Australia's national Aged Care Workforce Strategy provides a comprehensive framework for building a sustainable, skilled, and valued aged care workforce. Developed in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the strategy outlines 14 strategic actions that address the root causes of workforce challenges in the sector.
Understanding these actions is important for providers, workers, and policymakers alike. Here is a breakdown of each strategic action and what it means in practice.
Action 1: Reframe Aged Care as a Career of Choice
The strategy recognises that aged care is often perceived as a last resort rather than a deliberate career choice. This action focuses on changing the narrative through public awareness campaigns, school engagement programs, and showcasing the rewarding aspects of aged care work. The goal is to attract a new generation of workers who see aged care as a professional, fulfilling career.
Action 2: Develop a National Recruitment Strategy
A coordinated national approach to recruitment is needed to address structural workforce shortages. This includes targeted campaigns for hard-to-fill roles (particularly registered nurses in regional areas), streamlined migration pathways for international workers, and partnerships with education providers to create a pipeline of qualified graduates.
Action 3: Improve Workforce Planning and Data
Good decisions require good data. This action calls for improved workforce data collection and analysis to better understand supply and demand, skill gaps, and workforce trends. Better data enables more targeted interventions and helps providers plan more effectively.
Action 4: Strengthen Training and Education
The quality of aged care depends on the quality of training. This action focuses on reviewing and updating vocational education and training (VET) qualifications for personal care workers, strengthening clinical placements in aged care for nursing students, and ensuring that training content reflects contemporary care standards and practices.
Action 5: Create Career Pathways
Many aged care workers feel trapped in entry-level roles with no clear path forward. This action promotes the development of structured career pathways — from PCA to enrolled nurse to registered nurse, and from frontline roles to clinical leadership, education, and management positions. Clear pathways improve retention and attract higher-calibre candidates.
Action 6: Improve Pay and Conditions
The strategy acknowledges that pay in aged care has historically been lower than in comparable sectors. This action supports fair pay outcomes through industrial processes, improved leave entitlements, and better working conditions. The Fair Work Commission's work value case, which delivered significant pay increases for aged care workers, is a direct outcome of this strategic direction.
Action 7: Build Leadership Capability
Strong leadership at every level — from clinical nurse managers to facility CEOs — is essential for a well-functioning aged care system. This action promotes investment in leadership development programs, mentoring frameworks, and succession planning within aged care organisations.
Action 8: Support Worker Wellbeing
Aged care work is physically and emotionally demanding. High rates of burnout, injury, and psychological harm undermine workforce sustainability. This action calls for better workplace health and safety practices, access to mental health support, manageable workloads, and a culture that prioritises worker wellbeing.
Action 9: Strengthen Regulation and Standards
The strategy supports stronger regulatory oversight of workforce quality, including worker screening, professional registration requirements, and minimum staffing standards. The introduction of mandated care minutes and the new aged care worker screening scheme are practical implementations of this action.
Action 10: Harness Technology
Technology can support the aged care workforce by reducing administrative burden, improving care coordination, and enabling new models of care delivery. This action promotes investment in digital infrastructure, training in digital skills, and the adoption of technologies such as electronic medication management, wearable monitoring, and telehealth.
Action 11: Promote Diversity and Inclusion
Australia's aged care workforce is culturally diverse, and the people receiving care are equally varied. This action promotes cultural competence training, inclusive workplace practices, and strategies to attract and retain workers from diverse backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Action 12: Strengthen Voluntary Workforce
Volunteers play a valuable role in aged care, providing companionship, activity support, and community connection. This action focuses on recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers, and ensuring that they are integrated into the care team in a meaningful way.
Action 13: Improve Workforce Governance
Effective governance at the organisational level is essential for workforce quality and sustainability. This action promotes good governance practices, including clear accountability structures, transparent reporting, and board-level oversight of workforce strategy and culture.
Action 14: Build Sector Collaboration
No single organisation can solve the aged care workforce challenge alone. This action promotes collaboration between providers, government, unions, education providers, and professional associations to address shared challenges and implement coordinated solutions. Industry-wide forums, data sharing, and joint advocacy are key mechanisms.
What These Actions Mean in Practice
The 14 strategic actions are not abstract policy statements — they have tangible implications for everyone in the aged care sector:
- For providers: Invest in training, pay competitive wages, develop career pathways for your staff, and engage with workforce planning data. Providers who treat workforce strategy as a core business function — not an afterthought — will be better positioned to meet mandated care minutes, pass regulatory scrutiny, and deliver quality care.
- For workers: Take advantage of training and development opportunities, explore career pathways, and seek employers and agencies that invest in their staff. The strategic direction of the sector favours workers who are qualified, professional, and committed to ongoing development.
- For agencies: Agencies that invest in training (such as Barton Care's Learn2Care program), provide consistent staffing through facility-focused models, and support worker wellbeing are aligned with the strategic direction of the sector. Agencies that operate purely on a transactional basis will increasingly struggle to meet the expectations of facilities and regulators.
The aged care workforce strategy is ambitious, and its success depends on sustained commitment from all stakeholders. But the direction is clear: Australia needs more aged care workers, and it needs to value, train, and retain them better than it has in the past.
Barton Care is committed to the principles of the national workforce strategy. We invest in training, support worker wellbeing, and provide a facility-focused model that benefits both workers and the facilities they serve. Contact us to learn more, or explore career opportunities.
