The number of allied health workers in home care rose dramatically between 2020 and 2023, a new report reveals.
Released this week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey shows that, last year, almost 15,000 allied health professionals and assistants were working in home care settings.
That’s just one of the findings of the latest biennial workforce survey, which provides detailed information on the size, composition and characteristics of the aged care workforce in Australia.
In all, more than a quarter-of-million people were working in the home care sector in 2023 – 170,000 staff employed in the Home Care Packages Program (up from 80,340 in 2020) and 97,900 staff employed through the Commonwealth Home Support Program (up from 76,096 in 2020) – a total of 267,900 home care workers.
Of those 170,000 staff in HCPP during 2023, 128,400 were employed in direct care roles. Drilling into the stats, the AIHW found there was an estimated:
- 100 nurse practitioners
- 5,500 registered nurses
- 1,700 enrolled nurse
- 114,000 personal care workers
- 7,100 allied health professionals and assistants – an increase of 90 per cent from 2020.
Fulltime equivalent positions involving nursing and personal care staff also increased dramatically since the last worker survey in 2020 – up from 24,900 to 43,000 last year.
From 2020 to 2023, the proportion of permanent part-time nursing positions in HCPP decreased from 51 per cent to 42 per cent, and from 51 per cent to 37 per cent for PCWs.
However, the proportion of permanent fulltime nursing positions in HCPP increased from 18 per cent to 22 per cent, and from 3 per cent to 6 per cent for PCWs.
The number of casual/fixed term positions rose the most during the period – from 3 per cent to 22 per cent for nursing staff and from 8 per cent to 40 per cent for PCWs.
Commonwealth Home Support Program
Of the 97,900 people working in CHSP in 2023, 63,149 were employed in direct care roles:
- an estimated 49 nurse practitioners
- 4,100 RNs
- 1,200 ENs
- 50,000 PCWs
- 7,800 allied health professionals and assistants – an increase of 60 per cent from 2020.
FTE positions involving nursing and personal care staff also increased from 19,060 in 2020 to 22,500 in 2023.
From 2020 to 2023, the proportion of permanent part-time positions in CHSP decreased from 65 per cent to 54 per cent for nursing staff and from 71 per cent to 34 per cent for personal care workers.
The proportion of permanent full-time positions in CHSP, meanwhile, increased from 16 per cent to 24 per cent for nursing staff and from 2 per cent to 6 per cent for personal care workers. As with HCPP, there was a dramatic shift in the proportion of casual/fixed-term positions in CHSP increasing from 1 per cent to 19 per cent for nursing staff and from 4 per cent to 52 per cent for personal care workers.
The data was comprised from 360 HCPP services and 321 CHSP services.
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This article references the government report stating Allied Health worked in DIRECT care roles. Yet Allied Health were not considered direct care workers in the Government aged care workers pay rises decision