House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-03 Daily Xml

Contents

Residential Care Staff

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:52): Supplementary, Mr Speaker: minister, what has been done to address the threefold increase in overtime and the increase in shifts going uncovered in residential care homes as reported in The Advertiser on 14 January 2021?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:52): I thank the member for the question. I did answer some of that in my former answer; however, I will explain it again. Firstly, I would thank all the residential care workers who have committed to overtime. It is paid overtime, I might say; however, there has been a lot of overtime. That is why, under this government, for the first time ever we have continual recruitment for residential care workers. That has never been done before. As I just mentioned, we have just taken on an extra 41 residential care workers, and 11 of those are in the Whyalla area. We also are now working with TAFE, so that every two months we have another course training new residential care workers coming in, and in the future there will be the opportunity to also do the training—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is called to order.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —through NGOs. Mr Speaker, they ask a question and then no-one wants to listen to the answer. So perhaps I will wait until you are ready to listen.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has concluded her answer.