Aged Care Insite Issue 100 | April-May 2017 | Seite 30

workforce
Work in progress
A
The aged care
workforce
has received a
glowing report
card from an
influential survey
but industry
leaders are
warning against
complacency and
pushing an even
more streamlined
approach.
Sean Rooney
interviewed by
Dallas Bastian
28 agedcareinsite.com.au
recent report on the aged care workforce
has shone a mostly positive light on the
future of the industry, but more work needs
to be done to ensure its viability, industry peak bodies
have said.
The National Institute of Labour Studies report,
titled 2016 National Aged Care Workforce Census and
Survey, was conducted on behalf of the Department
of Health. More than 4500 facilities and outlets and
15,000-plus aged care workers responded to an
invitation to participate in the study.
Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) chief executive
Sean Rooney said most of the results and indicators
are encouraging, with improved conditions providing a
stable and committed workforce.
Aged & Community Services Australia chief
executive Pat Sparrow said it is pleasing that the
report states workers want to stay in aged care,
given the pressure of future growth in demand and
potential competition for disability workers for the
National Disability Insurance Scheme. “Aged care
and disability services are two of the most important
social services and it is crucial that the workforce to
provide quality care and support is available for both
sectors now and into the future,” Sparrow said.
While the report was deemed to paint a positive
picture of the aged care industry overall, study
participants raised several key concerns about the
sector, including those surrounding the impact of the
recent aged care reforms, staffing within residential
care and the time available to care for residents.
Interviewees were also concerned that aged care
was considered an unattractive industry by potential
employees due to perceptions that it was a low-status
job that offered poor pay and few career pathways.
IRT Group chief executive Nieves Murray said that
while the provider highly values its mature-age workers,
more young people are needed in the profession to
meet the projected aged care workforce demand. The
report states 980,000 are needed by 2050.
Murray said innovation is the answer, pointing to
IRT’s registered training organisation, IRT College,
which supports a school-based traineesh