Industry Workforce Priorities
Industry: Community Services
Industry coverage:Residential Care Services and Social Assistance Services.Current and future labour market conditions:
- The combined Community Services and Health industries now employ 12% of the total Australian workforce. It is projected that 229,400 new jobs will be created nationally in these two industries between 2013 and 2018 (Australian Government Department of Employment).
- The industries have the largest Western Australian workforce. This is predicted to continue as the State’s population grows and ages and the demand for community services increase concomitantly.
- The community services industry has a large proportion of workers with post-school and tertiary qualifications.
- Different skills will be needed in the workforce to respond to new health and social issues in the community. This will be compounded by duty of care requirements relating to this industry and ongoing developments in technology.
Industry development issues:
- The Western Australian population continues to grow with the Australian Bureau of Statistics(ABS) reporting the population at the end of the June 2016 quarter as 2,617,200.
- The ABS has reported that the number of people in Australia aged 85 years or over is likely to increase rapidly over the next 50 years with people aged 85 years or over making up 5% to 7% of Australia's population, compared to only 1.6% in 2007.
- Community services have been moving consistently towards home-based and person centered models of support, particularly in disability, aged care and mental health services. This move has major implications for the nature of care and support services being delivered and the associated numbers and skills of workers required.
- The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme is likely to result in greatercasualisation of the disability support workforce.
Workforce challenges and issues:
- Industry reports that the attraction and retention of workers continues to be a major workforce issue.
- Community services agencies also report recruitment challenges related to the lack of experienced applicants for job roles.
- Many community service agencies are unable to release staff for training or professional development, due to the requirement to maintain service levels on a 24-hour per day basis.
- The current industry workforce has a gender disparity, with an estimated 70% female participation and low participation rates for mature-aged men.
- The community services industry has always been dependent on large numbers of volunteers to support the delivery of services. Competition for volunteers is increasing and the number of volunteers available decreasing. Duty of care requirements also means that volunteers needto be trained and competent in order to make their important contribution to service delivery.
- Aboriginal people and people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) backgrounds are under-represented in the community services workforce.
- Industry continues to face significant difficulties in recruiting suitably experienced and qualified staff and accessing local training for staff development purposes in regional and remote parts of the State.
- The community services industry has voiced concern withsome VET training delivery, in particular short term delivery patterns for Certificates III and Diplomas.
- The early childhood education and care sector continues to experience shortages of appropriately qualified staff.
- New and emerging skills are required in the community services workforce to deal with health and social issues in the community (including drug abuse) and to maintain pace with developments in technology.
Current Training Council areas of focus:
- Identify workforce planning and development policies and strategies to support the deliveryof essential services and reduce labour and skill shortages.
- Promote initiatives to increase the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal people and people from a CaLD background in the industry.
- Identify and develop recruitment and support models for volunteers.
- Identify strategies for encouraging the recruitment of people to the industry in regional areas.
- Liaise with State and national bodies responsible for maintaining and improving the quality of VET training delivery.
- Liaise with relevant State and national Government Departments and the Western Australian early childhood education and care sector to ensure consistency between the Training Package and the relevant regulations.
Highlights for Skilling WA progress report:
- In January 2017, the Training Council commenced a Workforce Planning Project designed to provide Not for Profit small to medium enterprises in the Community Services & Health industries workforce planning advice. The project will also provide the Training Council with additional industry information and intelligence on which to base the advice it provides to DTWD.
- In 2017, the Training Council will continue to provide a leadership role in its work on SPOL , IWDP updates and support to the industries in regards to training package transition and implementation. The Training Council will continue to work with the Skills Service Organisations (Skills IQ and Price Waterhouse Coopers)in relation to the preparation of ‘business cases’ describing the need for change to training package qualifications.
- In 2017, the Training Council will continue to work closely with its network of Industry Advisory Groups to respond to the workforce development challenges and issues facing industry.
- The Training Council will continue to work on the industry/school framework to help with the adjustments needed to the changes in training packages and successful transition to the large number of new or changed qualifications in the Health & Community Services training packages.
- In 2017, the Training Council will continue to engage/ maintain links with schools to promote VETiS.
Other activities:
- The Training Councilwill engage with peak bodies and Unions WA to consolidate representation on the Council Board of Management.