Allied Health Insights Vol.3 No.7: Should We Be Regulating The Disability Workforce?
In this edition of Allied Health Insights
- Our guest author is HealthWork Solutions General Manager Kelli Rixon. Kelli looks at how a self-certification framework for the disability workforce can protect people with disabilities, without eroding participant choice.Background: The Australian aged care and disability support workforce—500,000 strong, with 280,000 identifying as personal care and support workers—is collectively probably the largest workforce and the fastest growing workforce to receive public funding, yet lacks the oversight afforded to other workforces that work with vulnerable populations, such as regulation.
The 2021 and 2023 Royal Commissions focusing on Aged Care and Disability, along with the NDIS Review, recommended mandatory registration for the aged care and disability support workforces. Additionally, the NDIS review recommended “a graduated risk-proportionate regulatory model, as well as a new provider risk framework, to improve the visibility and regulation of NDIS providers and workers.”
While registration is designed to enhance public safety by setting higher occupational standards, some disability advocacy and service user groups have been vocal in their resistance to worker registration on the basis that they perceive it will erode the options for self-management and personalised arrangements.
At the heart of this is the concern is that mandatory registration will reduce the pool of workers and therefore their choice of provider. While these concerns are not unfounded, Kelli explains how certification can work alongside mandatory registration to improve safety and quality of services—quickly—while benefiting service users, employers, workers and government in several other ways, including enhancing (rather than eroding) service user choice of provider.
- Our sister company The Allied Health Academy is pleased to invite you to free introductory webinars about its upcoming programs:
- RESCHEDULED – Empowering Allied Health Entrepreneurs (intro webinar 27 March 6:00-7:00PM AEDT)—an eight-week online program designed to bridge the gap between clinical expertise and business acumen, helping you create a profitable service delivery model that empowers you to do more of the work that matters to you. This event has been rescheduled due to international interest.
- Board Bootcamp (intro webinar 27 March 2:00PM-3:00PM AEDT)a specialised online program, run over 16 weeks, which will equip you with the essential knowledge and skills to implement effective governance practices and drive value creation.
