Helpful Guides
First shifts set the tone. A little preparation on both sides turns a nervous introduction into the start of something good. Here's what should already have happened, what's worth sharing, and how to keep day one easy.
Before anyone knocks on your door, a few things should be squared away. The service agreement should be in place and understood — supports, costs, cancellations, all in plain language. The support worker should have been briefed properly on your Mate, not handed a name and an address. And ideally you've been offered an introduction first — a short call, a video hello or a meet-and-greet — so the first shift isn't the first hello. You're also entitled to ask how workers are screened and inducted. A good provider answers without flinching.
It helps to know that "prepared" means three different things, and a provider should be able to speak to all three:
"Our workers follow our values" answers the first. It doesn't answer whether the person arriving on Tuesday knows how your Mate says they've had enough. Ask about all three.
You don't need to see the paperwork, but you should know what a worker has been told. Our own standard for any worker meeting a Mate for the first time — and for any familiar worker covering a shift — is a structured handover covering:
The depth scales with familiarity. Someone brand new to your Mate gets the full picture; someone who knows them well still gets what's changed and what's specific to today. If a provider can't describe something like this, the honest answer to "what will they know before they arrive?" is probably "not much."
You know things no intake form captures. The most useful things to pass on:
Write it down if you can. A one-page "how to be great with my Mate" note is worth more than an hour of verbal handover — and it travels: when a cover worker comes along later, it's the thing that keeps the support feeling the same.
It's easy for this to become an exchange between adults over someone's head. Where your Mate can, they should be the one answering "what do you want more of in your week?" and "quiet start or busy start?" — with you filling in around them, not instead of them. The introduction call, the preference list, the choice of first activity: offer them a say in each. A worker who hears preferences from the person directly starts the relationship in the right place.
Times, pick-up and drop-off arrangements, what happens on cancellations, any activity costs and who pays them — all boring, all worth confirming before shift one rather than during it. If anything was vague in the service agreement, now's the moment to ask.
Resist the urge to make day one a big outing. Short, familiar and low-stakes wins: a walk, a kick of the footy, a favourite activity at home. The goal of the first shift isn't progress — it's your Mate deciding this new person is okay. Everything else builds from there.
In practice we deliberately start light: one or two regular things, with more added once those feel settled rather than all at once. If the plan involves a group or a class, watching a session before joining in is a completely normal first step — nobody has to jump straight in.
At some point your Mate's usual worker will be sick or on leave. That's where good preparation shows. A cover worker who's never met your Mate should get the full briefing above before they arrive, not a text with an address — and a familiar worker stepping in should still get what's changed and what's specific to that day. Continuity isn't only about the same face; it's about the next person knowing what the last one knew. It's fair to ask any provider, "if the usual worker is away, what will the replacement know about my Mate?"
A quick debrief both ways does more than people expect. What worked? What felt off? Anything to adjust for next time? The useful bit isn't "it went well" — it's the specific thing: the transition that needed more time, the setting that was too loud, the approach that landed. That's what gets passed to the next shift so the second one is better than the first. Providers who ask are providers who improve — and if the match didn't click, it's much easier to say so now than three months in. (More on that in what makes a good support worker match.)
“What we love is how consistent and invested the team are. Our son isn’t just being ‘looked after’ — he’s growing and building real independence.”
— A Mate’s parent
Every Support Mates worker signs the Mates Code before their first shift — our written standard for what good support looks like, from actively participating to keeping families in the loop. You can read about it on our About Us page. Before a first shift we explore fit rather than just allocate hours: a conversation about interests, communication, travel and availability, usually an introduction before anyone commits, and the briefing above before the worker arrives. This guide applies most directly to 1:1 community access — one familiar support worker, week after week — and to daily living support at home. New to us and want a first shift set up properly? Start with the free 12-week support plan or, for coordinators, a referral.
Answer a few quick questions about your Mate and we'll map out what the first 12 weeks of support could look like — free, no pressure, no obligation.
