A powerful sentiment by Pearl S Buck (1954) was the driving force behind a submission made to the Senate advocating for the Future of Australia's aged care sector workforce. 

Yass Valley Aged Care workers in a plea to rectify the ever increasing demand of the industry, has made a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee Inquiry into the Future of Australia's aged care in late February this year. 

The authors of the submission forecast that the proportion of individuals needing care will grow faster than the workforce that is available to support them.  

CEO of Yass Valley Aged Care Ltd, Lyn Morgan, told the Tribune that the conditions facing the aged care sector is becoming more and more challenging.  

“For a small, regional aged care provider like the Yass Valley, the difficulty is attracting and retaining staff, particularly younger staff members. There are a number of reasons for this, one of the big ones is the pay. The ever increasing pay gap between aged care and acute care, particularly for nursing staff, makes it difficult to recruit younger staff members,” Ms Morgan said.  

“It is also difficult for people to move to regional towns like Yass, it’s difficult to compete with metropolitan areas. A high proportion of staff members are in the 50-64 age bracket. We expect that they will remain as part of our staff until their retirement, but before then, they will expect increasingly flexible working arrangements. These aren’t just issues for Yass, this is the broader regional areas across the country.”

In a plea to the Federal Government, Yass Valley Aged Care workers hope to address the long-term assessment of aged care workforce programs and funding stream, adequate funding for pay rates and conditions of aged care nursing staff to be equivalent to representative acute care nursing staff.

The submission also identified a need to increase coordination between aged home care services, NDIS and similar programs, as well as a committee to investigate the near and long term challenges for the aged care sector. 

In an attempt to give alternative solutions to support the industry, the Yass Valley Aged Care suggested temporary workforce visas and funding for not-for profit operators in regional, rural and remote Australia for staff training and ongoing education. 

Ms Morgan attributed the detailed submission to members of the Yass Valley Aged Care Board, in particular Alex Tewes. 

“These issues are not new, but they are getting progressively more difficult to deal with as the aging population increases,” she said. 

Mr Tewes, alongside many of his colleagues, has been working on the submission since the inquiry was announced and attributed the effort as a way of supporting the many Yass Valley aged care workers.  

“Aged care is a demanding industry, where we look after the most vulnerable members of our community in their final years,” he said.  

“It requires many things from its workforce, but chiefly empathy, tolerance, patience and good humour. In return, the workforce is paid less than in comparable occupations, is subject to stringent compliance and accreditation regimes and suffers the stresses of watching their clients wither and die in their care. 

“It behooves us all to ensure that those who choose to make their careers in this challenging industry are trained, educated and paid appropriately. That’s why we are asking that the Federal Government work closer with other stakeholders to ensure that the industry remains sustainable into the future.”

Despite the submission sitting in the government's hands for over a month, due to the parliaments prorogue it will be assessed after the Federal election, post July 2016.

“The future of the submission should be determined by the new parliament. We hope the new parliament will take up the inquiry and continue it’s work,” Mr Tewes said.