Your Guide to 1:1 Support Scheduling for NDIS and Home Care

Delivering great 1:1 support starts long before a worker arrives at someone’s home. You need a home care or NDIS schedule that is predictable, participant-centred and operationally realistic. 

Whether you’re a roster manager, team leader or operations manager, getting 1:1 rostering right is one of the most effective ways to improve participant outcomes, reduce complaints, stabilise your workforce and protect profitability.

Designed for home care and NDIS support providers and created by the rostering experts at Viscualcare, this guide explains exactly how to design and maintain strong 1:1 support rosters for home care and individual supports. It breaks down the mindset, the processes, and the common pitfalls, giving you and your team a practical framework you can apply immediately.

1:1 Support Rostering: In short:

• A predictable, participant-led NDIS schedule / home care schedule prevents routine disruption and improves outcomes.
• Build every NDIS roster / home care roster from needs first, then operational fit, then cost checks.
• Define the “minimum viable roster” before matching workers, so availability doesn’t warp care.
• Prioritise suitability and continuity in the NDIS schedule to boost trust and reduce churn.
• Using the latest NDIS rostering software and home care rostering software will help you streamline shift matching, travel checks and change management.

What makes 1:1 rostering unique?

Unlike location-based or group supports, a 1:1 home care roster is personal, routine-based and highly sensitive to timing. 

This means anyone creating and managing this kind of schedule must consider:

• The participant’s daily routines
• Individual support needs (personal care, domestic help, community access, medication prompts, behavioural support, etc.)
• Preferred support times
• Continuity requirements
• Worker skills and compatibility
• Travel time and local logistics

Put simply: 1:1 support demands precision.

A small schedule change of even 15 minutes can disrupt medication windows, clash with appointments, or cause distress for participants who rely on routine.

Want to shortcut your rostering capabilities? Request a demo of Visualcare’s home care and NDIS rostering software. 

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The best 1:1 rostering approach

Great 1:1 roster managers follow a simple but powerful hierarchy:

1. Care-first decisions

The most important thing to consider is what the participant needs, when they need it and what the ideal outcomes of support are, whether this is learning new skills, maintaining personal hygiene or recovering from illness. 

2. Operational checks

Next, shifts need to be realistic. They need to match: 

• Worker skill requirements (e.g. clinical care capabilities / driving / disability support
• Location
• Travel and logistics

3. Financial checks

Finally, when creating a home care schedule or NDIS schedule, you need to ask: 

• Can this shift be delivered sustainably? 
• Are there penalties or broken-shift risks?

When this order is reversed, for example, scheduling based on availability or cost first, the experience of the participant is diminished, which defeats the purpose of providing care in the first place. 

Now let’s break down the steps to create an effective and reliable 1:1 NDIS and home care roster in more detail. 

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Stage 1: Build the roster from participant needs

Every good 1:1 home care or NDIS roster starts with understanding the participant, not the staff. A clear interpretation reviews the following:

Required supports

Document all support types, including:

• Personal care
• Clinical tasks
• Behavioural support
• Community access
• Domestic assistance
• Meal preparation
• Transport
  
  

Frequency & duration

How often and how long each shift must be, including:

• Daily routines and care visits
• Weekly appointments
• Fortnightly cleaning visits
• Monthly health checks
  
  

Preferred routines and times

Consistency is key. In 1:1 settings, routines may be tied to:

• Medication windows
• School timetables
• Work schedules
• Anxiety triggers
• Daily rituals (breakfast, showers, bedtime)

Goals and outcomes

Support is not just functional.  It must contribute to goals such as:

• Independence building
• Skill development
• Social engagement
• Wellbeing and stability

Define the “minimum viable roster”

Before you match any worker to a schedule, map out:

• Essential shift blocks
• Start/end times
• Support purpose
• Non-negotiable routines

This will help prevent the shift structure from being distorted by worker availability.

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Stage 2: Select the right worker, Not just the available worker

Worker selection is critical in 1:1 care when creating an NDIS schedule because the entire client experience hinges on relationship, competence and communication.

Match on suitability before availability

Ask:

Does this worker have the right:

• Skills and qualifications?
• Risk competencies (behavioural, manual handling, clinical)?
• Communication style?
• Cultural alignment (if needed)?
• Personality compatibility?

Continuity matters

Continuity is one of the strongest contributors to:

• Participant satisfaction
• Reduced churn
• Effective support delivery
• Better progress toward goals

Whenever possible, anchor a 1:1 home care roster or NDIS roster around a small group of consistent workers so your clients know they can look forward to seeing the same person more often than not.

Document preferences and exclusions

Record:

• Participant exclusions and preferences (e.g., “no male workers”)
• Worker limitations
• Past positive matches
• Safety considerations
• Communication needs

This will help make your roster repeatable and compliant.

Stage 3: Fit the shift into real-world context

When you create an NDIS schedule or home care roster, once you know the participant’s needs and the right worker:

Check availability windows properly

Ensure the worker isn’t being squeezed into shifts they have noted they won’t be available for. 

Account for travel time

1:1 services often involve multiple separate visits across a geographic area.
Check for:

• Sufficient transit time
• Logical sequence of shifts
• Avoiding long unbillable gaps

Respect real participant timing

A shift must work in reality, not just on paper. If the participant wants support at 7:30 am, a 9:30 am visit is a different service experience. Expectations need to be managed and processes created for when a worker is more than a few minutes late. 

Design for stability

Strong 1:1 rosters are built months in advance (ideally 6–12 months). Things will change, but if they are mapped out well ahead there won’t be a constant scramble to fill spots and instead the focus will be more around making updates as required. 

Predictability reduces:

• Participant dissatisfaction
• Worker stress
• Admin overhead
  
  

Stage 4: Protect the roster with operational & financial checks

Even though home care roster managers aren’t accountants, 1:1 rosters can easily become financially unsustainable if not monitored.

The factors which contribute to over-budget staff costs include long gaps between appointments, wrong team members for the role and shift penalty rates. 

Avoid unnecessary penalties

Penalties often arise from:

• Early/late shifts
• Weekends
• Public holidays
• Overtime caused by poor sequencing

Always ask:

• Is this penalty essential for participant outcomes?
• Is there a time or worker that avoids it without compromising quality?
  
  

Assess sustainability

Ensure:

• Travel is paid or billable where appropriate
• Shift lengths meet minimum engagement rules
• Workers aren’t overloaded or under-utilised
  
  

Getting this balance right in a home care or NDIS schedule is especially important in rural or dispersed service areas where the talent pool is shallower and travel distances are greater. 

Read more: Rosters vs profits: How to get the balance right

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Managing day-to-day changes without breaking the roster

Even the best 1:1 roster faces disruptions because of cancellations, sick leave and urgent add-ons. There are staff emergencies and changes to participant schedules that result in the need for a rethink. 

However, when things do go wrong, as much as possible you need to apply the same logic you used to design the roster in the first place, and take into account participant needs, worker suitability, operational fit and financial impact. 

Why good 1:1 rostering is worth the effort

When done properly, 1:1 rosters deliver enormous value:

Participants experience consistency of care, more meaningful support and improved outcomes, while workers benefit from predictable shifts, reduced travel and workloads, better matches with clients and reduced burnout. 

Meanwhile, organisations have better client engagement and retention, lower staff turnover and stronger margins.

How Visualcare supports better 1:1 rostering

Visualcare provides tools that make 1:1 rostering both simpler and more compliant.
These include:

• Competency-driven worker selection
• Travel and time-window checks
• Alerts for conflicts or mismatches
• Ability to design stable long-term rosters
• Real-time change management
• Clear visibility across participants, workers, and locations
  
  

For services with complex 1:1 support, these features help maintain predictability and reduce operational “noise.”

NDIS Rostering Software Case Study

PALS Inc is an NDIS provider in Victoria that supports 113 clients and has 84 staff. This organisation was running its service delivery almost entirely on whiteboards, paper rosters, handwritten case notes and fortnight-long invoicing cycles. 

The manual setup caused constant scheduling chaos, heavy compliance risk and huge admin time sinks, so leadership prioritised staff buy-in and a clear rollout plan before overhauling their approach. 

Paper processes were replaced with Employment Hero for HR, Xero for finance, and Visualcare NDIS Rostering Software for rostering and compliance. Rostering, shift claiming, messaging and records are now handled in-app with real-time updates, better worker–participant matching, and centralised audit trails. 

The result of the transformation was that admin workload dropped sharply and staff were freed to focus on improvement projects that enable more reliable, sustainable participant care.

Good rostering is the first step to a sustainable care business

1:1 support rostering succeeds when it is deliberate, participant-centred, and grounded in long-term stability. 

With a clear process — needs → matching → availability → sustainability — roster managers can design supports that are consistent, safe, realistic, and financially viable.

Streamline your 1:1 rostering workflows with Visualcare. Request a demo today. 

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1:1 Rostering FAQs