industry & reform
The time for action is now
Royal commission calls
for mandated staff minimums.
By Conor Burke
T
he Royal Commission into Aged
Care Quality and Safety has urged
the sector to reform its approach to
the workforce, with counsel assisting Peter
Rozen telling those gathered that “the time
for real action … is now”.
At the third Adelaide hearing, Rozen
handed the commission a submission
made by the counsels assisting which
said that the sector should be subject
to mandatory minimum staffing
requirements and to make sure there is an
RN on duty for every shift, among other
recommendations.
“The staff in our aged care homes … are
not well paid. All too often, there are not
enough of them to provide the care that
they would like to; for example, to sit and
have a chat over a cup of tea,” Rozen told
the commissioners.
“Many work in stressful and sometimes
unsafe workplaces, some are untrained,
and others have inadequate training. As a
community, we owe these workers a lot.”
The submission also states that RNs and
NPs should make up a greater proportion
of the workforce, that regulated care
workers should be registered and show a
minimum qualification level, and that all
aged care workers should be better paid
and trained.
Rozen stated that, ultimately, change
in the sector will occur only if those in
leadership positions change their approach
to aged care.
“The organisations for which they work
should be better managed and better
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governed. And finally, the Australian
government should provide practical
leadership in relation to all these things,”
Rozen said.
The submission has been welcomed
by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery
Federation (ANMF), which has for a long
time called for minimum staffing levels and
nurse-to-patient ratios.
ANMF federal secretary Annie Butler said:
“On behalf of our members working in
aged care, the ANMF welcomes Mr Rozen’s
practical recommendations put forward to
the royal commissioners.
“As we’ve heard from our members in
aged care and in the harrowing evidence
from residents and their families, workforce
issues, particularly inadequate staffing
levels, have been the cause of much of
their pain and suffering.
“The ANMF supports Mr Rozen’s
recommendations to mandate the
minimum numbers of nurses and qualified
care staff that would be rostered, ensuring
better, safer, continuity of care for residents.
“Better wages, training and regulation
would also improve the retention and
recruitment of the beleaguered aged care
workforce.”
Aged & Community Services Australia
(ACSA) agreed that workforce levels need
to be addressed and said that the sector
will need additional resources to raise
overall numbers.
“ACSA supports a star rating system in
principle, provided it doesn’t create a two-
tiered system,” said ACSA chief executive
Pat Sparrow.
“The proposed system includes a range
of staff and occupations and acknowledges
that residents have different needs which
require different levels of support and
skill combinations, which will also better
reflect and support the increasing acuity
of residents.”
ACSA said that, if the aged care sector
was to implement a star rating system, it
would mean an increase of 37.2 per cent
in total staffing, for residents to receive at
least a four-star level of care.
“ACSA strongly supports comments that
additional resourcing is required to achieve
this increase in staffing,” Sparrow said.
“What we know now is that aged care
simply isn’t funded to provide the level of
care people expect and deserve.
“A new direction like this could be exactly
what we need to force a rethink and set up
Australia for our ageing population and the
decades to come.”
Leading Age Services Australia (LASA)
agreed that raising staff levels is not
possible in the current system, but
disagreed with the recommendation to
implement mandated minimum staffing
requirements, suggesting this may hinder
innovation in the sector.
“We agree with counsel assisting’s
observation that realising more staff in
aged care is not possible under the current
funding system,” said LASA chief executive
Sean Rooney.
“The problem is that the average aged
care operator struggles to cover their
current costs at existing funding levels.
We have long advocated for funding
for good quality care to be linked to the
cost of delivering good quality care,
including a reasonable financial margin, to
maintain viability.
“Achieving the best quality care is
paramount, and we note that more staff
can only be implemented with adequate
funding. At the same time, we proposed in