M2025-10 NSW Government Return to Work Strategy

Purpose and Coverage

The NSW Government Return to Work Strategy 2025-2028 (the Strategy) provides a person-centred, sector-wide framework aimed at delivering consistent and effective return to work outcomes for workers with an injury. The Strategy aims to simplify processes, broaden return to work options, and strengthen leadership. Improving return to work outcomes will benefit workers, employers, and the community.

The NSW Government requires executive public sector leaders to actively champion and lead the Strategy, ensuring that they are accountable for its successful implementation across the State’s workforce. Leaders are expected to role model a culture of care, drive meaningful and lasting improvement in their internal organisation-wide return to work processes and strengthen outcomes. Support will be offered to return to work teams via guidance materials and training webinars, and sector-wide communications will raise broad awareness and understanding. 

The Strategy complements New South Wales workers compensation legislation and the obligations which apply to both NSW Government employers and workers, and the existing policies that are in place to support these obligations. This includes:

• Secretaries and Agency Heads must ensure their agency provides tailored return to work programs to support public sector employees with an injury back to work.
• Workers with an injury must make reasonable efforts to return to work in their substantive roles or wherever suitable work can be found.

While the Strategy is implemented across the public sector:

• Executive leaders, together with Chief People Officers and People and Culture teams, must prioritise and commit to improving return to work practices, ensuring a flexible and effective support for workers with an injury. 
• Chief People Officers must proactively and regularly review workers with an injury who have capacity to work and are either under-utilised or not working. They must identify temporary or ongoing opportunities for suitable work within their agency or across the sector. 

The Return-to-Work Strategy encompasses five key actions: 

• Executive accountability: building awareness, active leadership and accountability by NSW Government leaders in driving return to work performance across the public sector.
• Best practice framework: enhancing capability within the public sector by strengthening workplace systems and accountability and setting clear benchmarks for effective return to work practices.
• Mobility pathways: prioritising opportunities for workers with an injury to return to work within an agency or portfolio and ensuring a flexible and tailored approach to each person’s return to work.
• Workplace programs and supports: addressing any return-to-work barriers, empowering workers with an injury to recover at work with their current employer or transition successfully to new roles with a different employer.
• Performance measurement and reporting: establishing a centralised reporting framework with agencies responsible for regular and accurate reporting of return to work outcomes, providing clear information for senior decision-makers, driving accountability, and informing future policy decisions.

Application

The Return to Work Strategy 2025-2028 applies to the Government sector, including Public Service agencies, Departments and Executive agencies as defined in section 3(1) of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013. State-owned corporations, including their subsidiaries, are strongly encouraged to apply the terms of the Strategy.

The Strategy builds on agency legislative obligations including specific return to work obligations under Chapter 3 of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 and the SIRA Guidelines for Workplace RTW programs. 

For further information, please visit the Return to Work Hub.