Industry Workforce Priorities

March 2017 Industry Workforce Priorities Industry: Health

Industry coverage: Hospitals, Other Medical and Health Care services, and Residential Care Services.

Current and future labour market conditions:  While there has been an increase in medical graduates entering the workforce, it has not been sufficient to meet growing health care service requirements. The Health Department forecasts a shortfall in suitably trained and experienced doctors and particularly specialists.

 The Health industry, both public and private, has difficulty attracting workers with sufficient skills and experience. This challenge is expected to continue with the increased need for services from the Western Australia community.

 Health spending by the State Government 2016/17 accounts for $8.6 billion or 29% of total general government expenses. The downturn in the State’s economy is placing greater financial pressure on the State’s health system.

 Nationally, the number of people aged over 65 years with a disability is expected to reach 4.1 million by 2051. Demand for mental health services is predicted to rise between 135% and 160% by 2027 ( Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council 2015).

 The WA Public Health system employs 47,275 full and part-time workers. Industry development issues:  The State’s health system faces many challenges including a growing and ageing population, increasing complexity of diagnosis, developing technology, increasing consumer expectations for care, remote delivery and rising costs.

 Western Australia’s health facilities are undergoing a major transformation with the building of new hospitals such as Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth Children’s Hospital and refurbishment of many others.

 Within health services there is a shift towards interdisciplinary practice as the means to improve access to services for clients that have multiple needs. This will have implications for workforce development, particularly in regional and remote areas where training options are more limited.

 The Department of Health’s Workforce Strategy 2016-2020 identifies a range of strategies to ensure the adequate supply of an appropriately skilled workforce, including doctors, nurses, midwives, and Aboriginal health workers.

 A rise in the number of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) consumers in the State’s health industry has increased the demand for workers with the necessary skills to work with a diverse client group.

Workforce challenges and issues:  Ageing workforce resulting in an increasing number of experienced workers leaving the industry.

March 2017  Growing community demand for health services as the State’s population ages at a faster rate.

 Challenge of providing health services and related training and workforce development in regional areas where small populations are dispersed across an area of 2.5 million square kilometres.

 Growing demand for occupations such as case manager, care coordinator and therapy assistant in response to rising incidents of dementia, alcohol and drug use.

 The low proportion of Aboriginal people in the health workforce (1.1%) given the higher levels of need of Aboriginal people for health services.

 Cultural awareness and sensitivity is an important workforce development issue for the health workforce.

 Increased competition for volunteers from other sectors and declining rates of voluntarism generally has resulted in decreasing numbers of volunteers in the industry.

 Lack of trained and qualified staff in the mental health sector at a time when both the Government and non-Government sectors are planning a general expansion of mental health services, including a range of new types of mental health service.

 The pace of technological development (eHealth technologies) continues to have upskilling implications for the health workforce.

 Access to quality clinical placements has been a perennial difficulty with all health related training and education, particularly in the VET sector where there is restricted funding available to both seek and support placements.

Current Training Council areas of focus:  Support industry to address skill and labour shortages by evaluating, improving and promoting policies and programs aimed at increasing employment and training opportunities for people in access groups (i.e. people with a disability, young people 16-24, women returning to the workforce and mature men).

 Promote initiatives that aim to increase the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal people in the health industry in response to the growing number of Aboriginal people accessing the State’s health services.

 Develop workforce development strategies to increase the recruitment of people from CaLD backgrounds.

 Work with the Mental Health Commission of WA (MHC) and the WA Association of Mental Health (WAAMH) to seek ways to address barriers to employment and training, including to encourage mental health agencies to adopt workforce planning and development programs.

 Work with stakeholders to identify recruitment and support models for increasing the number of volunteers in the industry.

March 2017  Work with stakeholders to support the recruitment of health care workers to live and work in regional and remote areas of the State.

 Identify occupations in demand in the health industry via the State’s Skilled Priority Occupation List (SPOL). Of the 250 occupations identified in the SPOL 2016 across all industries, the health industry has 85 occupations.

 Work with industry to ensure that training package design supports the development of transferable skills.

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 provide the Training Council with additional industry information and intelligence on which to base the advice it provides to the Department.

 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.

 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.

 Work will continue on the VETiS and 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.

 The Training Council will continue to engage/ maintain links with schools to promote VETiS.

Other activities:  The Training Council will engage with peak bodies and Unions WA to consolidate representation on the Council Board.

March 2017