In addition, all residential care workers must complete three mandatory units of competency (or four units of competency for therapeutic residential care), in areas including working in residential care, providing trauma informed care, and facilitating responsible behaviour. Timeframes for completion of a qualification are prescribed by the tertiary institution or the vocational education training provider. Training in the mandatory units of competency must have commenced prior to providing direct care to a child or young person in residential care and be completed within 12 weeks of commencement. Given they involve workplace-based learning, activities, and assessment, they must be completed after commencement of work.
Exceptional Circumstances
Residential care service providers may allow a residential care worker to provide direct care for a strictly time limited arrangement prior to the commencement of training.
To provide necessary safeguards, any exceptional circumstance must:
Be time-limited and align with the date of the next available training in the mandatory units of competency.
Demonstrate all options for commencing the minimum qualification and mandatory units of competency have been exhausted.
Include an assessment that shows that the worker’s skills, capabilities, previous experience and training align with the learning outcomes of the mandatory unit of competency.
Include a strategy to provide additional supports for the residential care worker whilst providing direct care to a child or young person until they have commenced training in the minimum qualification and/or mandatory units of competency.
The exceptional circumstances approval process is managed by the residential care provider. The residential care providers are required to report any approved exceptional circumstances to the department via their local APSS team.
Please refer to Minimum qualification requirements for residential care workers in Victoria (word) - DFFH Service Providers for further information.