Home Care: what you don’t read about
It is commonplace in mainstream media to read about the demand and supply of government subsidised home care packages. It is unheard of to read about what is happening with the wages of those who provide the home care services. It is also unheard of to read about what is happening with the education and training of those employees.
Figures on numbers of packages feature frequently in media stories, both print and electronic media. Waiting list numbers and the increases in numbers of packages released by the federal government are usually cited. Stories usually include individual elder’s adverse experience with waiting for home care and sometimes their experience of particular services. There is general public awareness of these problems and also of the allegedly excessive management and administration fees.
These familiar stories invariably mention, just briefly, the crucial importance of improving wages and training for the home care workforce. But there are no comparable stories about wages or training even though these aspects are universally recognised as just as important for high quality care as prompt access to a package.
Information about packages often comes media releases by the Minister for Aged Care Services, Senator Colbeck. He has no jurisdiction on wages however. Here the government position is dealt with by the Minister for Industrial Relations, Senator Michaela Cash, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any comment from her about the aged care industry wage case currently before the Fair Work Commission. There is no general awareness of the claim for a 25 per cent increase lodged by the nurses’ union (ANMF), the Health Services Union and the United Workers Union which is inching its way towards arbitration.
Similarly with the nature of training for the main occupational group, personal carers. Presumably training is the responsibility of the Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, Stuart Robert. Again there are no media releases from this source specific to aged care. And so no public awareness of the big picture – the numbers being trained relative to projected demand, the organisations which are training this workforce and the nature of the skills and knowledge they are acquiring.
During this year’s election campaign there will be some pressure on politicians to do more about home care packages but there won’t be the same pressure to do something about wages, such as formally endorsing an increase before the Fair Work Commission, or about training, such as moving from traineeships to more rigorous apprenticeships. Until there is equal pressure on all three aspects – access to packages, wages and training – the problems plaguing home care will remain.
Carol Williams
18 January 2022