Steering a course in turbulent watersRCLDS initiated Victorian Residential

Care Workforce Census

ACWA Conference August 2012Presented by: Glenys Bristow (Reference Group Member),Steven Smith (Centre for Excellence) & Edith Loch (DHS).

Residential Care Learning & Development Strategy

Membership:

• Representatives from the 23 CSO’s in Victoria who provide

residential care.

• Department of Human Services – Placement and Support

• Centre for Excellence in Child & Family Welfare

Mix of rural and metropolitan, small, medium and large organisations and Aboriginal CSO representation

RESIDENTIAL CARE LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (RCLDS)

Aim: The development of a competent and appropriately trained

residential care workforce that is supported to provide a high standard of care and to improve outcomes and life opportunities for children and young people in out of home care.

Goals:• The ongoing development & maintenance of a skilled and

stable workforce

• Provision of high quality training, supervision and support to

workers

• Development of appropriate pre-service and in-service

qualifications relevant to the field

• Commitment to and development of a lifelong learning culture

in the workplace

• 2001/2002 Victorian State Budget: $7.5 million of additional resources were allocated to improve residential care services for children & young people

• From this, $430,000 recurrent funding (now indexed to approx $520,000) was set aside to develop a training strategy to strengthen residential care services in recognition of the link between staff competency and client outcomes

• Management of the RCLDS strategy was contracted to the Centre for Excellence in 2005. Funding to the Centre allows for the employment of a full time RCLDS project leader and admin support

RCLDS Funding

• Professional Development in Therapeutic Care, Effective Conflict Management, Youth Mental Health First Aid, Sexualised Behaviours, Working with Aboriginal Communities, Supervision Skills and Autism training

• Supporting development of a skilled workforce through scholarships, completion bonds and funding to attend international speakers and conferences such as ACWA

• Delivering a state wide forum Resi ROCKS, held annually, attracting 300 residential care workers

• Residential care awards for excellence in the provision of residential care and leadership in the field

Three year training plan which includes:

• Measuring the impact of the RCLDS strategy on the skills of the

Residential Care workforce

• Need to accurately record the profile and qualifications of the

workforce

• Recent reviews of the Residential Care sector have highlighted

issues of skills of the workforce

• Outcomes of this census may influence policy decisions and debate .

Residential care workforce analysis

The Victorian Residential Care Workforce Census

• A census methodology which aimed to collect data across all residential programs using an on-line survey

• Full participationAll community service organisations who provide residential care programs participated in the study

• Each organisation provided responses for each region in which it delivers services

• A total of 34 responses to the census capturing data from organisations who provide residential care in multiple regions

8

Census Method

• The online survey collected data on:• workforce demographics• workforce qualifications• unit structure• staff turnover and retention rate• and use of agency relief staff

• The Census was completed by HR managers or program managers

9

Data Collection

Profile of the Victorian Residential Care Workforce

• 68% of workers are female

• 32% are male

11

Gender profile

Proportion of Female and Male workers

N=1665

• 60% of workers are aged 25-44 years

• 49% of workers are under 35 years of age

• 46% are 35 to 54 years

• The age spread is similar for both genders

• In the main, workers are female, aged 25-44 years

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Age Spread

under 25 years

25 – 34 years 35 – 44 years 45 – 54 years 55 – 64 years 65 years and above

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Female

Male

60%

14

34

32

20 21

8 5

1

N=1665

15

25 29

Age distribution of residential care workers

Respondents were asked to provide information about three types of employees, defined as:

Fulltime workforce • a worker on a permanent contract, guaranteed 38 hours per week of

employment and entitled to sick leave and leave loading

Part-time workforce• a worker with a guaranteed minimum hours, may range between 5 to 38 hours,

entitled to sick leave and leave loading

Flexible workforce • a worker with no guarantee of ongoing employment where each contract is

effectively short and fixed. (This included workers who are employed consistently over an ongoing period of time but who work varying hours per week as needed)

Workforce Definitions

• Total residential care workforce of 1665 positions delivering front line care.

• 26% of all workers are full time (n= 437)

• 19% are part time (n= 314)

• 55% are employed as flexible workers (n= 913)

• No marked differences across agencies of different size or in different regions

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Workforce profile

Contribution of Full time, Part time and Flexible workers

N=1665

26% Fulltime

19% Part time

55%Flexible

Use of Agency staff

• 62% of services use

agency staff

• 38% do not ever use

agency staff

• 18% of all services use

agency workers more

than 20 times a month

• that is, 34% of those

services who use

agency staff at all

15

Use of Agency Staff per Unit per Region

38% None

18%1-5/mth

23%5-10/mth

3%10-20/mth

18%>20/mth

62%

use Agency staff

N=34

Qualifications of Victorian Residential Care Workforce

• 49% of full time staff currently hold the industry based qualification - Cert IV in Child Youth and Family Intervention

The Industry Based QualificationFull time, Part time

8%

24%

19%

49% are indus-try based qualified

51%are not Cert IV qualified

17

N=437

Full Time Industry Based Qualifications

• 45% of part time staff currently hold the industry based qualification - Cert IV in Child Youth and Family Intervention

45% are

industry based

qualified

54% are not Cert IV qualified

Part Time Industry Based Qualifications

N=314

Relevant Qualification Profile – Full Time

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N=437

• 68% currently hold a relevant

qualification

• 38% have a Cert IV only

• 30% hold relevant tertiary

qualifications

• 19% Tertiary alone

• 11% Tertiary Plus Cert IV

• 8% are currently qualifying

• Only 24% do not hold an industry

relevant qualification

Relevant Qualifications – Full Time Workers

8% cur-

rently quali-fying

24% no

quali-fica-tion

19% ter-tiary only

11% tertiary & Cert IV

38% Cert IV Only

68% Qualified

N=437

Relevant Qualification Profile – Part Time

19

N=437

• 57% currently hold a relevant

qualification

• 33% have a Cert IV only

• 24% hold relevant tertiary

qualifications

• 12% Tertiary alone

• 12% Tertiary plus Cert IV

• 7% are currently qualifying

• Only 36% do not hold an industry

relevant qualification

Relevant Qualifications – Part Time Workers

33% Cert IV

only

7% cur-rently

qualifying 36% no relevant

12% ter-tiary only

12% tertiary and Cert IV

57% Qualified

20

N=437

• 76% of Full time staff hold or are

obtaining relevant qualifications

Relevant Qualifications – Full time staff

24%

76%

• 64% of Part time staff hold or are

obtaining relevant qualifications

Total Qualified

N=314

Relevant Qualifications – Part time staff

Training for QualificationFull time and Part time staff

• Most of the full and part time

workforce are employed already

holding their qualifications

• About one quarter gain their

qualifications after starting

employment

• 24% - Full time staff train after

employment

• 21% - Part time staff train after

employment

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

79

76

21

24

Qualified at EmploymentQualified after being employed

Not qualified

Still qualifying

Hold Relevant qualifictions

Do not have Cert Iv

Cert Iv qualified

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

29%

7%

65%

53%

47%

Snapshot of the Full time and Part time workforce

• No marked difference in this profile between small, medium and large organisations or across DHS regions

Profiling the ‘Flexible’ Victorian Residential Care Workforce

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The Industry Based Qualification Flexible workforce

• Less likely to hold the industry based qualification

• 32% of the Flexible workforce currently hold an industry based qualification - Cert IV in Child, Youth and family Intervention

• 68% do not hold or are not known to hold industry based qualifications

N=913

Flexible staff qualifications

32%With industry

based qualification

68% without industry

based qualification

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Further Research on Flexible workforce

• For almost half (30% of total)

of those, their qualifications

are not known to their

employer

• Further research is required to

understand the full

qualification levels of the

flexible workforceN=913

30% Qualification unknown

38% Not industry qualified

Flexible Industry based qualifications

Workforce retention and longevity

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Less than 20% turnover in full time and part time staff

• Around 15% of full time staff resigned

• Around 17% of part time staff resigned

• 76% of the workforce have been employed for less than 3 years

Full Time staff turnover

Part Time staff turnover

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Flexible staff turnover

Flexible staff turnover

Way Forward

RCLDS established in 2002, at that time……..

• The residential care sector had a reputation of the staff being poorly qualified and having a low commitment towards training or professional development

• No consistent approach to developing the skills and qualifications of the workforce

• Agency based training

• Little recognition of the specialised skill set required of the residential care worker

• Limited data about the demographics, skills and qualifications of the workforce

• High turn over of staff

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Residential care workforce…the journey

• Residential care specific qualification developed

• 65% of the fulltime and part time workforce have a relevant

qualification

• Census finding: turn over of 15% in full time and 17% in part time

and 27% in casual

• 870 residential care staff attended RCLDS training in 2011/12

• Cross agency and sector training in Victoria

• Development of a learning culture in residential care sector

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Resi workforce now…..

• Developing individual reports to CSO’s and overall sector report

• Further research and analysis required to understand the nature

of the flexible workforce and their use to manage demand and

funding issues

• Analysis of the workforce survey data collected from individual

residential workers at the 2012 Resi ROCKS forum

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Next steps for workforce analysis

• Workforce planning – individual CSO level and sector wide

• Recruitment and retention strategy

• Social marketing strategy

• RCLDS workforce training delivery

• Strategy for the flexible workforce

• Agency staff training strategy

• Integrate outcomes into 3 year RCLDS training strategy

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How this may inform future planning

Thank you – Questions

For more information about RCLDS visit the Centre’s website www.cfecfw.asn.au