Workforce census results in

Workforce growth; a redistribution of job roles throughout the sector; & more migrant workers…These are just three key findings from the 2012 National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey results.

By Yasmin Noone

The community care workforce has increased by around 25 per cent over the last five years, outstripping growth in residential aged care by 15 percentage points in the same period, according to newly released results from the 2012 National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey.

The long-awaited findings, which were expected to be released by the federal government late-last year, were published in the Aged Care Workforce 2012 Final Report this week.

They show that the proportion of the aged care workforce born overseas has increased since the last census, 2007, and now comprises 35 per cent of the residential and 28 per cent of the community workforce.

These proportions, the report states, are about two percentage points higher for recent hires.

One-third of the overseas born direct care workers in residential facilities had lived in Australia for five years or less. Many were from Asia –  India, China or the Philippines – and English was either unknown or a second language.

“In contrast, overseas born direct care workers in community outlets had been in Australia longer and 75 per cent had been here for 10 years or more; of those coming from countries where English is not the main language, similar proportions were from European and Asian countries,” the report states.

Australian born workers, the report says, “revealed that 10 workers held concerns about communication and the impact that poor language skills and a lack of cultural knowledge have on the ability to perform caring work”.

“Another two workers expressed concerns about discrimination from care recipient. [For example], employing young Asian women for men who went through World War II or the Korean War.

“However, there was also some discussion around the fact that the ability to be a good care worker is not linked to one’s ethnicity.”

Other important findings

The research was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, and undertaken by the National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS),

According to the 2012 census, more than 240,000 workers were employed in direct care roles last year, with 147,000 in residential facilities. This marks an increase of 10 per cent since the previous 2007 survey.

On the flip-side, community care workforce growth hit 93,350 in community outlets, achieving a 25 per cent hike.

The findings also show that growth rates for community and residential care almost equate when it comes to full-time employee numbers, with “growth between 2007 and 2012 in the two sectors is more similar at around 20 per cent”.

Meanwhile, the report states, “corresponding national growth between 2007 and 2012 was nine per cent in headcount and seven per cent in full-time employees”.

The percentage of registered nurses, enrolled nurses and allied health employees working in the residential direct care workforce are on the decline, with a representative dip from 36 per cent in 2007 to 32 per cent in 2012.

There are now 22,000 RNs, 17,000 ENs, 2,600 allied health professionals and 5,000 allied health assistants in the sector.

However, the report adds: “Personal care assistants have grown in both size and share and now constitute 68 per cent of the residential direct care workforce (from 64 per cent in 2007), numbering over 100,000 employees”.

“…This pattern of reducing the share of the more highly educated workforce was already present between 2003 and 2007.

“Of note in the residential direct care workforce is that the rate of increase of full-time employees was greater than that of the actual persons, indicating that employees are working more hours than in 2007.”

Associate Professor from the NILS and lead author of the report, Debra King, said the survey results confirms that the aged care workforce is changing, just as it is growing.

“I think growth is a bigger issue than retention at the moment,” said A/Prof King, “and where to find the new workers from.”

“There’s also a continued redistribution of the workforce, where registered nurse [numbers] and nurses are increasingly working in managerial role as well as in a clinical role.”

“There’s also not only more skill shortages for registered nurses but those working in the sector are more highly stressed, are working longer hours than they prefer, there’s a high turnover among nurses and the [degree to which] their work/life balance is interfered with is greater than that of the Australian workforce.

“So these are the [workforce] problems in terms of attracting and recruiting registered nurses.

“There were [also] a couple of [other] areas that seem to be problems – occupational safety and workplace illnesses and injury.

“There seems to be high proportions of accidents and workers out [from the workplace due to] injuries. This is quite puzzling given the amount of investment there is in training.”

Three-quarters of all residential facilities and half of the community outlets had employees reported a work-related injury in the three months prior to the survey.

The most common injuries were sprains and strains, superficial injuries and chronic muscle or joint pain. However, 20 per cent of community outlets and 13 per cent of residential facilities reported stress or other mental condition.

“Given that direct care workers require good health to be able to do their work, injuries have the potential to shorten their careers in aged care and to increase turnover,” the report states.

Tags: census, debra-king, doha, migrant, national-institute-of-labour-studies, survey, workforce,

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