Support worker availability form.
You can’t build a roster you can fill until you know who’s actually free. This free availability form captures the things that decide whether a worker can take a shift — hours, time blocks, driving, sleepovers — in one place, so coordinators aren’t chasing it by text message.
Copy it into a document or email, or print it for new starters. Everything in [brackets] is for the worker to fill in.
The availability form
How to use it
- —Send it to every worker when they start, and refresh it each time their availability changes.
- —For workers whose pattern alternates, use the Week A / Week B grids so a fortnightly roster lines up correctly.
- —Capture the non-negotiables — max hours, driving, sleepover willingness — because those rule a worker in or out of a shift before time blocks even matter.
- —Keep the latest version on the worker’s file so it’s there at audit and when someone covers rostering.
Why availability is the start of a fillable roster
Most rostering pain — last-minute scrambles, shifts offered to people who were never free, the same few workers carrying everything — traces back to availability that lives in someone’s head or a months-old text thread. A single, current form turns “who can do Saturday?” into a lookup instead of a phone-around.
Once you outgrow the paper form, the same information drives rostering software directly. See our guides on filling open shifts and the support worker app.
A note on availability vs entitlements
An availability form records what a worker is willing and able to work — it doesn’t set their pay or guarantee hours. Minimum engagement, breaks and penalty rates are governed by the SCHADS Award and the worker’s contract. See our SCHADS Award guide.
Let workers keep their own availability current
In Rostrel, support workers set and update their availability themselves, and it flows straight into rostering — so coordinators see who’s free for an open shift without a single text message.
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