Identifying the path forward for a sustainable SHS workforce.
As the peak body representing Victoria’s specialist homelessness sector, Council to Homeless Persons is committed to fostering a workforce that thrives. This report, and the potential for reform it spotlights, is an essential step towards achieving that goal.
We know that the SHS workforce is performing under extreme pressures. We hear it first-hand from our members and it was clearly visible in the results of CHP’s Workforce Survey in April 2024.
CHP commissioned this report from RMIT University’s Workforce Innovation and Development Institute (WIDI) to understand the effects of those pressures as well as other sector dynamics that affect the experience of the workforce and the Victorians they support. This, in turn, will enable better workforce planning and help us to identify initiatives that ensure SHS workers are duly recognised, supported, safe, healthy and fulfilled in their jobs.
Key findings
Amongst the report’s many findings are some facts the SHS can be proud of. Our workforce is more educated than most, and continues to upskill more than most. The SHS’s representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is also higher than the overall Victorian workforce.
But apart from First Nations representation, the WIDI report shows the sector is monocultural and needs to improve its diversity. We also need to do more to improve worker health and wellbeing – SHS staff report experiencing anxiety and depression at twice the Victorian workforce average.
Finally, perhaps the most alarming finding in the Report is the extent of the SHS’s turnover problem. Turnover in key SHS roles reached 26% in 2022, with 60% of those departing workers leaving the sector altogether.
This brain-drain compromises outcomes for the people we support and increases pressure on remaining workers. And it also brings a huge financial cost: the sector spends $20 million annually responding to turnover.
Responding to the Report
The WIDI Report provides a number of recommendations for responses the sector can take to better support the workforce.
But we also need more Government support to make lasting improvements. CHP looks forward to collaborating with the Government to make progress on this important issue.