Allied Health Workforce Macro Trends
Karla Armson1, Nicola Clemens11NSW Ministry Of Health, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract
Background:
The Allied Health Unit in the Workforce Planning and Talent Development Branch, Ministry of Health (MoH) have undertaken a number of allied health projects in alignment with strategies within the Health Professionals Workforce Plan 2012-2022. This includes a workforce trends exercise (known as Horizons Scanning and Scenario Generation (HSSG)) to identify and forecast health service delivery requirements towards 2030. The overarching objective of this Macro Trends project was to bring together the findings of 18 HSSG workforce projects from 2015-2021, and to distil these findings into macro trends for the allied health workforce of NSW Health.
Method:
The project consisted of two key input activities:
1.Review and synthesis of 18 HSSG reports into common themes and macro trends across all allied health professions relevant to workforce supply, demand drivers, challenges, and opportunities. Available workforce data was also reviewed in this phase.
2.Consultations were conducted with NSW Health Directors of Allied Health and relevant MoH executives to validate the macro trends identified and understand the opportunity areas for future focus of the allied health workforce in the context of NSW Health strategic priorities and value-based health care.
Results:
Six macro trends were identified from this project, these inform the priorities for allied health workforce development and highlight the opportunities for consideration at local and state level to address workforce and geographical issues, as well as those to promote scalable workforce uplift and change.
Discussion
This project has provided the foundation and leverage for current workforce planning initiatives as well as ongoing strategic workforce planning in alignment with Future Health 2022-2032 and NSW Health Workforce Plan 2022-2032. The project has significant transferability in other states and territories as it provides a number of considerations to support strategic planning for the allied health workforce.
Biography
Karla Armson works at the NSW MoH in the WPTD Branch. Karla has worked in NSW Health for almost two decades. She is an Occupational Therapist by clinical background having graduated with first class Honours from Sydney University. Karla has a Master’s in Health Management from the UNSW. She has experience and success working within LHD redevelopment and has also led several workforce and quality and safety projects both at LHD and State Level. She is an Allied Health advocate and is passionate about strategic workforce planning, future models of care and system delivery of value based health care.
Nicola Clemens works at the NSW MoH as Manager, Workforce Development. Her role is focused on the NSW Health Workforce Plan and the Future of Work. Prior to this Nicola acted as Principal Allied Health Advisor during COVID-19. She is a Speech Pathologist by clinical background spending over ten years specialising in stroke acute and rehabilitation care having obtained her degree from Sydney University. Nicola has a Master in Public Health from UNSW as well as a Bachelor of Commerce from Sydney University. Nicola continues to support and promote allied health despite sitting in a role broader than allied health.