Aged care providers across Australia know firsthand the impact of the ongoing workforce shortages. Some aged care homes are working below capacity, meaning seniors needing care have no option but to remain in hospitals for extended periods. Overcoming this staffing gap is a collaborative effort across the sector.

As part of our Home Care Staffing Support (HCSS) initiative in NSW and the ACT, we’ve partnered with Hireup Australia’s largest NDIS-registered platform of support workers. Together, we’re working on cost-effective and flexible ways to connect more aged care providers with qualified care workers.

Focus Care Australia’s Service Operations Manager, Maria Paul recently shared insights into the benefits of the HCSS. She highlighted how key challenges are being solved to get more workers into jobs to care for Australia’s seniors.

Impact in action

“Focus Care provides in-home aged care, dementia care and disability support. We’ve experienced many different recruitment support programs across many regions. SSI and Hireup have been the ones that have made us the most hopeful by being the most effective solution for us,” Maria said.

She continued, “We’re a medium-sized company and passion is one of our biggest drivers – we thrive off it and promote that! The program has allowed us to be very responsive and given us the ability to maintain the consistency of our support to clients.”

Since joining the HCSS in June 2023, Focus Care has worked with approximately 30 different support workers, each helping to address their resourcing needs and working closely with case managers and Focus Care’s head office.

“Resourcing has been the biggest benefit for us. Our focus is always on building quality services, especially in terms of supporting our workforce as they carry out community care,” Maria said.

“Hireup makes that so much easier to do and has ensured our existing workforce isn’t spread too thin.”

“There are also financial benefits. SSI allows us to submit a 50 per cent rebate for the cost of paying Hireup support workers and with the money we’re saving, we can allocate more into helping both the people we support and our workers,” she added.

In a broader sense, the collaboration has given Focus Care a wider range of diverse expertise and personalities who can support clients. It has improved the quality of care that seniors receive and ensured that cultural contexts are considered when support workers provide aged care services.

Maria explained, “Almost 1,000 hours have been covered over the space of a few months. To us, that’s an unbelievable amount. If you think of it this way: without that workforce, that would be 1,000 hours where elderly people in our community would have gone without the fundamental care they need.”

In tandem with the Home Care Workforce Support Program (HCWSP), the HCSS has given aged care providers and workers a greater degree of flexibility in the hiring process and prompt job placement. The HCWSP ensures that all workers are trained and job-ready, while the HCSS pairs workers with providers in need of staff, both directly addressing staff shortages.

“Giving us options or solutions to tackle workforce challenges confidently – unbeatable! That’s what the HCSS has done, it’s a great partnership,” Maria said proudly.

How it works

As part of the government-funded HCWSP program, the HCSS provides flexible resourcing options for eligible Aged Care Providers by giving them access to the thousands of care workers seeking work via the Hireup platform.

SSI provides eligible aged care providers with a subsidy to cover 50% of the wages of casual workers hired through the Hireup initiative.

At the core, the initiative creates more opportunities and shifts for support workers. The knock-on effect is a job-ready pool of carers available to look after senior Australians.

Since partnering with Hireup in March 2023, we’ve seen both the HCWSP and HCSS continue to grow and actively contribute to the industry’s workforce shortage.

Kerry took a leap into home care after a rewarding 25-year career in community pharmacy, driven by her unwavering compassion for helping seniors.

Having already spent much of her career in the pharmacy assisting older people, home care seemed a perfect fit.

Looking back on her transition, Kerry said the decision to join SSI’s Home Care Workforce Support Program was easy and she felt supported every step of the way.

“It took me about a month from the time I contacted SSI to starting my job. They made it simple and were very helpful. The staff called me every few days to see what was happening,” she said.

The transition from a strict five-day workweek in pharmacy to choosing her own work hours at Catholic Healthcare was ideal for Kerry. She liked to do other things three days a week, and on those days she would begin work at one o’clock, which suited her lifestyle. Gradually Kerry shifted back to full-time work as she enjoyed her new role helping the elderly so much.

In addition to embracing flexibility, one of the most rewarding aspects of Kerry’s work is the social connection she provides to those she cares for. Many elderly individuals do not get the opportunity to interact with others on a regular basis.

“Just by helping them to continue to live at home, where they feel most comfortable, I can brighten their day with my visits,” she reflected.

Kerry also recognised that while many elderly individuals had given so much to others throughout their lives, they now needed assistance to keep their independence.

“They’ve worked hard all their life and it’s nice to give back,” said Kerry.

For these seniors, Kerry’s visits aren’t just about chores; they are a chance to share stories, make connections and even enjoy a simple cup of tea together.

She enjoys getting to know the seniors she cares for and finding out what they’re interested in.

“By introducing their interests back to them, it gives them a purpose,” she noted.

One of the seniors Kerry supports once revealed that his father used to teach budgies to whistle. Because he lived alone, she seized the opportunity to help him get a budgie of his own.

“When I recently visited him, he told me, ‘I’m so happy I got a budgie. It’s made me so happy. I wouldn’t give him away for anything’,” she recalled.

Prior to his new colourful companion, Kerry’s client rarely got out of bed. Having a sense of purpose and something to care for every day has, in her words, ‘made a big difference’.

Watch Kerry’s full story here.

Learn how SSI’s Home Care Workforce Support Program can help you to build a meaningful care career here.

After 13 years working in retail, Jenny had an operation that prompted her to move into home care, a career she had often considered but hadn’t had the opportunity to explore.

Planning her career change, Jenny discovered the Home Care Workforce Support Program (HCWSP), an SSI-supported program aimed to support, skill and empower home care workers to deliver safe, high-quality care for seniors in Australia.

Having always enjoyed spending time with her mother and her mother’s friends, Jenny decided to register onto the program after seeing an ad online. Within a month, SSI had supported Jenny in securing three potential roles in home care – she chose the one closest to her and joined aged care service provider Our Lady of Consolation.

Eleven months into role, Jenny wished she had made the switch years earlier.

“What I enjoy about my role is putting a smile on the faces of my clients,” Jenny said.

“Just knowing I’m helping my clients continue to live at home, where they feel most comfortable, is very rewarding to me.”

Jenny added, “I was surprised how lonely older people are in the community. Some seniors have never been married. Some have no children. Some have lost their partner, so they have no one to help them.”

Home care is not an accessible option for many seniors, as Australia grapples with talent shortages affecting the home care sector. Reports estimate the nation will need 110,000 more home care workers in the next 10 years – a trend influenced, in part, by seniors’ growing preference to stay at home.

“You don’t realise how much seniors need our support until you go out and work with them,” Jenny said.

“There is this lady I take shopping. She just loves to get out, and although her movement is very slow, just going to the shops and having a coffee and a lemon tart makes her day.”

For Jenny, her role as a home care worker is never the same. Sometimes it can involve doing light housework, taking seniors to doctor’s appointments, preparing a meal or just making a cuppa and having a chat.

“For some clients, we are the only people they see, so sitting to talk to them brightens their day.”

Jenny is interested in building a career in home care, so she’s taken on one of the development initiatives offered by the Home Care Workforce Support Program and is currently completing a Certificate III in Individual Support.

“I’m doing my Certificate III by correspondence, which suits me perfectly because I can study and work at the same time,” Jenny explained.

“SSI has been such a great support for me. Not only did they help me to secure a job in the first place but also, they continue to provide ongoing upskilling and growth support through my studies.”

SSI aims to boost the care workforce with 4,400 new support workers in NSW and the ACT by mid-2024 through its delivery of the Home Care Workforce Support Program.

The program is free and open to people with an empathetic nature who seek a rewarding, long-term and meaningful career caring for Australia’s seniors.