About the Home Care Workforce Support Program

We are funding 6 organisations to help aged care providers attract, train and retain new and existing workers in home care.

Why it is important

This program develops a skilled home care workforce to help older people remain independent and live at home. This allows people to access safe, high-quality home care services where and when they need them.

Goals

The funded organisations will help home care providers to:

  • attract and recruit new personal care workers (PCWs) to the sector
  • support new PCWs to complete high-quality training
  • upskill the existing workforce.

From 1 June 2023, they will also provide support to:

  • Commonwealth Home Support Programme providers
  • residential aged care providers in rural and regional areas (Modified Monash categories 3 to 7).

Extending support to these providers will help add to the number of PCWs across the care and support sector, especially in aged care. This means that older people can receive the care and support they need. It also means that more PCWs can receive support and training to provide high quality care.

Meeting our goals

The funded organisations are running a range of activities to meet the program goals.

To recruit new PCWs to the sector, they are:

  • raising awareness of career opportunities in the sector
  • screening potential workers for the right skills and attributes.

To help new and existing PCWs complete high-quality training, they are:

  • facilitating access to training subsidies
  • supporting high-quality work placement opportunities in home care settings or combined home and residential care settings.

From 1 June 2023, this program is also funding organisations to:

  • identify specific barriers to PCWs entering or staying in the sector
  • use innovative ideas to reduce these barriers
  • provide incentive payments to students who complete unpaid work placements and staff who complete exit surveys.

Related topics

Contact

Aged care workforce programs contact

Contact the aged care workforce programs team for aged care program enquiries.
Date last updated:

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