Curtin Heritage Living, Fremantle Italian Aged Persons Services Association sign deal for overseas workers

Just two aged care homes in WA have taken advantage of a special deal to allow them to bring in overseas workers at a fast pace despite staff shortages and Federal Government requirements to have a nurse on site 24 hours a day. The sector says the new visa provisions program needed to be refined and that providers wanted to make sure they were getting workers with the skills required to care for the country’s most vulnerable. Curtin Heritage Living in Perth became the first facility in the nation to sign the union-backed deal in May to bring in foreign workers under the Federal Government’s migration arrangements to fill workforce gaps. Fremantle Italian Aged Persons Services Association followed, along with eight other aged care homes across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT. Between the 10 facilities, 2000 temporary and 4000 permanent places for workers have been secured. Aged and Community Care Providers Association policy and advocacy general manager Roald Versteeg told The West Australian bringing in overseas workers was “a complex process”. “It’s important we not only get the right number of workers but workers with the right skills to care for our most vulnerable because that’s what older Australians deserve,” Mr Versteeg said. “This is a new process for everyone and we all want to ensure that aged care providers have access to the workforce required... this will be an iterative process and we need to continue to refine it based on the experience and needs of the aged care sector.” Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said the scheme was not a silver bullet to addressing the crisis in the aged care workforce, which faces a shortage of 8100 registered nurses this financial year. “The Albanese Government is undoing the damage of a decade of neglect by bringing business, unions and government together to ensure our migration system works for Australia,” Mr Giles said. “The former Liberal Government announced a similar approach in 2019. But like so much of their approach to governing, this was all talk and no action, with fewer than 15 employers and 100 visas in place by 2022.” From July 1, every aged care home across the nation has been required to have a 24/7 registered nurse on-site. WA fell behind every other jurisdiction for data collected in July — recording a nurse on site for 97.5 per cent of the day. “Our first set of data for our 24/7 nursing mandate revealed on average, there is a nurse onsite 98 per cent of the time, or 23.5 hours a day,” Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said. “86 per cent of all homes that reported data have a nurse 24/7 and the majority of remaining homes are extremely close to meeting the target.” In the past two years, 76 facilities across the country have been forced to close their doors, including two in WA with Perth’s Brightwater to shut down three of its 12 residential homes in the next year.