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Workforce Coordination Project

The Workforce Coordination Project sits under Strategic Priority 2 of the Industry Plan: Workforce Development and Training.

The Workforce Coordination Project is a whole-of-industry response to:

  • A projected shortage of 4,000 jobs within the community services industry by 2024; and
  • The need to ensure that the industry has the skilled and diverse workforce necessary for the delivery of flexible and responsive services that achieve positive client outcomes. 

Aim

The Workforce Coordination project aims to achieve the following outcomes: 

  • Increased coordination and identification of strategies for addressing workforce issues at an industry level. 
  • Improved coordination, relationships, collaboration and partnerships to address workforce issues. 
  • Improved coordination of research activity and data collection. 
  • Enhanced ability to provide advice on industry training and career pathway needs. 
  • Enhanced awareness and recruitment initiatives to attract new talent and reduce barriers to employment in the sectors/industry. 
  • Improved capacity for delivering training and assessment in the industry. 

The industry

For this project, the community services industry has been clustered as follows:

  • Aged care services sector.
  • Disability services sector.
  • Education and care (childcare) sector.
  • Social service sector (includes, mental health services, housing and homelessness services, alcohol, tobacco and other drug services, youth services, Aboriginal services, Neighbourhood Houses, and family and children services).

To learn more about the Workforce Coordination project, please click on the breakout boxes below. 

To register to receive regular updates about the Community Services Industry Plan (2021-31), the Workforce Coordination Project and activities of the Workforce Coalition Network, please click here.

Role and Responsibilities

The role of the Workforce Coalition is to position Tasmania as a national leader in thinking and best practice in strategic workforce planning and to deliver industry-led workforce projects. The Workforce Coalition is responsible for developing and implementing identified and funded projects under Strategic Priority 2: Workforce Development and Training of the Community Services Industry Plan.

The Workforce Coalition meetings are held quarterly. The Coalition is responsible for:

  • Developing and implementing identified and funded projects under Strategic Priority 2: Workforce Development and Training of the Community Services Industry Plan.
  • Informing and endorsing project plans/action plans for each project.
  • Delegating a program of actions to the Workforce Coordination Project Manager and the Workforce Ready Team.
  • Providing guidance, support and advice to the Workforce Coordination Project Manager and the Workforce Ready Team.
  • Assisting the project when required to resolve conflicts, issues and risks.
  • Monitoring and reviewing progress against agreed parameters and contractual obligations.
  • Reporting and providing advice to the Industry Development Steering Committee.
  • Ensuring the projects are industry-led and that engagement occurs with relevant stakeholders at all levels.
  • Convening a broad Workforce Coalition Network meeting twice a year.

Accountability

The Workforce Coalition is accountable to the Industry Development Steering Committee. It reports quarterly to the Committee against the objectives of each of the project plans. The Industry Development Steering Committee is responsible for the whole Industry Plan. It has delegated responsibility for the development and the implementation of the Workforce Coordination Project to the Workforce Coalition. The Industry Development Steering Committee is accountable to the Industry Advisory Council which is accountable to the public.

The Workforce Coalition comprises the following members:

Chairs (2 chairs):

  • Lee Veitch – Lady Gowrie Tasmania
  • Brenton West – Anglicare Tasmania

Appointed members (3 members):

  • Monique Parsons – Skills Tasmania
  • Ingrid Ganley | Tricia Males – Department of Premier and Cabinet
  • Sue Howard – Workforce Coordination Project Manager (ex-officio)

Peak bodies that employ a Workforce Ready Team member (3 members):

  • Geraldine Ellis-Maguire – Aged & Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA) Tasmania
  • Annette Barwick – Early Childhood Australia (ECA) (Tasmania Branch)
  • Lizzie Castles – National Disability Services (NDS) Tasmania

Social services peak body representation (2 members):

  • Simone Zell – Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania (NHT)
  • Ruzina Dahal – Alcohol Tobacco and other Drugs Council (ATDC) Tasmania

Strategic workforce planning specialist (1 member):

  • Natalie Mayes – Multicap Tasmania

Strategic training and development specialist (1 member):

  • Kate Beven – Southern Cross Care

Education provider (tertiary/VET) (2 members):

  • Nita O’Callaghan – University of Tasmania
  • Danielle Morgan – TasTAFE

Workforce representation (1 member):

  • Robbie Moore – Health & Community Services Union (HACSU) Tasmania

Service user representation (1 member):

  • Brigid Wilkinson – Council on the Ageing (COTA) Tasmania

Secretariat:

  • Workforce Coordination Project Manager, TasCOSS
  • Skills Tasmania

The Workforce Coordination Project is funded by the Department of State Growth and is administered by Skills Tasmania. The project is delivered in partnership with the Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS) on behalf of the social services sector peak bodies and the Tasmanian peak bodies of Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA), National Disability Service (NDS) and Early Childhood Australia (ECA) Tasmania Branch (contracted to Lady Gowrie Tasmania). TasCOSS is also the project lead.

The project team members, collectively named the Workforce Ready Team, work closely with the peak bodies across the industry to ensure the strategies and activities of the Workforce Coordination Project are integrated with existing and ongoing workforce planning and development strategies and activities within the sectors. Some Workforce Ready Team members are based with and employed by peak bodies.

For this project, the sectors have been clustered as follows:

  • Aged care services.
  • Disability services.
  • Education and care (childcare).
  • Social services (includes mental health services, housing and homelessness services, alcohol, tobacco and other drug services, youth services, Aboriginal services, Neighbourhood Houses, and family and children services).

The Workforce Ready Team are instrumental in identifying how the Workforce Coordination project can add value and capacity to the individual sectors within the community services industry and to the industry as a whole. The team identify, prioritise, pursue and promote shared interests within the industry and add capacity and value to developing the sector workforce. It is not intended to replace sector-specific workforce roles and activities. Sector-specific workforce planning capacity is critical for this whole-of-industry project to succeed. The intention is for sector-specific and whole-of-industry strategies and activities to enhance each other and achieve a cumulative beneficial effect, essential to meeting the workforce challenges of the industry.

Workforce Ready Team members:

Project manager:

Aged care services:

Disability services:

Education and care (childcare):

Social services:

The Workforce Coalition Network’s objective is to ensure the Workforce Coalition Project is industry-led and that engagement occurs with relevant stakeholders at all levels.

The Workforce Coalition convenes a broad Workforce Coalition Network meeting twice a year. These meetings are an open invitation to all stakeholders who are responsible for attracting, recruiting, training and retaining staff in the community services industry.

The Workforce Coalition Network meetings aim to build and share knowledge as well as to inform decision-making. Together we will be stronger in influencing change, developing solutions, lifting our profile, building capacity and capabilities.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 26 September 2024 at the Tramsheds Function Centre located at 4 Invermay Road, Launceston. Click here for more information.

The Workforce Coordination Project will be winding up in its current iteration by the end of November 2024.

We have achieved significant milestones achieved, including:

  • An industry career website with interactive functionality to facilitate engagement and promotion (workwithpurpose.au).
  • A targeted workforce review tool for organisations to improve workforce planning and development capacity (reviewyourworkforce.com.au).
  • A program of research on Worker Recruitment and Retention in the Care Economy.
  • Successful employment outcomes for new trainers and assessors, with Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) reporting they are now able to fill vacant positions.
  • Strong engagement of industry in co-design processes ensuring the uptake of project products and services.
  • Strong collaboration in place with industry stakeholders like education and training providers and job and career service providers.

We are now seeking input on how to best access the range of outputs of the project for use during the next stages of the Community Services Industry Plan (2021-31).