The Workforce Skills Strategy Key Findings Webinar
Thursday 7th September
10am–11am
The Association of Welfare Children's Agency (ACWA) invites stakeholders from across Australia and in various sectors to learn about the NSW Child and Family Workforce Skills Strategy (WSS) outcomes. As the WSS outcomes are similar to many other for-purpose jurisdictions both in NSW and nationally, ACWA wants to engage on a national level with others exploring common workforce issues to collaborate on workforce solutions.
Webinar Purpose:
- Present information on results of the WSS outcomes and findings
- Based on the findings, offers strategies for better supporting and improving our child and family workforce
- Hear from others about similar work in other jurisdictions so we can share and build on existing workforce development initiatives in Australia
- Have a conversation about a way ahead based on these and other findings.
Webinar Date: Thursday 7 September at 10am–11am
Audience: NSW and national sector practice, HR and organisational leaders as well as child and family Peaks across jurisdictions.
Access the webinar agenda here.
Click here for the webinar slide presentation.
The Workforce Skills Strategy
A Stakeholder Roundtable was held on Monday 24 July 2023 with stakeholders across the Child and Family Sector to:
- Learn about the WSS outcomes
- Listen to stakeholders’ ideas on ways to improve sector workforce development
- Prioritise, discuss, and plan ways to meet priority needs
- Individuals commit to actively contributing to priority actions through working groups
- Identify leaders for priority actions
- Determine next steps
Working groups at the Stakeholder Roundtable brainstormed ideas on ways to meet WSS themes identifying quick wins, along with actions that can be implemented in 3 months, 6 months and 2 years +.
The working group outcomes can be found here
About the Workforce Skills Strategy
Why was the WSS developed?
Recent reforms in the child and family sector has led to a position where practitioners are not consistently acquiring the required skills and knowledge needed to perform their role. Services needed are a more integrated child and family workforce strategy providing greater clarity on the core skills, knowledge and attributes needed across the sector. Current workforce issues make it harder to attract and retain a skilled workforce.
Who developed the WSS?
The Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA) developed a consortium that includes the Research Centre for Children and Families at the University of Sydney, partnering with Curijo, the Parenting Research Centre and Charles Sturt University to develop a Child and Family Workforce Skills Strategy. It provides a framework for greater consistency in the type and quality of training offered to practitioners with content aligned to diverse service requirements.
What is the WSS purpose?
There are three outcomes we sought:
- Identify the knowledge and skills needed for key roles in the NSW child and family welfare sector (including management and frontline worker roles) and document these into a Workforce Skills Blueprint.
- Recommend evidence informed training delivery modes to meet required skills.
- Develop a future governance and operating model that will support ongoing review of workforce skills and training needs and related adjustments to the strategy, and recommendations for the future operations of this model.
We also wanted to identify skills that are essential for practitioners within the child and family services sector and approaches to training that prioritise efficiency and portability across the sector.
When was the WSS developed?
ACWA released a Briefing Paper in September 2021 outlining the needs of the sector, the consortia conducted researched, consultations from mid 2022 to December 2022 with the draft Child and Family Workforce Skills Strategy delivered to ACWA in May 2023.
How was the WSS developed?
Sector discussions occurred with representatives from 10 mainstream organisations with 65 people registering their interest. Consultations were held with Aboriginal and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse organisations in September and October 2022.
A workforce survey targeted to management roles was conducted with 83 responses from government, non-government, and other types of organisations. Eight of the respondents had a direct practice role.
Focus groups and individual interviews with families and young people who had experienced Permanency Support Program (PSP), Intensive Therapeutic Care (ITC) and Targeted Early Intervention (TEI) were held in October–November 2022. They shared their views of the practitioner skills and attributes they value and find helpful based on experiences of engaging with workers and agencies.
NSW organisations delivering the PSP, ITC and TEI programs were also invited to submit their position descriptions and recruitment criteria so areas of commonality and difference could be identified. Consultations were also held with the sector to explore current and future workforce training requirements. A workplace survey asked practitioners their views of professional development needs and access to training and preferred training modes.
Additionally, information was gathered from an array of sources such as peer reviewed and grey literature to inform the WSS recommendations.
For information about the WSS, please read the Child and Family WSS White Paper and/or the Child and Family WSS Executive Summary.
What are the key findings of the WSS?
Key themes and recommendations for action
- Establish a Steering Committee, chaired by ACWA, to lead the implementation of the strategy and key action areas.
- Invite membership from key government, peak organisations, industry, and unions representing the workforce.
- Set out the responsibilities, timeframes, and performance indicators for the implementation of the action areas identified as priorities by the sector.
- Form working parties as needed to progress the initiatives under the priority action areas.
Click here to download the summary.
- Draw together key stakeholders to examine opportunities for enhanced alignment across the NSW tertiary, vocational, government and private training providers for the child and family sector.
- Engage the child and family and education sectors in discussion on how to deliver the skills and competency requirements for the workforce.
- Advocate as an industry for improved consistency and clarity for the comparison of different courses of study and professional experience.
- Consider strategies to ensure staff have the capacity to attend and meaningfully engage in training, such as employing relief staff and reducing workloads.
- Provide pathways for people from Aboriginal or culturally diverse backgrounds to enter the workforce and be supported to gain professional qualifications.
- Foster pathways for career progression and opportunities for post-graduate qualification.
Click here to download the summary.
- Develop clear, consistent recruitment messages, including realistic job profiles.
- Promote targeted recruitment campaigns for Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities.
- Consider recruitment strategies to address challenges attracting staff to regional and remote areas.
- Pursue consistency across job titles, descriptions, and responsibilities to simplify pathways for emerging professionals.
- Prepare standardised position descriptions for common roles that reflect core tasks and responsibilities.
- Adopt agreed upon protocols and approaches to workforce induction and on-boarding.
Click here to download the summary.
- Adopt a consistent range of skills and capabilities for inclusion in position descriptions across the child and family sector.
- Identify the personal attributes needed for roles such as: active listening, empathy, respectful communications, and cultural competence.
- Prepare standardised position descriptions for common roles that reflect core tasks and responsibilities.
Click here to download the summary.
- Proactively prevent worker burnout by supporting staff to maintain professional boundaries, limit workload and engage in self-care.
- Encourage reflective practice to assist staff to develop self-awareness and critical evaluation of practice.
- Promote the value of supervision, coaching, and mentoring for staff development and competency. This may include recommendations for monitoring the quality and effectiveness of coaching and supervision models.
- Foster self-care, through staff access to supervision, mentoring and other supports to lessen the impact of work-related trauma.
Click here to download the summary.
- Engage with a diverse range of cultural groups about their needs and preferences and how these might be operationalised.
- Develop clear guidelines for cultural sensitivity and safety across all levels of organisations.
- Foster a workplace that values diversity and the lived experience of staff and families.
- Promote cultural supervision as an experiential, hands-on learning process that contributes to the development of employee practice competencies.
- Provide mentoring, coaching, or supervision for Aboriginal practitioners that is culturally safe, preferably delivered by an Aboriginal person.
Click here to download the summary.
Recommendations
- Develop leadership pathways and casework mentorships for experienced staff.
- Trial and evaluate team-based approaches to complex casework.
- Introduce and evaluate peer support groups for family members.
- Implement and monitor staff self care activities across agencies.
- Embed therapeutic practice to respond appropriately to children, carers and families impacted by intergenerational trauma.
- Create opportunities for caseworkers to interact with young people and family members who have lived experiences of the child protection and out-of-home care system.
Click here to download the summary.