Workforce

WorkforceNDS is committed to the development of a skilled, valued, engaged and responsive workforce which will enable people with disability to achieve a decent life.

The challenges to this aspiration are many, including an ageing workforce, increased competition for our current labour pool from other industries, increasing burden of compliance, changing approaches to service delivery and increasing expectations from people with disability and their families about choice and self-determination.

Given the urgency of the task, NDS is focusing on the development of coherent strategic plans at both national and state levels to ensure that the drivers for investment in our industry are job requirements and priorities for capacity building, rather than industrial arrangements.

The current work of NDS is driven by our national vision and strategy framework which includes a focus on the following key areas:

Policy

Workforce planning and development is specifically considered in every policy initiative/reform which impacts on disability service provision, including:

1.  Disability Care and Support (NDIS) Productivity Commission Inquiry Report
2. Funding models.

Research & Development

Workforce planning and development is evidence-based:

1. Lead the development and implementation of a national research agenda into current and future workforce requirements:

  • map research capability and capacity
  • collect and analyse existing resources/datasets,
  • analyse gaps and identify priorities.

2. Build and maintain a rich workforce database, including salary benchmarking and turnover by region, size and service type.
3. Establish a robust service evaluation framework for use by services.

Service Support

Services are equipped to predict, adapt and respond to the changing environment and to lead change processes to drive responsive culture and outcomes:

1. Design of service system models—engage members, people with disabilities and key content experts to collaborate on the design of service system models that enable people with disabilities to achieve their goals.
2. Workforce and job design.
3. Recruitment and retention—identify and lobby to address structural impediments and/or encourage incentives to support staff recruitment and retention.
4. Leaders’ and managers’ professional development—work with education and training systems to ensure the accessibility and availability of effective skills and professional development for leaders and managers in strategic and business planning, contemporary business management practice, organisational (re)design and workforce planning.  This should include change management, financial modelling, and policy and systems advocacy in order to achieve organisational independence and sector sustainability.

Industry promotion

1. Raise awareness about disability and the sector:

  • facilitate a broad based community campaign to build community awareness about disability to underpin the NDIS debate
  • expand ‘care career’ campaign across all states/territories
  • consider incentives for relocation/recruitment in regional areas and greater collaboration between government and non-government agencies.

2. Engage and work with strategic partners to commission or influence the development of industry promotion, attraction and retention strategies.  These strategies should include the promotion and/or development of recruitment, induction and career pathway benchmarks, tools and resources.
3. Position the industry as an employer of choice through effective links with schools and graduate programs, including building stronger relationships with professional associations.

Education and training

All sectors of the education and training system including higher education, Vocational Education and Training and Schools are responsive to disability industry needs:

1. Support the development of disability related skills and knowledge required by people working in generic services within the community.
2. Map career path opportunities within disability and across related sectors and align training systems to facilitate career advancement.

Resources

Economic Contribution Report
Recruitment and Retention Toolkit