The disability, aged care, mental health and primary care industries are undergoing significant reform. At the heart of these reforms is the rights of people to have greater choice and control over the services and supports they select.
These reforms will be felt broadly across the health and community services sectors. When the person is in the centre of decision making, you can get a better picture of their whole-of-life support needs. As such, a more coordinated approach from the health and community services sectors is needed to support individuals to identify, plan and achieve their life goals, safely and with dignity.
Background
SkillsIQ is conducting research to understand the workforce implications of consumer-directed care reforms across the wider Health and Community services sectors. The initial research report's recommendations included that further industry consultations be carried out. It was recommended that this additional research focus on:
• cross-sector skills for the direct client support workforce
• cross-sector coordination competencies and roles
• Local Area Coordinator competencies and cross-sector functions.
Click here to download a copy of the initial project report for Phase One that has informed our industry consultation and workshops.
Industry Consultations
Through this research, SkillsIQ is leading the conversation to understand workforce skill requirements to better coordinate services across the health and community services in response to more person-led approaches.
We are looking to engage with industry to better understand, identify and evaluate cross-sector needs and roles and skills used by the health and community services sectors. Preliminary consultation will include targeted consumer engagement sessions and a series of workshops that will be held across Australia.
Further consultations will be undertaken later in the project which will be targeted and informed by initial consultations.
Workshops
Workshops have been held in each capital city over the last two months.
The workshops attracted diverse perspectives from people with lived experience, peak bodies, frontline workers and organisational leaders, existing and new businesses, training organisations, researchers and government representatives.
Our conversations were collaborative, conversational and informative. They centred on discussion of the workforce implications of person-led reforms to deliver more coordinated services to ensure the consumer gets the right support at the right time. Participants have reported that the opportunity to network, share and learn from the experiences and insights of others across sectors has been valuable.
Further information
For further information on the project contact:
SkillsIQ Limited
02 9392 8100