SCHADS rostering runs on five rule sets. Spans of ordinary hours sit at 6am to 8pm for social and community services, and 6am to 10pm for home care. Minimum engagement periods protect casual and part-time staff. Fortnightly rosters must go up two weeks ahead, permanent changes need seven days notice, and client cancellations within seven days trigger pay or make-up time.
Key takeaways
- The span of ordinary hours runs 6am to 8pm for social and community services employees, and 6am to 10pm for home care. Full-timers generally spread their hours across five days in a seven-day cycle.
- Minimum engagement periods apply whenever you roster casual or part-time staff. They also apply during sleepovers once active work reaches 30 minutes.
- Fortnightly rosters must go up at least two weeks in advance, and employees must find them easy to access. Permanent changes need seven days notice.
- Part-time employees hold an entitlement to regular and predictable hours, agreed in writing at commencement. So the contract wording matters enormously.
- When a client cancels within seven days, you must pay the employee as if they worked, or provide make-up time within six weeks.
What is the span of ordinary hours under the SCHADS Award?
For social and community services employees, the span of ordinary hours runs 6am to 8pm. For home care employees, it runs 6am to 10pm, while the other streams carry their own spans. Full-time employees generally spread ordinary hours across five days in a seven-day cycle.
Work outside the span attracts penalties, even when the employee sits under their weekly ordinary hours. Also, the span interacts with daily overtime, so check both at once when building rosters. A roster that looks fine on weekly totals can still generate penalties shift by shift.
How do minimum engagement periods affect SCHADS rosters?
Whenever you roster a casual or part-time employee, you must pay at least their minimum engagement period, even if the shift runs shorter. The same principle applies during sleepovers. Once active work reaches 30 minutes, the minimum engagement kicks in, so the employee may earn one or two hours of pay.
This matters most around sleepover shifts. Rostering a short bookend shift before or after a sleepover does not dodge the minimum engagement. Instead, you simply pay the minimum for a shorter shift. So check the specific provisions for your stream and employment type before settling on a roster pattern, because the minimums vary.
What are the SCHADS roster publication requirements?
Fortnightly rosters must go up at least two weeks in advance, and employees must find them easy to access. You can communicate rosters and changes by any reasonable method, such as text, call, or email. Casual and relief staff need no advance roster, but they still need a communication method.
Take “easily accessible” seriously. A printed roster in a staff room does little for the distributed workforce a typical home care or NDIS provider runs. Instead, a mobile-first employee self service portal puts current documents and notifications on every worker’s phone. It also leaves a record of what you communicated, and when.
What notice is required to change a SCHADS roster?
Permanent roster changes need seven days notice for permanent employees. However, rosters can change at any time by mutual agreement, such as a shift swap, or because of an absence or emergency. Part-timers can also agree to additional hours without formal roster change rules, provided minimum days off remain intact.
Two related entitlements shape this. First, part-time employees hold a right to regular and predictable hours, agreed in writing at commencement. That makes the contract the anchor document. So use “up to 37.5 hours per week as rostered from time to time” rather than a fixed weekly figure that triggers overtime when exceeded. Second, roster changes happen constantly in this sector. Consequently, you need a defensible record of agreement for every change that requires one.
What happens when a client cancels a shift under SCHADS?
When a home care or disability client cancels within seven days, you can redirect the employee to other work or cancel the shift. However, you must generally pay the employee as if they worked, or provide make-up time. Make-up time must run within six weeks, with consultation on the arrangement.
Most providers operate on make-up shifts in practice. The administrative challenge sits in tracking them. Which cancellations created make-up obligations? Which have employees worked, and which now approach the six-week limit? Providers running this on spreadsheets routinely lose track, so a rostering rule quietly converts into an underpayment. Instead, pull cancellation and shift data into unified people data tables, and outstanding make-up time appears in one view.
How should providers manage rostering compliance day to day?
Treat the rostering rules as a system, not tribal knowledge. First, encode spans, minimum engagements, and notice periods into your rostering and payroll configuration. Then keep part-time written agreements current. Finally, publish rosters and policies through one employee-facing channel that leaves an audit trail.
The rules themselves live in rostering and payroll software. However, the documents that authorise them live in people operations: contracts, written agreements, and policy acknowledgements. So connect the two sides. Automated workflows issue the right agreement when an employee’s pattern changes. Meanwhile, a compliance view shows whose paperwork sits missing, without anyone maintaining a tracking spreadsheet.
Related reading: SCHADS Award Changes June 2026: What NDIS Providers Need to Do Now covers how the 1 June changes interact with these rostering rules.
Frequently asked questions
What is the span of hours for social and community services employees?
The span of ordinary hours for social and community services employees runs 6am to 8pm under the SCHADS Award. Home care employees carry a span of 6am to 10pm, while other streams have their own. Work outside the span attracts penalties regardless of weekly totals.
How far in advance must SCHADS rosters be published?
Fortnightly rosters must go up at least two weeks in advance, and employees must find them easy to access. Casual and relief staff need no advance roster. However, you still need a reasonable method for communicating rosters and changes to them.
How much notice is needed to change a roster under SCHADS?
Permanent changes need seven days notice for permanent employees. However, changes can happen sooner by mutual agreement, such as shift swaps, or because of an absence or emergency. Part-timers can also agree to extra hours without formal change rules, if minimum days off remain intact.
What are employers required to pay when a client cancels a service?
If the cancellation lands within seven days of the shift, you can redirect the work or cancel the shift. However, you must generally pay the employee as if they worked, or provide make-up time. Make-up time must run within six weeks, after consultation.
Do minimum engagement periods apply to sleepover shifts?
Yes, in two ways. First, shifts rostered either side of a sleepover must meet the minimum engagement for that employment type. Second, once an employee performs 30 minutes of active work during a sleepover, the minimum engagement kicks in, which can mean one or two hours of pay.
About the author
Graham Martin is the co-founder of Worknice, an Australian HRIS for NDIS and community services providers. The platform automates onboarding, document acknowledgements, and compliance tracking. This article draws on a June 2026 webinar Graham co-presented with Isabella Turner, workplace lawyer at Chamberlains. It is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
- Fair Work Commission. “Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (MA000100).” https://library.fairwork.gov.au/award/?krn=MA000100
- Fair Work Ombudsman. “Rosters.” https://www.fairwork.gov.au
- Turner, I. and Martin, G. “Getting SCHADS Right in 2026.” Chamberlains Law Firm and Worknice webinar, June 2026.
