Workforce issues across the family relationship services sector: Models, responses and strategies

Workforce issues across the family relationship services sector: Models, responses and strategies

Natasha Cortis, Sharni Chan and Fiona Hilferty

AFRC Issues No. 5 — December 2009
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Service quality and effectiveness in all community services depend on having a stable, capable and sustainable workforce, and family relationship services are no exception. Workforce quality and stability are essential if these services are to continue to meet the complex relationship services needs of families and individuals. This paper reviews and analyses workforce issues and challenges across the family relationship services sector, and identifies key models, responses and strategies through which the workforce can be supported and sustained. The main aim is to stimulate debate about strategies for improving the quality and sustainability of the family relationship services workforce, inform research and policy development, and encourage sectoral and organisational initiatives.

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Views expressed in Clearinghouse publications are those of individual authors and may not necessarily reflect Government, Institute or Clearinghouse policy.

 

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Authors and Acknowledgements

Dr Natasha Cortis is a Research Associate and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), University of New South Wales. Her research focuses on the organisation, delivery and evaluation of community services, and the welfare and wellbeing of vulnerable children and families.

Sharni Chan is a Research Officer at the SPRC and a PhD student at Macquarie University. Her PhD research is focused on the ways in which precarious workers mediate insecurity in their everyday lives.

Dr Fiona Hilferty is a Research Fellow at the SPRC. Fiona's research expertise and interest is in the area of education (particularly teacher professionalism, teacher identity and culture, educational policy, and curriculum construction), early intervention, and the translation of policy into practice.

The authors would like to thank Elizabeth Van Acker and Samantha Page for their suggestions and feedback on this paper.

Publication details

AFRC Issues
No. 5
Published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, December 2009.
25 pp.
ISSN: 
1835-1158

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Creative Commons - Attribution CC BYCopyright information

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