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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-10-18 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation: Home Care of South Australians with a Disability and Elderly South Australians

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (17:04): I move:

That the briefing report of the committee, on work health and safety concerns related to the home care and support of South Australians with a disability and elderly South Australians, be noted.

I think we need to look at some grammatical changes to the names of committees, Mr President. I have moved that the 29th report of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation be noted. This is a briefing report that considers some of the potential work health and safety implications pertaining to community and personal service workers who help elderly South Australians and those living with a disability to be cared for and supported in their homes.

This was a topic of interest to the current committee because community and personal service workers face a range of work health and safety issues due to the nature of their work and the demand for their services. Given the limited number of sitting weeks before parliament prorogues, the committee resolved to produce this briefing report for the purpose of informing a future committee about issues it might choose to inquire into during the 54th parliament.

Due to demographic changes and the decline of available informal care options, the formal care workforce will need to increase substantially in forthcoming years. The majority of workers in these sectors are older females, who work part-time for low wages and who are subject to myriad awards and varying terms and conditions of employment. A wide range of occupations exists within the disability and aged-care sectors, but the focus of this briefing report centres on community and personal service workers. The report focuses on this sector because the aged-care census estimated that community and personal service workers represent 83.8 per cent of the direct care workforce.

There is currently a shortage of skilled community and personal service workers. This is expected to intensify in future years as demand for services increases. Technological advances may assist carers and medical personnel to monitor older people and people with a disability who wish to continue to live independently; however, these advances will not eliminate the range of activities performed by carers to support these individuals.

The reality is that caring for older people and people with a disability is labour-intensive and requires a variety of skills. The disability and aged-care sectors compete with each other for care workers and with other health and social community service sectors in the economy. Carers usually have more than one client and perform a range of tasks according to the client's case management plan. This means that carers work varying hours and are usually unsupervised. Because the work is often part-time and the wages low, workers may work for more than one employer.

The main activities undertaken by community and personal service workers are to assist individuals with their activities of daily living. This includes getting the individual in and out of bed, assisting them with bathing, toileting, domestic chores, taking them shopping, and facilitating their engagement in social activities. Therefore health and safety concerns for carers in community and personal service include:

fatigue due to split shifts, excessive hours when employed by more than one employer;

manual handling issues (moving clients, equipment, furniture);

aggression from clients who may have behavioural problems;

motor vehicle accidents from transporting clients and driving to and from clients; and

being exposed to the passive smoke of their clients.

The briefing report, therefore, found that community and personal service workers are faced with an array of injury risks. On this point, injury data reveals that there are inherent physical and psychological work health and safety risks associated with this sector. According to SafeWork Australia, the health care and social assistance industry recorded the most serious injury claims in 2013-14, with a total of 18,340 injuries. This total represents an increase of 20 per cent since 2000-01, and the highest proportion of serious injury claims of all industries.

Moreover, Safe Work Australia records show that the number of serious injury claims made by community and personal service workers in 2014-15 had increased by 30 per cent since 2000-01, while most other occupations showed a decrease over that time. Given the need for more skilled community and personal service workers and the nature and extent of injuries they experience, a future committee may wish to consider undertaking an inquiry to learn more about the work health and safety issues and preventative strategies required to reduce injuries and encourage employment in the community and personal service sector.

I thank those who took the time to contribute to this briefing report. I also thank the members who have worked diligently to ensure a balanced approach in canvassing these important issues that stand to affect many South Australians. I thank the Hon. John Darley and the Hon. John Dawkins. From the other place, I extend my thanks to the committee's Presiding Member, the member for Ashford, Steph Key. I also thank the member for Fisher, the member for Wright and the member for Schubert.

Finally, I express my appreciation to the committee staff, firstly executive officer, Ms Sue Sedivy. Ms Sedivy has been with the committee for a number of years and has taken some well-earned leave. I thank Mr Peter Knapp, who has been the committee's research officer and who has been providing additional assistance to the committee in Ms Sedivy's absence. Finally, I thank Ms Peta Spyrou, the committee's current research officer.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (17:11): I rise very briefly to endorse the remarks of the Hon. Mr Hanson and to commend the report to members because it is an area that we all have to turn our minds to, not only as we age ourselves but as we deal increasingly with constituents who are dealing with these issues. Certainly, that is something that I have come across in more recent times. I concur with the honourable member in that for some time a number of us have been grappling to find a more concise and more descriptive name for the committee. Not only is the name of the committee very longwinded, on this occasion it is matched by the even more longwinded name of the inquiry.

I also want to mention the work of Ms Sue Sedivy, who has been the executive officer of the committee, until very recently, for the entire time that I have been on the committee. In fact, for the great majority of that time she has been on her own. I pay great tribute to Sue and wish her every best wish. I also commend the work of Mr Peter Knapp, who has picked up the baton very quickly in an acting executive officer role, and I commend him for that. I am very happy to commend this motion to the chamber.

Motion carried.

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