The Government has selected six organisations to drive its plan to grow the nation’s home care workforce by 13,000 over the next two years, and support more senior Australians to access Home Care Packages and remain independent at home.
More than $91 million under the Home Care Workforce Support Program has been allocated to organisations in each state and territory, and to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, said all home care providers can work with these organisations to grow and upskill their workforce.
“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,” Minister Hunt said.
“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 funded organisations will be expected to help home care providers recruit personal care workers in line with the Government’s target of 3.43 per cent of the care workforce identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander by 2031.
The Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck, said the program was part of the Government’s $18.8 billion, five-year response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
“More and more senior Australians are choosing to live independently in their homes for longer,” Minister Colbeck said.
“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 Home Care Workforce Support Program will complement activities undertaken by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment; for example, including Jobactive, Australian Apprenticeships, Job Trainer, Youth Jobs PaTH, and Launch into Work, to connect and guide workers through training and into employment.
Funding has been granted to:
- Settlement Services International in NSW and ACT
- Aged and Community Services, together with Mediashpere 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 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.
Original content from The Hon Greg Hunt MP media page. Note: Content has been edited for style and length.
Nina Alvarez is a Content Producer for Healthcare Channel. Her interests include writing, particularly about the healthcare sector and the many ways it can improve to further benefit people from all walks of life.
