2013 Environmental Scan - Community Services & Health Industry ...

IDENTIFIED WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
THE CARE INDUSTRY – A TIME FOR ACTION
In this section, we focus on emerging gaps
in skills across the Community Services
and Health industry. In our online survey
of stakeholders for this EScan, a majority
agreed there was pressure within industry
to develop new job roles to cope with
increasing client demand in health and
community services and the constrained
funding environment.
The 2013 EScan consultation consistently
raised three workforce development needs:
1. Client led funding. This will require
workers with a new set of skills,
built around managing risks and
expectations. This is particularly an
issue for aged care, home care and
disability services but also affects other
sectors such as employment services.
2. As a consequence of increased life
expectancy within the Australian
population, workers in aged care
facilities and home care will require
additional aligned capabilities in
disability care and mental health.
Likewise, workers in disability services
will require skills portability to handle
dementia and mental health issues.
While more specialists will be
required to address this comorbidity,
generalist workers will also need an
additional level of capability to identify
and respond to these issues.
3. Management Skills. Managers
in the industry require additional
skills and support to cope with
changes to funding regimes and the
consequential workforce implications
such as managing staff that are
more likely to be casually employed
and dispersed across geographic
locations. Currently, managers in
the industry lack the time, support
and training resources to develop
the leadership and innovation skills
that are necessary to cope with the
evolving structure.
Appendix B provides a summary of the
submissions and consultations received
as part of the research undertaken to
complete this EScan.
SKILLS FOR CLIENT LED
CARE ENVIRONMENTS
In both aged care and disability services,
the move to a client led policy approach
will increase the number of workers who
physically work outside of centralised
services and who are instead based within
the community. This reduces their close
access to supervisory support, specialist
assistance and also potential learning
opportunities. The positive shift in power
to the client inherent in this approach,
also demands that frontline workers be
equipped with skills to understand the
service delivery framework and negotiate
with and on behalf of clients if the need
arises (Chenoweth and Clements, 2009;
Workplace Research Centre, 2008).
Where client led approaches to care
have been implemented overseas, the
following issues for workers have arisen:
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Fewer protections than in institutional
settings for workers in relation to
rostering, scheduling and management
of work tasks, and advanced
occupational health and safety
protocols (Stacey 2005)
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Difficulty regulating quality of care in
individualised settings, such as home
care (Bradley et al 2001)
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Some resistance among client
advocates in the United States to
the establishment of formal training
requirements (Simon-Rusinowitz et
al, 2010; Doty et al, 2010) although
training funding and standards were
preserved in the English Model
(Carr and Robbins, 2009).
Australia can learn from experiences
overseas. An evaluation of the consumer
directed care initiative (KPMG, 2012)
identified the following skills required
by workers in a client directed model
of aged care:
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Experience in individualised
and goal based planning
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Building client capacity and
case management
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Knowledge of aged care or respite,
but no preconceived ideas about what
community aged care or respite ‘is’
or ‘looks like’ – an ability to ‘think
outside the box’
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Financial skills, both in terms of
managing individual budgets and
helping clients to understand their
budget statements (this is quite
different to the standard packaged
care approach)
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Commitment to client empowerment
and self-determination.
In a home based setting, individual workers
need to have some understanding of
these skills and what they are responsible
for and those skills that rest with their
supervisors, coordinators or other
specialists. In Australia these are the skills
that will be required by workers assisting
clients during the implementation of the
National Disability Insurance Scheme
(NDIS). Providing frontline workers with
the necessary support via changes to
training packages as well as organisational
practices around risk management,
reporting, and mentoring and supervision,
will be critical to the success of the NDIS.
A priority for CS&HISC in 2013 will be
to assess both the CHC and HLT
training packages against these
new skill requirements.
Further, converting the skills around
planning, case management, financial
skills and values to competencies that
can be included in training packages will
be challenging. The industry is already
examining these competencies within the
new care environment. One Registered
Training Organisation (RTO) expressed
it this way:
“More work is required on the complex
health needs of frail and older individuals.
Job roles in the sector require staff to
have high levels of resilience and the
training packages incorporate standard
employability skills but more direct
attention on this is needed.”
In summary, while the industry is moving to
a model of client led care and associated
autonomous workers, changes to training
packages will be required to reflect
these changes which will need to take
place within a broader framework that
includes supervisory arrangements for
home based care, and clarity on funding
levels to support and remunerate roles
appropriately. We expect our industry
experts to request these changes to
training packages as the trend towards
client led care gathers pace.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN 2013 : SECTION TWO IDENTIFIED WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
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