Listening to our Stakeholders - Health Workforce Australia

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“One of the things we would do differently is to consult more upfront. Our project rushed into
it and we met so much resistance we had to stop the project entirely for six months and go
out and engage in an extensive round of sector familiarisation.” Participant 14
Another interesting point which emerged in discussion with members of the UK project team was
that the implementation was much, much more than developing the framework and then posting
it on a national web-site.
“I must admit that we were very surprised that our people did just keep re-inventing their
own things. The idea was that the developments would be posted on a national web-site that
people could access to get ideas — they don’t.” Participant 14
Further discussion with the informants associated with the UK Skills Escalator project highlighted
the realities and enormities of the costs involved in post implementation communication,
promotion and continuing maintenance/update.
Application of UK Skills Escalator Model to the Australian Context
All of the overseas models explored within the context of this project highlighted valuable lessons
for consideration to HWA as a pre-cursor to planning the next steps of the project. However, a
number of informants also pointed out some of the unique complexities of the Australian context
which would preclude direct application of the UK Skills Escalator model, in particular.
“Yes, we can learn a lot from it and there is much that we can usefully adopt from it. But, we
are not the UK, and anybody who thinks that the UK model would be readily adoptable in
the Australian system is ignoring the diversity, the jigsaw nature of the Australian health care
system compared to the NHS.”
Repeatedly, informants pointed out desirable features and sound valuable lessons that could be
gained from exploration of the overseas models.
Overall, the UK Skills Escalator project raised the most concerns as informants who were aware
of this project had a tendency to be wary of the potential industrial implications of the model.
In contrast the CanMEDS model was more widely acknowledged as a globally transferable
framework with the potential for whole-of-workforce application.