Six organisations to help boost in-home care workforce

The federal government has shortlisted six organisations to help grow the home care workforce by 13,000 over the next two years.

More than $91 million has been allocated to the following organisations — as part of The Home Care Workforce Support Program — to assist home care providers to grow and upskill their workforce:

• Settlement Services International in NSW and ACT;
• Aged and Community Services, together with Mediasphere Holdings (Powerhouse Hub), Human Services Skills Organisation (HSSO), and MEGT in Victoria and Tasmania;
• Council on the Ageing Queensland, together with Skills Hub Ltd, Partners4Health and Skills Generation, in Queensland;
• Recruitment Solutions Group Australia in South Australia and the Northern Territory;
• North Metropolitan TAFE, together with South Metropolitan TAFE, Amana Living and Programmed Skilled Workforce in Western Australia;
• National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in rural and remote communities.
   

The funded organisations will be expected to help home care providers recruit personal care workers in line with the government’s target of 3.43% of the care workforce identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander by 2031.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt MP said, “The Home Care Workforce Support Program will help senior Australians to remain at home by growing the personal care workforce. This will allow people to access home care services where and when they need them.

“Senior Australians need a skilled, diverse, compassionate and valued workforce who will provide safe and high-quality care — and this program will increase the number and skills of people providing aged care in the home.”

The program will raise awareness of career opportunities in the sector; skill and screen new workers; and better equip providers to attract, train and retain workers including through supporting access to JobTrainer aged-care training places.

A key focus will be to address the greater challenges of recruiting workers in remote communities with specific funding and performance targets for these areas. This will be supported by greater flexibility for grant recipients to work with residential aged care and other care providers in these areas to promote access to home care services and develop a local care and support workforce. The government recognises the increased costs and complexity involved, compared to urban Australia.

The Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck, said, “More and more senior Australians are choosing to live independently in their homes for longer.”

“Our goal is for all Australians to feel confident about accessing high quality and safe aged care where and when they need it. Helping the aged-care sector to grow its workforce, in both residential and in-home care, is a crucial part of this.”

The program will complement activities undertaken by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, including Jobactive, Australian Apprenticeships, Job Trainer, Youth Jobs PaTH, and Launch into Work, to connect and guide workers through training and into employment.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/kazoka303030