The National Care Workforce Alliance (NaCWA) is a national alliance of aged care, home & community care, technology, and education & training providers who are working in collaboration to tackle the care workforce crisis in Australia. We believe that a combination of culture change and technology will enable the attraction of the right people and improve the worker experience, creating a sustainable care sector workforce in Australia that provides high-quality care.
We are funded by Foundation Partner memberships together with funding from the Queensland Government for our Queensland Pilot project under the Queensland Government’s Jobs Queensland ‘Health and Community Services Sectors Workforce Development Project 2022-2025’.
How do we know there’s a crisis? The numbers tell the story. Here’s a snapshot of the workforce crisis in aged care alone. Workers include registered nurses, allied health professionals, community care workers and personal care assistants.
People in Australia receiving some form of care service.
Employees working in residential aged care, home care, and home support.
Workers are estimated to leave the sector each year.
Workers are estimated to leave the sector in the next 1-5 years.
Predicted shortfall of workers in the aged care sector by 2030.
Australia’s old-age dependency ration: the proportion of people aged 65 and over for every 100 people of traditional working age (15 to 64) by 2062-63. In 2022-23 the ratio was 26.6%.
Recruitment agency costs for care sector workers more than doubled between 2022 and 2023.
Average occupancy rate across all residential aged-care places due to staff shortages. This is as low as 50% in regional areas.
Sources:
Aged Care Data Snapshot (GEN Aged Care Data, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2023)
Aged Care Workforce Census Report (2020, Australian Government Department of Health)
Duty of Care: Aged Care Sector in Crisis (CEDA, 2022)
Duty of Care: Aged Care Sector Running on Empty (CEDA, 2023)
Final Report of the Aged Care Taskforce (2023, Australian Government)
Workforce Central is a unique, collaborative approach to attracting and retaining workers by facilitating mobility between organisations.
The Queensland Pilot is the initial focus of NaCWA, enabling us to trial initiatives and technology to facilitate mobility between partner organisations, providing workers with greater control over their own employment opportunities.
What happens when you train new care workers to think beyond safety and compliance? We’re pleased to share one of the key research deliverables from the NaCWA Queensland Pilot —
. An innovative study focused on finding practical solutions to tackle current workforce challenges in the care sector has reached a significant milestone with the completion of the first phase
The National Care Workforce Alliance (NaCWA), alongside a team of researchers from the Australian Catholic University (ACU) are leading an industry-first research project to better understand the thoughts, needs and
This initiative is funded by Jobs Queensland as an action arising from the Good jobs. Good people: Queensland Workforce Strategy 2022-2032.
The National Care Workforce Alliance acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we live and work across Australia and pay our respects to elders past and present.
