Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce

  • The Taskforce reports directly to the Australian Government s Minister for Aged Care.
  • It is headed by an independent chair, Professor John Pollaers.
  • The Taskforce will oversee and steer the development of an industry driven workforce strategy.
  • The strategy will recognise the shift to consumer directed care and take a wider view of the workforce interacting with older people.
  • The Taskforce is to report on 30 June 2018.
  • The report will incorporate a workforce strategy and associated implementation plan to address short, medium and longer term priorities.

Technical Advisory Groups

The Taskforce plans to form a small number of specific purpose advisory groups to provide detailed technical input and develop practical actions that can be taken forward by the sector. The results will be fed into the Taskforce s considerations.

Roundtables

The Taskforce plans to sponsor several roundtables to access expertise, tap specialist skills and gain practical insights to inform strategy development, from the aged care and other sectors, together with the wider community.

Workforce summits

The Taskforce will sponsor two working summits the first on 4 December 2017, with a second planned for April 2018.

  • Summit 1:The first summit is to provide an early opportunity for the wide range of interests in the workforce to contribute to shaping thinking about an industry driven strategy.
  • Summit 2:The second Summit is to contribute to building a strategy, with the aim of informing the development of an exposure draft for wide dissemination and feedback.

Consultation and engagement

  • Public submission process:At two points in its program, the Taskforce will be seeking written submissions – the first on strategic imperatives stemming from the Terms of Reference (December 2017–February 2018) and the second on an exposure draft of the strategy (May-June 2018).
  • Aged care community consultations:The Taskforce plans to seek directly the views of providers, consumers and their families, workers, volunteers, and informal carers across the country.

Workshops why the sector and the work people do in the sector matter

Over the next few months, workshops are being held to establish why growing and sustaining the workforce needed to meet the care needs of older people across Australia is so vital to the nation.

  • Ballarat
  • Launceston
  • Brisbane
  • Adelaide
  • Western Australia
  • Melbourne
  • Northern Territory
  • Sydney
  • Queensland
  • New South Wales

Evidence and knowledge base

The evidence to be considered by the Taskforce will include:

  • Data, information and research related to workforce matters either from existing sources or submitted to the Taskforce during its work
  • Information provided to a range of reviews or inquiries by the many interests in the aged care workforce
  • Workforce planning, design and models
  • Strategic scanning and analysis of global ageing and aged care trends, and their practical implications for the sector and the workforce.

For more information about the work of the Taskforce, please visit our website at:

November 20171