Put in place a workforce strategy.

To develop an effective workforce strategy, make sure you understand and assess the needs of older people receiving care and the business. This will help you make sure there are enough workers and a good mix of qualified workers to provide safe and quality care and services.

Make sure your workforce strategy includes processes to:

• identify the skills, qualifications and competencies your workers need to deliver safe and quality care and services. Make sure these relate to what older people receiving care need, want and can expect under the Statement of Rights. It’s important to understand older people’s clinical needs (Outcome 5.4). This includes the supports they need to eat and drink safely (Outcome 6.4). Workers’ skills and competencies must meet these needs.
• screen and hire sufficient numbers of suitably qualified and competent workers. Potential candidates should only be hired if you can confirm they can deliver quality and safe aged care services. You can assess this through a pre-employment validation process as part of your human resources management system (Outcome 2.9). These can include background checks, processes to confirm education, qualifications (relevant to their role) and employment history, reference checks, and competency and skill-based tests. Review any history of complaints, incidents or other feedback relating to the worker to understand if there are any issues in their ability to deliver tailored care for each older person. If you find any issues through your reviews and assessments, assess if you can fill a candidate's gaps in skills with training (Outcome 2.9). However, these processes do not apply to any workers listed on the Aged Care Banning Orders Register, as they must not be hired regardless of their competencies.
• identify the number and mix of skilled workers you need to provide the care and services that meets the older people’s needs (Outcome 2.8) and meets your legislative obligations. To do this, consider:
  • the number of older people you’re caring for
  • the specific needs of the people under your care. This includes their clinical needs (Outcome 5.4). It also includes their emotional, spiritual, cultural and psychological needs (Outcome 1.1).
  • the number and mix of current workers along with the skills and services they can deliver
  • support diverse workers. For example, sexual and gender diverse, culturally and linguistically diverse, and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander workers.
  • review rostering processes. Make sure these processes support flexible working for directly employed workers.

Make sure enough workers are available at times when older people need more support. For example, during mornings, bedtime and mealtimes. Also, try to maximise worker continuity (Outcome 3.2). Follow processes to:

• meet your legislative obligations. For providers delivering aged care services in a residential care home, this includes requirements for a 24/7 registered nurse on-site and care minutes responsibilities. It is important you engage with and provide information to workers on how planning and rostering will achieve or exceed these minimum requirements.
• mitigate the risk and impact of workforce shortages, absences or vacancies. Make sure:
  • you maintain relationships with aged care hiring agencies and labour hires
  • workforce needs are met on an ongoing basis. This is important when preparing for busy periods
  • you consider the use of digital platforms to meet workforce needs.
• use direct employment where possible and minimise the use of contractors such as agency workers. This can help continuity of care. Only use contractors when workers who are directly employed aren’t available. If you need contractors, aim to roster the same contractors for the older person unless the older person has asked not to. Complete competency checks in line with your policies and procedures. Properly induct and monitor the contractor (Outcome 2.9).  

Document your workforce strategy. Have key initiatives to make sure you meet workforce needs. How you document this needs to be based on how complex the organisation is and its context. For example, some organisations can build these processes into risk management systems (Outcome 2.4) and rostering processes. More complex organisations may need to build this into strategic business planning (Outcome 2.1).
 

Put in place strategies that promote a healthy and safe workforce.

When developing these strategies, consider:

• feedback mechanisms, such as worker surveys
• worker health and safety risks that you’ve identified through your risk management system (Outcome 2.4).

To find these risks, analyse the incidents recorded in your risk management system (Outcomes 2.4 and 2.5). Make sure these strategies outline how you will support a healthy and safe workforce. You can do this by completing risk assessments in situations that can cause harm to workers, such as new home environments or traumatic events.

Use risk assessments to understand:

• workers’ physical and psychological risks
• how to manage these risks on a case-by-case basis (Outcome 2.4).

Make sure you:

• put in place processes to identify and support workers in distress. For example, if they’re experiencing fatigue, bullying or harassment (Outcome 2.2a).
• complete regular checks to identify any new risks in the service environment (Outcome 4.1b). For example, risks of slips and trips. Make sure you manage these risks well.
• provide workers with guidance and training on how to respond to traumatic and emergency events and any other hazardous situations. Make sure training helps workers to manage their own health and the health of people receiving care. Make sure training meets the needs of workers (Outcome 2.9).
• match training needs to the type of service. For example, training in aged care services delivered in a home or community setting could include how to do manual tasks safely when assisting with personal care, cooking or cleaning. Make sure workers know their responsibilities to identify and report any concerns they have to the provider. The guidance for Outcomes 2.4 and 2.5 has more information on managing risks and incidents in aged care services delivered in a home or community setting.
• put in place incentives for workers to promote a safe working environment. For example, recognise quality and safe work that meets the needs of older people and workers. This can also help to make sure workers are satisfied in their role and receive the support they need. This can help minimise stuff turnover.
• put in place Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for health and safety. Include these KPIs in strategic business planning (Outcome 2.1) and performance reporting (Outcome 2.3).

Document these strategies. Include your key initiatives for making sure you meet your workers’ health and safety needs. How you document these strategies should be based on how complex the organisation is and its context. For example, some organisations can build these processes into risk management systems (Outcome 2.4) and workforce planning processes (Outcome 2.8). More complex organisations may need to build this into strategic business planning (Outcome 2.1).
 

Monitor how well the workforce strategy is working.

Regularly review your workforce strategy to make sure it works well. Look for ways to improve the workforce strategy.

To check if your workforce strategy is working well, you can review:

• older people’s aged care service documents (Outcome 3.1)
• complaints and feedback (Outcome 2.6a and 2.6b)
• incident information (Outcome 2.5).

Assess your workers’:

• qualifications, skills and competencies
• performance. You can do this through quality assurance and system reviews (Outcome 2.9).

This needs to be a key part of how you evaluate quality and care outcomes (Outcome 2.3).

If you find any issues or ways you can improve through your reviews and assessments, you need to address them. If things go wrong, be open about it. Share what went wrong with workers, older people, their supporters and others they may want to involve, such as family and carers (Outcome 2.3). Put in place strategies to mitigate the risk of things going wrong again.

The guidance on Outcome 2.3 has more information on monitoring the quality system.
 

Monitor that the workforce is healthy and safe.

Regularly review your workforce strategies to promote a healthy and safe workforce. Look for ways to improve your strategies.

To check if your workforce is healthy and safe, you can:

• ask workers if they feel supported to be healthy and safe. This includes any resources or processes they can use to support their health and safety.
• analyse risk (Outcome 2.4), incidents (Outcome 2.5), feedback and complaints (Outcome 2.6a and 2.6b) data to see if any issues are recurring. If this is the case, take action in a timely manner to reduce or prevent these issues from happening in the future.
• complete assessments or checks to make sure workers are delivering aged care services that are safe for older people, themselves and their co-workers (Outcome 2.3). If assessments identify any issues or concerns, take action in a timely manner to address these. For example:
  • the quality system may need to be modified
  • workers may need extra training so they understand how to perform their role safely.

Report your findings to the governing body (Outcome 2.3).