Major Change Alert: 1 October 2026

Why next week’s HPSS Award changes is a dress rehearsal for the SCHADS transition

From the first full pay period on or after 1 October 2026 (yep, next week…) the rebuilt health professional stream of the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (HPSS Award) comes into effect.

It is the first complete classification structure to come out of the Fair Work Commission's (FWC) gender-based undervaluation review, and it lands in allied health practices, community health services, and NDIS providers across Australia, all at the same time.

Twelve months later, on 1 October 2027, the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (SCHADS Award) gets the same treatment on a much larger scale.

If you employ people under both awards as many social services, community services, disability services, and health organisations do, you are about to run the rehearsal and the main event a year apart.

What happens in your HPSS mapping over the next few weeks will tell you a great deal about what your SCHADS transition will demand, and whether you are really prepared for this major change.

What is changing in the HPSS Award

The Expert Panel's decision of 26 May 2026 ([2026] FWCFB 123) replaces the old health professional Levels 1 to 4 with a structure built on two questions:

1. What is the standard minimum qualification for this profession?

2. How many years has this person practised in it?

Level 1 is now anchored to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level of each profession's entry qualification under Schedule B.

A physiotherapist or occupational therapist sits at AQF 7, a psychologist at AQF 9, and employees move through four experience bands (first year, second to third year, fourth to sixth year, seventh year and beyond).

Levels 2 to 4 are defined by the duties the employee performs, not by their title.

A senior clinician, specialist, supervisor or educator is Level 2, an advanced clinician or section manager is Level 3, and a manager is Level 4.

The increases are phased over five stages, from 1 October 2026 and then on 30 June in each year from 2027 to 2030, on top of the annual wage review.

Over the full phase-in, an AQF 7 clinician in their first year rises by roughly 20% above where the old structure would have put them.

Three structural changes matter as much as the money.

The old clause 17.1, which made part-time and casual employees accumulate 1,824 hours before progressing, is gone.

Experience now counts by years in the profession, across every employer the person has worked for.

Schedule J translates every employee classified on 30 September 2026 into the new structure, and each existing employee is paid the higher of their translated rate and their old rate.

Dental assistants and pathology collectors in the support services stream were moved earlier, on 1 April 2026, with a second step on 1 January 2027.

Why this is a rehearsal for SCHADS

On 1 June 2026 the Commission handed down its SCHADS decision ([2026] FWCFB 137).

It found long-standing gender-based undervaluation across the award and concluded that the existing classification schedules were no longer fit for purpose.

The remedy is one integrated ten-level structure that replaces Schedules B, C, E and F for the whole award from 1 October 2027.

Home care employees under Schedule E receive an interim increase of about 15% from 1 October 2026 (next week).

The Equal Remuneration Order is revoked and folded into the new minimum rates.

The increases vary widely by stream, from 0% at some pay points to 17% in social and community services, and up to 27% for disability support work.

The design principles are the same ones that drove the HPSS rebuild.

Levels anchored to qualifications and equivalent experience, including lived experience.

Progression by demonstrated competency rather than time served.

Broad classification criteria rather than long lists of tasks.

Translation of every existing employee, with no employee's minimum rate reducing.

And, the FWC has said plainly that the ongoing misclassification in this sector is widespread and does not resolve itself by simply mapping the old classification system against the new.

Five lessons that carry straight across

1.      Translation is a classification exercise, not a mapping exercise.

In the HPSS Award, an employee on the old Level 3 can land on new Level 2.1, Level 2.2 or Level 3 depending on the duties they perform and their years in the profession.

Nobody can do that from a spreadsheet of pay points. Somebody must look at each role and each person and document your evidence and subsequent decisions.

SCHADS will ask the same questions across ten levels, and across a workforce that is usually larger and more varied.

2.       Your position descriptions are the evidence.

Level 2 in the HPSS Award turns on whether the employee actually performs senior clinician, specialist, supervisory or educator duties.

If the position description does not say so but the roster does, you are exposed either way.

A current position description that matches the work actually performed is the anchor for a defensible classification under both awards.

If your SCHADS position descriptions have not been reviewed since the last restructure, the time to fix them is before translation, not after.

3.          Experience now travels with the employee.

The HPSS Award deleted the hours-based progression rule and counts years in the profession wherever they were worked.

The SCHADS structure recognises equivalent experience and lived experience.

Both require you to collect, document, and verify evidence you have never had to hold before:

• Qualification register and verified certificates

• Prior service register and the basis on which experience is claimed.

Start asking for this information now, while there is still time to check it.

4.             Retained rates create a two-tier payroll.

• Existing employees keep the higher of their old and new rates.

• New employees start on the new structure.

The difference is visible to everyone in the team.

We strongly recommend you train your hiring managers and recruitment decision-makers in how to explain it clearly before someone discovers it for themselves.

We strongly recommend you start planning that communication as carefully as you will the calculation.

5.             The commencement date is the start of the job, not the end.

The HPSS increases keep landing every June until 2030, with the annual wage review on top.

Enterprise agreement rates must stay above a floor that is now moving, and the NDIA has said that NDIS therapy prices are not directly linked to award wage rates.

The award moves. Your funding may not. Budget for the gap.

What to do in the next twelve months

Before 1 October 2026:

• Finish your HPSS translation, apply the retained rate check, and update contracts and payroll before the first full pay period after 1 October.

• Identify every Schedule E home care employee and model the 15% interim increase.

• Notify each employee in writing about the change and how it impacts them.

Before March 2027:

You should have fully audited every SCHADS role and employee in your organisation.

Compare the current position description with the work actually performed, confirm each employee's qualifications and experience, and correct any existing misclassification.

Any changes made to job design and position description documentation must include direct consultation and agreement with the employee currently undertaking the role. The standard consultation provisions apply.

It is far cheaper to fix a misclassification now than to carry it into a new structure with a protected rate attached.

By July 2027:

Map every employee to the new ten-level structure, cost it, check your enterprise agreement against the new minimums.

Undertake your consultation duties as you would any major change.

Your current employees should be notified in writing of the changes and how they may be impacted, and you should engage them in a meaningful conversation, followed up with written documentation about the sector-wide changes.

Then test your payroll, consult directly with impacted employees and write the employee communication.

Do not leave this work until next year

The Commission moved the HPSS commencement from 30 June to 1 October 2026 precisely because employers needed more time to gather qualification evidence.

SCHADS employers have been given 16 months from the date of the decision (1 June 2026) to implementation (1 October 2027).

You have 12 months left and depending on you organisational size, recordkeeping practices, access to specialist IR/ER advice you may need all of that time to prepare.

The gender-based undervaluation review has changed how the Commission thinks about work in the care and community sectors.

The HPSS Award is the first structure to be rebuilt on the new principles, and the SCHADS Award is next.

If you need additional advice and support in planning your transition, drop us an email at info@resourcesforhumans.com.au and/or request a call back.

Kelly Maher is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Resources for Humans Pty Ltd, an HR and specialist employment relations consultancy practice supporting Australian businesses and organisations to manage the complexities of the employment relationship. www.resourcesforhumans.com.au