Interim Evaluation of the Northern Territory Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Aged Care Workforce Development Projects - Final Report
8: Evaluation Element 5: The Partnership Approach
8.1 Overview and Summary
As highlighted in previous sections, the three Workforce Development Projects interlink to develop a skilled and stable workforce that provides quality care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander older people and people with a disability.Prior to the commencement of the training project DoHA was aware that the large majority of the staff in services did not have industry recognised qualifications. DoHA was also aware of the cost of sending trainers out to remote communities to provide training. To address this, DoHA entered into a partnership with NT Department of Health and Families (NTDHF), formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The aim of the partnership approach was to enable RTOs to train all of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff employed in the eligible aged care services, not just those who had been employed through changes to CDEP arrangements. This approach created equal access to training for the workforce. It also reduced the need to double up on the provision of aged care training in remote communities.
Many of the eligible aged care services are small and in remote locations with under 10 staff. This would mean that RTOs may send trainers to remote locations with limited numbers of staff eligible to attend the training. With community development and workforce development principles in mind and to achieve economies of scale DoHA also worked with the RTOs to extend participation in training to other people in the community.. This included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community workers employed in related areas of community services eg childcare and carers who were providing care for family members but were not employed. On other occasions service coordinators included community members in the training who had an interest in working in aged care in the future.
The whole of community approach is a strategy implemented to further promote the:
- Recruitment of local workers into aged care where appropriate
- Provision of training to family carers to improve the quality of care, and
- Provision of training to other community members where skills are transferrable in other sectors (eg. first aid, food hygiene).
Summary of findings
The partnership approach between DoHA and the NT Department of Health and Families was successful in extending participation in the Workforce Development Projects; however, a number of improvements are recommended to further enhance the approach. These include:- Clarify the NT Training Project guidelines and community member requirements for accessing training, giving consideration to the appropriateness of outside attendance in situations that may disrupt the work of the service
- Increase awareness of and promote the NT Training Project more broadly within communities
- Further utilise local knowledge to support the Project.
8.2 Data And Discussion
8.2.1 Feedback regarding the approach
The NTDHF had representation on the DoHA evaluation committee for selection of RTOs to deliver training. In the MOU it was agreed that DoHA would manage the funding agreements with the RTOs and provided NTDHF with the RTO reports at the end of each reporting period. These reports included the future training schedule for the RTOs and lists of competencies that had been delivered to each service. NTDHF were invited to attend and provide input and presentations at all of the workshops held for the projects. Representatives attended and presented at the first stakeholder meeting in Darwin in February 2009 and the RTO meeting in Darwin in February 2010.NT Department of Health and Families feedback
Two representatives from NTDHF were consulted regarding the partnership approach. Both representatives considered that the approach has been generally successful; however, one representative suggested that there had not been enough information on how the approach was going to be implemented.With regard to the whole of community approach to training, both representatives reported that they were aware of some communities where training was provided to other members of the community as well as aged care workers. Both reported that there had been some confusion regarding who could participate in training, for example whether non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could attend.
It was agreed that the aim of the approach was worth pursuing and very positive; however one representative suggested that the idea needed to be presented clearly to communities as training that could be useful ‘anywhere in the community’. Similarly, both representatives agreed that the role of the NT government in implementing the strategy had not been made clear, and that their local knowledge had been under-utilised by DoHA.
Both representatives agreed that the main strength of the whole of community approach to training was to ‘bring education to the communities, and give people the choice to take up training’. Further to this, one representative suggested that given the transient and high attrition rate in aged care in remote areas – this approach not only enabled people to learn skills that could help them anywhere in the community, but it was also an effective way to provide training to future aged care workers.
Both representatives suggested that a fundamental weakness of the training was that not enough people were aware of it, or had a clear understanding of who was eligible for training. It was also suggested that some communities were not given a choice with regards to when training would take place, which may have impacted on participation rates due to the training taking place when staff and other members of the community were not available due to other community business or wet season.
One representative reported that there were difficulties with an RTO not providing explicit information about what would be delivered, making it difficult for communities to plan for other members of the community to attend specific days of training which were of interest or relevance. There were also concerns that some RTOs may not have been tailoring training to adequately accommodate communities where literacy levels were very low and as a result, interest in training diminished.
Improvements suggested by the representatives regarding the Projects included:
- Provide clear information regarding who can access training and for what purpose
- Utilise the NT government officers and staff to facilitate the dissemination of information
- "NT Government Representative: Make better use of things like the local radio stations, NITV etc, to get the word out and make it clearer and give it a more positive slant. Sell it as something that is FOR ALL. Coordinators should not be made responsible for drumming up interest, especially when it is not clear who can do the training."
- RTO’s need to be more transparent and flexible regarding training to be delivered and how it is going to be delivered.
- "NT Government Representative: The whole initiative should be marketed and branded so that everyone knows who is connected with the partnership. Communities get RTO’s hassling them all the time saying they have funding to deliver training. It gets very confusion."
RTO feedback
With respect to the provision of whole of community training, all RTOs were able to note three communities each in which they were aware of training that included other members of the community. RTOs were asked to rate the success and overall value of the whole of community approach. Responses were rated between one to five, with one being very poor and five being excellent. The table below demonstrates the RTOs hold a diverse range of views about the approach.Whole of Community Involvement Approach | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success of Projects in achieving aims |  | 50% | 25% | 25% | |
| Value of other workers having access to training | | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
- The participation rate of other community members depends on how proactive the service coordinator is (1 RTO)
- It may be worthwhile to work more closely with agencies such as Job Services Australia to identify people who want to do training (1)
- Overall, the idea of training for the whole of community is very good, given that many people tend to move around the community to different areas and positions. However, there have been issues with aged care workers feeling intimidated by other community members, and in some instances, other community members dominating the training session (1)
- Training people at different levels of learning had been a challenge, and may be overcome by splitting training into smaller groups (1), and
- Delivering on-the-job training is difficult where other members of the community are involved, for example in a kitchen environment where it can be disruptive to service delivery. The appropriateness of inviting other community members to participate in training in these situations needs to be considered.
- "RTO: There is an expectation that a job will automatically come out of it. It needs to be made very clear why other people from the community may want to participate."
- Clarify the NT Training Project guidelines and community member requirements for accessing training giving consideration to the appropriateness of outside attendance in situations that may disrupt the work of the service
- Increase awareness of and promote the NT Training Project and aged care more broadly, and
- Further utilise local knowledge to support the Project.