Introduction

The National Foundation of Australian Women, NFAW, is a non-politically aligned feminist organisation committed to examining the potentially differential impact of policies and their outcomes for men and women and whether the consequences of policies, intended or unintended adversely affect women.

The aged care workforce is an area of major policy interest to NFAW on four grounds:

1. Just on 90% of the aged care workforce are women, in both residential and community care.
2. In common with many other sectors of the workforce dominated by women workers, a high proportion work part-time, making protection of working conditions and work-life balance a high priority.
3. The majority of recipients of care delivered by the aged care workforce are women, around 70% in both residential and aged community care, and the quality of care they receive is a direct product of the skills of the workforce.
4. Formal services are the major source of support for older people (aged 65 and over) in need of care. While only some 15% rely fully on formal services, four out of ten receive some formal services as well as having informal care, three out of ten rely on informal support alone, and the remaining 15% are in residential care.
5. Women account for a high proportion of informal care givers. While recognising the substantial contribution made by these carers, this submission does not address issues of support for informal carers, other than to stress that a sufficient and effective paid workforce has to be seen as complementing and supporting the role of carers and that carers should not be treated as an unpaid substitute for paid workers. Further, having to undertake undue caregiving should not impinge on women’s capacity to enter or remain in the paid workforce. Volunteers should similarly be seen as complementing the paid workforce, not substituting for it.

 

READ FULL PAPER