Support worker interview questions
Support work happens in somebody else’s home, usually with nobody else there. These questions are about judgement, boundaries and the written record, because those are the parts that cannot be supervised in the moment.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| What support work have you done, and who were you supporting? | Who, where and for how long. Listen for the person being described as a person rather than as a condition. |
| What does supporting somebody’s independence mean to you in practice? | Doing with rather than for. Concrete examples: offering choices, waiting, letting something take longer. |
| A participant does not want to do something in their plan today. What do you do? | Respect the choice, find out why, record it and tell the coordinator. Not persuading or overriding. |
| How do you learn somebody’s routine without taking over? | Asking, watching, and writing it down. Somebody who has a system for this has done the work. |
| What would you do if a participant told you something that worried you? | Takes it seriously, follows the reporting line, does not promise to keep it secret. This is the most important answer in the set. |
| How do you keep boundaries clear when you are in somebody’s home every week? | Specific boundaries: no lending money, no personal social media, no favours outside the plan. Vagueness here is a risk. |
| What do you write up after a shift, and when? | Notes the same day, factual, what happened rather than how they felt about it. Late notes are a theme worth probing. |
| How do you handle a disagreement with a family member about support? | Listens, keeps the participant central, escalates to the coordinator rather than negotiating alone. |
| What would you do if you arrived and the participant was unwell? | Checks, follows the plan, calls the coordinator and emergency services when needed, and records it. |
| How do you work safely on your own in somebody’s home? | Tells somebody where they are, keeps a charged phone, leaves if they feel unsafe. There is no prize for staying. |
| What would you do if you were running late to a shift? | Calls the participant and the coordinator, as early as they know. A late arrival nobody was told about is the problem. |
| How do you look after yourself after a difficult shift? | A real answer. People who last in this work know how they reset. |
| This role is mornings and some evenings across the week. What suits you? | Specific windows. Mornings and evenings are the shifts this work falls in. |
| What would you like to ask us? | Questions about the participants, supervision or the roster. |
What is in the file
- Template, blank, with each section down the side and room for the answer.
- Example, the same sheet filled in for Kingsway Community Support.
- How to use, with the steps and the mistakes below.
How to fill it in
- Read the support worker job description first, and cut any question the job does not actually need answered.
- Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order, so the answers can be compared rather than remembered.
- Print the blank sheet and write what each person said beside the question, during the interview rather than after it.
- Score at the end against the job description, not against who you liked talking to.
Common mistakes
- Questions about age, health, pregnancy, family responsibilities, religion, race or union membership, which are not about the job and carry real risk
- A different set of questions for each candidate, which makes the decision impossible to explain later
- Asking about availability and then rostering outside it in the first fortnight
- Skipping the questions about reporting and boundaries because the candidate seems warm, when those are the questions the role turns on
Sources
The official pages this wording was read against, on 21 October 2026.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Hiring employees
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Protection from discrimination at work
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Job ads
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Find my award
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
Roster Flow shows a support worker the shifts on their run with the address on each one, and clock ins on their own phone, so the coordinator can see a visit started without ringing to ask.
Questions
What is on the support worker interview questions?
14 sections down the side, running from what support work have you done, and who were you supporting? to what would you like to ask us?. The example beside them is filled in for Kingsway Community Support: fourteen questions about dignity, routine, documentation and working alone in someone’s home.
Does the support worker interview questions work anything out for you?
No. It is a document with 14 sections to answer in your own words, not a calculator. Nothing on it is a formula.
Can I use the support worker interview questions in Google Sheets?
Yes. Open support-worker-interview-questions.xlsx from Google Drive, or use File, then Import, then Upload with support-worker-interview-questions.csv. The document and its example come across either way.
Is the wording in the support worker interview questions ready to use as it is?
The support worker interview questions is a starting point for Kingsway Community Support or any business like it, to adapt rather than sign. The wording was checked against the official sources on 21 October 2026, it is not legal advice, and it has not been through a workplace relations professional.