As an independent support worker, you’re working for yourself. That means you have the freedom to choose the clients you book with, and the terms of your work. You choose your hours, your hourly rate, and the services you provide. Because each session may be different, your agreement is important as it sets out the basis of your engagement with your client — with all of the details you’ve discussed and agreed upon together.
What is a service agreement?
If your meet and greet with a client is successful, the next step is to finalise an agreement before you start providing support. When you and a client decide to work together, you formalise your discussions within your Mable agreement about the nature of the work you will undertake.
An agreement should include:
- Where the support services will occur
- When the services will occur
- What types of support you will be providing
- The agreed rates of your support services, including your rates for public holidays
- What kind of activities you will be helping your client complete
- Terms pertaining to minimum hours per support session, cancellations, your policy on finishing early or late, etc.
- Terms on when the agreement may be changed, updated or terminated and what happens in each case
- Terms related to feedback and complaints and how they should be handled.
We recommend you include as much detail as possible, so there’s no confusion over expectations around payment and support from both you and your client.
Mable agreements are flexible
When you enter into an agreement with a client, it is generally for a set period of time or a singular session. Mable provides control and flexibility to both clients and Mable’s independent support worker community.
Members of the Mable independent support worker community often provide support directly to clients around family or study engagements, or even another role within community support or other industries. While most independent workers on the platform are booked in long-term engagements with their clients, the nature of those can change all the time, and Mable provides both clients and workers flexibility to schedule support around their life.
The importance of having a signed service agreement before providing support
Mable provides a suite of insurances on your behalf, protecting both you and your client for every support session logged and invoiced via Mable.
In order for this insurance cover to apply, you need to ensure:
- You have created an agreement for the work
- The agreement has been approved by your client
- You have logged your timesheets following your shift
- Your client has approved your timesheets.
As long as you follow the above processes, all services invoiced through Mable are automatically covered by insurance.
Got more questions? Contact our Mable support team and we can talk you through our suite of Insurances and what you’re covered for.
FAQs
What else should I consider when creating a service agreement?
Get to know Mable’s Code of Conduct which outlines expected standards of behaviour for clients and support workers. Also, familiarise yourself with Mable’s Privacy Policy which outlines everyones’ privacy and confidentiality obligations.
How do payments work on Mable?
Once your agreement is approved by the client, you can begin delivering support sessions and submitting support notes. To request and receive payments on Mable, there are five steps:
- After the support session is complete, submit your support hours
- The client or representative will approve your support hours
- Mable invoices the person or organisation responsible for the client’s funding source
- The person or organisation will then pay the invoice
- Mable sends your payment – minus our Support Engagement Fee – to your nominated bank account.
Learn in more detail about these and how completing these is key to processing payments on Mable.
Does the client send the agreement or the support worker?
After mutually agreeing on the terms of the support (rates, hours, etc.) the support worker needs to draft the agreement and send it to the client for them to review or accept.
How does Mable help me to avoid exceeding NDIS Price Limits?
Exceeding NDIS Price Limits can result in in your support hours being rejected by an NDIS plan manager, and rejected hours may not be paid. If the rates you enter in an agreement exceed price limits, you will be alerted by the Mable platform. Learn more about NDIS Price Limits.
