Australia needs an essential skills visa to fix the aged-care worker shortage

Australia's aged care labour agreements are failing to address critical workforce shortages and should be replaced with a new visa program, a new CEDA report has found. 

The recent aged care Senate inquiry confirmed there are still significant levels of unmet demand for care, and this is only set to grow.  

Duty of care: How to fix the aged care worker shortage, finds just 2426 temporary migrants were sponsored under all labour agreements in the sector at the end of June – that’s less than one per cent of all personal care workers in aged care. 

"The Federal Government said it would investigate an essential skills pathway for critical sectors like aged care in its 2023 Migration Strategy, but there has been little progress so far on this front,” CEDA Chief Executive Melinda Cilento said.  

“With sweeping changes coming to aged care under new reforms starting next month, we cannot provide the quality and quantity of care that older Australians deserve without taking more action on workforce shortages.  

“In 2021, we found Australia needs at least 400,000 additional workers across residential and in-home aged care by 2050. There has not been any change to this trajectory. 

“Demand for care and carers will continue to grow as Australia’s population ages. 

“The labour agreement approach is not working to fix the shortage and is not a substitute for an essential skills visa pathway.” 

Aged care labour agreements were meant to help bring in qualified workers from overseas, but 90 per cent of visas under the scheme are going to migrants already in Australia. 

"Aged care providers are using the agreement to retain existing staff rather than expand the workforce,” Ms Cilento said.  

The report shows protracted negotiations, inconsistent processes across states and high visa costs are deterring providers from using the agreements. 

Most temporary migrants in the sector currently are on student, partner or working holiday visas. Bringing in qualified workers through direct pathways would support the delivery of high-quality care. 

"We need to pull all levers to grow the care workforce, including a streamlined migration pathway," Ms Cilento said. 

“With the Government’s aged care reforms aiming to increase the quality and quantity of care for older Australians, we can't afford further delays." 

The Government should introduce an essential skills visa that would allow all aged care providers to sponsor workers in both residential and in-home care without the complex negotiations currently required.  

This would be accompanied by an online matching system to connect qualified workers overseas with Australian employers. 

The visa would target the same occupations as the labour agreement – aged and disability carers, personal care assistants and nursing support workers – but through a direct, industry-wide process. 

As Australia’s population ages, more people will require aged care. We estimate around 2.5 million people aged 65 and over will need some form of care by 2050, up from 1.5 million now.  

“Migration must complement, not replace, efforts to build the Australian aged care workforce through better pay, conditions and training,” Ms Cilento said. 

“Providers need to increase training of both new and existing staff and invest in new technology and innovation.  

“Given the magnitude of the challenge, however, the Australian workforce alone will not be nearly enough to reverse the shortage.”  

CEDA's recommendations include: 

• Introduce an essential skills visa for aged care workers as a priority;
• Abolish labour market testing for the occupations covered by the aged care labour agreement, as they face critical shortage; and
• Reduce or waive the Skilling Australia Fund levy for essential skills sponsorships.
  

"Every three-to-five years we should review whether the visa is working effectively and not adversely affecting, education, training or wage outcomes," Ms Cilento said. 

"Older Australians deserve quality care now. This requires urgent action on workforce shortages." 

Join us in Perth on October 30 and in Melbourne on November 10 for Charting the future of aged care, a series of CEDA forums examining the Federal Government’s aged care reforms and how providers can find more sustainable models to meet the growing care needs of Australia’s ageing population.

Media contact:
Justine Parker, Media Manager and Content Specialist 
Mobile: 0436 379 688 | Email: justine.parker@ceda.com.au