Workforce Issues: Interview

Alison Peters who is the Director of the Council of Social Service of NSW has been interviewed on the Sector Workforce Issues by Miguel Ferrero (MF), convener of the Traning Directions Network. This is a transcript of the conversation.


1) What is your position within the community sector?

I am the Director of the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS).

2) What are the key workforce issues faced by the community sector?

· Poor rates of pay and conditions, compared to other industries with similar skill levels and responsibilities

· High turnover rates - “churn” of workers from employer to employer. Employers in the sector say it is hard to retain good staff.

· An increasingly complex work and regulatory environment requires an ever increasing level of skills, experience and knowledge across all levels of the sector. This isn’t just about increasing and recognising formal qualifications but also about building understanding and networks beyond particular specialisations.

· All of these factors make it harder and harder to attract people to the sector (or to studies that would lead to them working in the sector)

3) What strategies the sector could develop to address these issues?

The sector needs to

· Develop a industry plan for the sector that meets our own unique challenges to attract and retain a highly skilled and sustainable workforce. This plan needs to work for the whole sector and not just individual organisations if it is to be sustainable and therefore needs to be developed collaboratively by the sector for the sector. (for more details about what an industry plan for the sector would involve see: http://www.ncoss.org.au/resources/080708-Industry-Plan.pdf


· Advocate for funding that allows for effective service delivery by skilled workers and that recognises the need to invest in developing such a workforce on a sustainable basis. In other words funding that recognises the true costs of delivering services.

· Support the ASU’s pay equity case! *

4) What is your advice to the community-welfare sector that could be helpful to deal with these issues?

Diversity and collaboration are particular strengths of the community sector. In a fast moving and ever more complex environment it is often hard for individual organisations, or indeed individuals, to see beyond their own organisational imperatives. What this does, though, is reduce our capacity as a sector to thrive and provide quality services that improve the outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged people. My advice to the sector is that if we are to be the best we can possibly be as individual organisations (and individual workers) we need to start with a strong foundation and that means a strong sector. We need to use our diversity and our capacity for effective collaboration to build a strong sector as the foundation from which we can all flourish. This means getting involved in the discussion and debate about workforce issues for the sector and not leaving it to others. We also need to support the ASU’s pay equity case!*

*Disclosure – I am a former official and a life member of the ASU.