Caring Queensland is a registered NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) provider operating across the Wide Bay region, including Hervey Bay and Maryborough. It delivers personalised support to people aged 5 to 100 who are living with a wide range of disabilities, including intellectual disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD, acquired brain injury, Cerebral Palsy, diabetes, and physical disabilities. In light of Caring Queensland’s success within the Australian Enterprise Awards 2026, we speak to General Manager John Hill to learn more about its outstanding service offering. Caring Queensland provides an extensive range of services to the highest standard, including daily living support, community access and participation, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), allied health and therapy services, support coordination, independent living skills development, medication support and administration, domestic assistance, transport to healthcare appointments, aged care, and a 24-hour in-house emergency on-call service. Within the delivery of these services, Caring Queensland embeds core values of Respect and Recognition, ensuring each participant’s home is treated as their private space and sanctuary, and their choices are weaved throughout the support they receive; Determination, staying focused on helping people to achieve meaningful outcomes, not just maintaining the status quo; Knowledge, with skilled, welltrained staff and a modern approach to disability support; Community, remaining grounded in the needs of the Wide Bay region and promoting genuine social inclusion; and Professionalism, ensuring strong governance, compliance with NDIS and legislative requirements, and relentlessly delivering high standards of care. By combining these values within its daily operations, Caring Queensland ensures that all clients receive “Your Support Your Way” – Care that is authentic, safe, dignified, and truly tailored to their personal needs. “We deliver the professional standards of a large corporate provider with accessibility, warmth, and responsiveness of a locally owned service – and that approach has been recognised nationally,” says John. “Caring Queensland has been awarded Most Outstanding Provider of Accessible Person-Centred Care in Australia for 2023/24 and 2025, and Disability Support Network of the Year for 2024/25 and 2026. Those awards reflect what families and participants already know about us: we are local, we are present, and we are genuinely committed to Your Support Your Way.” The team work within a high-risk, highly regulated environment, but they are unfalteringly calm, respectful, and solutions-focused in the care they provide, never rushed or transactional. It is all about consistency, visibility, and accountability, with this including leaders always being accessible, and a 24/7 in-house on-call system that isn’t run by a call centre but individuals who actually know its participants and staff. Caring Queensland recruits its team members thoughtfully, handpicking people according to their values and temperament, and rigorously screening them via NDIS Worker Screening, police checks, reference checks, and qualification and medication competency checks, where required. When hiring, the organisation looks for qualities including respect and humility, reliability and steadiness, good judgement and communication, willingness to learn, and team mindset. “These qualities directly underpin our achievements,” states John. “They are the reason we can safely support people with high and complex needs in the community, maintain strong relationships with families and referrers, and expand into aged care and allied health while still being trusted as a stable, person-centred provider.” The organisation also prioritises staf f development. Knowing that good care only comes from well-supported workers, it invests heavily in nurturing and retaining its team. This comes in the form of strong induction and shadowing for every new team member, introducing them gradually to clients, policies, and expectations, while accompanied by an experienced staff member; ongoing training and clinical guidance, focusing on behaviour support, medication, safeguarding, documentation, and condition-specific knowledge relevant to disability and aged care; regular supervision and debriefing by team leaders and managers so they aren’t left to carry difficult shifts alone; clear career pathways, with opportunities to progress into senior support worker, team leader, or coordinator roles, and to connect with its expanding allied health and aged care services as they develop their skills; and actively acknowledging good practice, sharing positive participant feedback with teams, and responding to complaints in a way that is constructive rather than disciplinary. John comments, “By recruiting the right people, holding them to high professional standards, and then genuinely looking after them, we create a workforce that is both compassionate and dependable. That, more than anything else, is what allows Caring Queensland to maintain its reputation and keep delivering Your Support Your Way as we grow.” Caring Queensland matches its staff to participants according to their personality, communication style, culture, interests, and the nature of support they can provide, such as complex medical needs, behaviours of concern, community access, aged care, and allied health. From there, they are expected to fulfil NDIS and legislative requirements, maintain clear documentation, respond promptly to concerns, and treat feedback and complaints as opportunities to improve. “With our clients, we aim to achieve more than basic maintenance of the day-to-day life,” explains John. “We want people to feel safe, respected, and genuinely in control of their own support. Our goal is to help participants build independence, confidence, and connection – whether that is learning new skills at home, engaging in the community, preparing for work or study, or simply living with dignity and choice. Ultimately, we measure our success by whether participants and their families can say, “I am heard, I am respected, and my life is better because Caring Queensland is in it.”” Ultimately, it is easy to see how Caring Queensland has come to be such a renowned, award-winning business, with its commitment to delivering exceptional care and looking after its staff. With repeated awards recognition and glowing client feedback, this shows the organisation’s high standards are not just one-off – but they are embedded deeply within the way it operates. Next, the organisation has some exciting plans ahead, with John sharing, “Over Disability Support Network of the Year 2026 - Queensland
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