Investing in a Quality Workforce

Access to an appropriately skilled and available workforce is vital to the delivery of effective human services in Victoria.
The Department of Human Service's involvement with the workforce is far-reaching, and includes:

• Employment of staff in a wide range of service delivery, service co-ordination, policy and management roles.
• Service development and funding for human services which rely on the availability of an appropriate workforce.

The support this, the Department's Service and Workforce Planning branch provides:

• Support for a range of workforce initiatives that seek to ensure an adequate supply of appropriately qualified practitioners and match them to areas of need.
• An up-to-date and responsive regulatory framework for health practitioners in order to protect the public.
• Strategies to ensure the future sustainability of the human services workforce.

The Department has in place a range of workforce initiatives that seek to ensure an adequate supply of appropriately qualified health practitioners working where they are needed in Victoria.
To achieve this, it is engaged at all levels of the supply of health workforces, seeking to influence:

• The number of graduates.
• Their distribution across Victoria.
• Their post-graduate vocational training.
• Skills maintenance.
• Career choices.

Workforce Initiatives (See also Victoria's Health Workforce website)

Current workplace workforce initiatives can be broadly separated into two categories:

1. Initiatives to facilitate the recruitment of:
   
• Medical
• Nursing
• Allied health professionals

2. Initiatives to retain existing staff.
   Current recruitment and retention initiatives have a rural and regional emphasis as workforce shortages are exacerbated in these locations.
   Recruitment programs include:

• recruitment and support of overseas and interstate professionals
• undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships
• rural placements for students to allow them to experience that environment.

Skills maintenance and professional development is recognised as a strategic instrument for not only maintaining standards of care, but as a form of professional support for professionals that assists recruitment and retention.

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Better Skills, Best care Workforce design Strategy (See Victoria's Health Workforce website)

The availability of a suitably skilled workforce is essential if the Department of Human Services (DHS) is to sustain an effective human services system into the future. The Better Skills, Best Care strategy seeks to encourage health services to explore new and redesigned work roles and provide support to pilot and roll out initiatives. The emphasis is on developing roles that will provide better outcomes for patients, promote greater work satisfaction for staff and contribute to more efficient and sustainable services.

Workforce Studies (See also Victoria's Health Workforce website)

Workforce studies provide the Department with information for workforce planning, and to assist in the development of policies and programs.

Service and Workforce Planning undertakes the workforce studies in priority human service areas to determine:

• Current and projected workforce supply and demand.
• A profile of the workforce to identify demographic and other factors which may have an impact on the future workforce.

Disability Services Workforce Study (PDF, 1.02MB) (download help)

Summary
Over the past 2 years there have been significant advances in the Disability Services workforce. Implementation of the Disability Learning and Development Strategy has resulted in over 900 unqualified government staff either completing (or currently undertaking) Certificate IV qualifications in Community Services (Disability Work), via a competency based model that expands potential career opportunities, improves the quality and safety of services delivered by those staff and provides benefits to all stakeholders.

This study aims to build on current initiatives across the Disability Services sector, working within the strategic framework articulated via the Learning and Development strategy and recognising that as client needs and service configurations evolve, the skills, knowledge and attitudes of staff will also need to evolve.

Research Program (See also Victoria's Health Workforce website)

The Department has established a rolling program of workforce research to identify and quantify the scope and nature of the problems we face.

These research projects will address existing information gaps and help lead policy development in building an innovative and sustainable human services workforce for Victoria.

In order to stimulate debate amongst stakeholders, the research project reports will be widely disseminated, including through this internet site.

National Workforce Planning Activities

Information about our involvement in national activities can be obtained on the links page of the Victoria's Health Workforce Website.

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