

 

Violence and aggression must never simply be regarded as "part of the job".

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Where workers are assaulted, threatened or exposed to traumatic incidents, employers must respond appropriately.

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NUPE advocates for proper incident investigation, medical care, psychological support, time to recover, meaningful debriefing and action to prevent similar incidents from occurring again.

Workers must also feel safe reporting concerns.

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A healthy safety culture requires workers to be able to raise risks without fear that they will be blamed for exposing problems within a service.

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Serious incidents should also be used as opportunities to learn.

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Employers need to ask what staffing, systems, environmental or organisational factors contributed to an incident and what needs to change to prevent another worker being harmed.

 

Fair Pay for Essential Work

 

NUPE believes the people undertaking this work should receive pay that properly reflects the skill, responsibility and risk involved. Community-based care workers often undertake extraordinarily demanding work while receiving comparatively low wages.

 

They support people through crisis, manage challenging behaviours, administer medication, provide personal care, respond to emergencies and maintain complex relationships with families, clinicians and other agencies.

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This is essential work.

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It deserves professional recognition and fair remuneration.

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A sustainable community care system cannot be built on the expectation that workers will continue accepting low wages because they care deeply about the people they support.

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Advocating for Sustainable Funding

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Ultimately, many of the challenges experienced within community care cannot be resolved at an individual workplace level. Government funding decisions significantly influence staffing levels, wages, training opportunities and the resources available to providers.

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NUPE will continue advocating for a properly funded community care system that recognises the complexity and importance of this work. Funding arrangements must enable providers to maintain safe staffing levels, employ and retain experienced workers, provide proper training, pay fair wages and respond to changing levels of need.

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At the same time it is highlighted by NUPE that it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that when they bid for and accept contracts, that the service delivered is safe. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the employer. 

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The people receiving these services deserve stability and high-quality support.

The workers providing that support deserve safe workplaces.

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Our Commitment

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NUPE is committed to standing alongside workers in community-based care.

 

We will continue to advocate for:

 

Safe staffing.

Sensible staffing ratios.

Safe workplaces.

Fit-for-purpose homes.

Robust systems and policies.

Proper training and supervision.

Fair pay and recognition.

Strong worker participation in health and safety.

Professional and sustainable community care services.

And, most importantly, a system that recognises that the wellbeing of workers and the wellbeing of the people they support are inseparable.

 

When community care workers are properly supported, everybody benefits.

 

Follow Our Advocacy

 

NUPE continues to advocate for safer workplaces, better staffing, improved training, fair pay and stronger protections for people working across community-based disability, mental health and supported living services.

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Follow this page to learn more about the work NUPE is doing in this space, the issues our members are raising, and the changes we are advocating for across New Zealand.

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If you work in community-based care and have concerns about staffing, safety, pay or your employment conditions, we encourage you to contact NUPE.

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Together, workers have a stronger voice.