Who works where in Australian aged care?

Above: Dr Debra King, a senior research fellow at the National Institute for Labour Studies, which is based at Flinders University.

By Stephen Easton

Packages from Flinders University have begun arriving in the mailboxes of community and residential aged care services this week for the third National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey, and all are being urged to play their part.

The census and survey is important – especially as the government ponders extensive reform – because it provides academics, bureaucrats and the industry with a complete picture of the aged care workforce, something not available from other data collection sources like the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Information collected in the 2007 census and survey featured heavily in the Productivity Commission’s aged care reform inquiry last year, according to Dr Debra King, a senior research fellow at the National Institute for Labour Studies (NILS), which conducts the project.

“[The 2007 data] was used in a lot of the submissions to the inquiry, and the Productivity Commission itself also used it extensively in its workforce section,” Dr King said.

“The Department of Health and Ageing also use it extensively to think about workforce issues like where the gaps are, what the problems are and the change-over time between different skill sets and competencies.”

The census component requires information on each work site as a whole, while the survey requires answers to various questions from a sample of individual employees, who are strongly encouraged to use the optional online system if it is quicker and easier.

This year, an interpreting service will be available for the first time to allow workers from non-English language backgrounds to take part.

Participating is also one of the three eligibility criteria for the Conditional Adjustment Payment, giving residential aged care providers a financial incentive to be involved.

The previous census received what the NILS researchers considered a very high response rate, with 90 per cent of residential facilities and 60 per cent of community care outlets responding. 

In residential care, 60 per cent of employees given the opportunity took the time to share their experiences for the 2007 survey, compared to 45 per cent of their community care counterparts.

Dr King also uses the information to inform her own research on the aged care workforce, which looks at workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and the differences between working for not-for-profit and for-profit aged care providers.

The aged care workforce, she said, was interesting and dynamic largely due to its rapid growth rate, and shifting demand between residential and community care coupled with the rise of new types of retirement villages that offer an alterative to aged care facilities.

Contrary to popular belief, previous surveys revealed that it’s not all doom and gloom for the industry’s employers.

“This whole idea that the workforce is in a bit of a crisis has been around for about a decade, but in the last two surveys we haven’t found that so much,” Dr King said.

“Yes there’s turnover, but it’s not much higher than in other industries in which many women work. There’s also a lot of what we call ‘churn’ – people often leave, but they go to another aged care organisation. 

“We keep hearing there’s problems maintaining the workforce, but we think what’s happening is more that it’s growing and changing rapidly.”

Dr King hopes the new survey will provide a better understanding of the aged care sector’s CALD workforce, and whether it is expanding as quickly as many believe it is.