Does this explain the increased ‘aggression’ of quality assessors?
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) returned a wellbeing index of just 55%, according to a 2019 union survey of staff across the public service – putting it at 96th out of 97 agencies for wellbeing.
Only 28% of staff said the ACQSC did a good job of promoting health and wellbeing among staff, while just 49% were happy with the Commission’s policies to support health and wellbeing among staff.
The survey – conducted by the Community and Public Sector Union at the end of 2018 and start of 2019 – mostly had responses from aged care assessors, with 64% saying the amount of work they were expected to do was unreasonable, with not enough time allocated to inspect facilities and write the corresponding reports.
75% added that they didn’t talk to their managers about their workload because they were worried it would lead questions over their ability to do their job, while 50% said they knew other staff had been mistreated after raising similar issues.
The ACQSC’s CEO Janet Anderson (pictured) has said they are responding to the issues highlighted in the survey.
“In 2019, the Commission launched a new performance and development framework to provide an opportunity for more regular two-way feedback between supervisors and their staff and better understanding of staff development needs. This new framework is now providing improved support for staff across the Commission and will continue to be promoted as a useful tool in enhancing open communications within the organisation.”
