Boosting Professionalisation in Residential Workforce for Safer Care Environments: Minister for Children Announces $41 Million Investment

Minister for Children Karen Chhour has announced that the residential workforce is being boosted by an investment in their professionalisation.

Secure residences provide care for children and young people, placed there for either care and protection or youth justice reasons. They often have complex needs and can be highly vulnerable.

Professionalisation of the residential workforce is a critical component and necessity for keeping children and young people safe in residential care settings, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour.

This government is committed to helping these important helpers, improving the supports we provide to children and young people, and addressing long standing gaps in practice.

They deserve safe, stable, and therapeutic environments, where the staff are not only dedicated and able, but have all the skills they need.

I have the pleasure of regularly meeting with many of our frontline workers around the country and residential workforce have told me that they would hugely value better access to further training and professional qualifications.

That is why we are investing $41 million in their professionalisation.

This funding will strengthen professional leadership, uplift the capability of the core workforce, and raise the proportion of the workforce that has comprehensive skills, knowledge, and experience.

A 2023 review of Oranga Tamariki secure residences and several group homes similarly noted that a constant theme in many reviews over the years was a misalignment between the complex and high needs of the tamariki and rangatahi in care and the relatively unskilled nature of parts of the workforce.

The Minister for Children believes these workers deserve greater backing.

They are doing their best in often challenging situations but were not supported well by the previous government, who received a Ministerial Advisory Board report in 2021 requesting greater training for this workforce and failed to act on it, says Mrs Chhour.

That report highlighted that, while the staff were highly committed and passionate, they were not being offered the tools required in order to provide the high level of care the children and young people need and deserve.

This funding boost will go a long way towards addressing these issues and uplifting the number of staff with a professional qualification.

It will also establish new professional, clinical roles within each residence, help the recruitment of qualified staff to vacant positions, and supporting bespoke inhouse and external qualification pathways for current staff.