Half of Australia’s aged care workforce plan to quit by 2026: report

Up to 139,000 aged care workers intend to leave the industry within the next three years according to a new workforce survey, with many staff holding serious doubts about incoming reform.

The CompliSpace Aged Care Workforce Report was published on Monday and surveyed 1110 staff from 300 aged care services across Australia.

It found the overwhelming majority of workers cited stress as a main reason to quit, with 89 per cent agreeing they would only stay because of their relationships with residents and families.

Aged and Community Care Providers Association policy general manager Tim Hicks said the sector was under "enormous pressure" due to an estimated billion dollar deficit in residential care funding.

"Finding workers to meet the new staffing targets to provide for the required 45% increase in minutes of care by a registered nurse is going to be impossible for many services," he said.

“We need a plan for the immediate short term that recognises many providers will fall short of this target even if all reasonable steps are taken.

"We don’t want managers fearing that they will be punished because the staff they need just aren’t there."

In addition to feeling stress from low pay and poor conditions, most staff said they did not believe incoming aged care reforms could be realistically implemented.

One of the greatest concerns was around the introduction of a mandatory 200 minutes of personalised care per resident per day, set to come into force in 2023.

Around 57 per cent of aged care workers said the new staffing targets would be "impossible" to achieve, with a staggering 79 per cent having no confidence that the reforms would improve outcomes for residents.

When asked about the report's findings on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Labor was following the "necessary" recommendations of the royal commission.

"It's not surprising at all that aged care workers who are under enormous pressure are concerned. We know that was well documented by the royal commission," he told reporters.

Last month, reforms responding to the recommendations from the aged care royal commission became the first to pass federal parliament under the new government.

This included a new funding model and updated transparency and accountability requirements for providers.

The government has also pledged to fund a potential pay rise for 200,000 residential and home care workers, in an ongoing case put forward by unions to the Fair Work Commission.

Over half of staff surveyed said that a pay rise would be enough to keep them in the industry.

“Despite their tireless efforts, workers cannot provide aged care residents with the quality of care they need and deserve. There are simply not enough staff," the report concluded.

"Many fear that the situation will only worsen, with low pay driving existing workers out of the industry while making it unattractive to potential new workers, particularly in the face of the rising cost of living and low unemployment."

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