Draft National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy 2023 - WHSN Submission

The National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy sets a road map of actions to a sustainable and productive care and support economy that delivers quality care with decent jobs.

The care and support economy—the provision of paid care and support—is one of the fastest-growing parts of the Australian economy. There is enormous projected demand for care and support services across aged care, disability support, veterans’ care and early childhood education and care (ECEC) sectors. 

In June 2023, the Federal Government asked for submissions on the Draft Strategy and the Women’s Health Services responded.

For the Victorian Women’s Health Services (WHS), the participation of women in work , and the quality of that, is a social determinant of their health and wellbeing. The WHS care and are concerned about women’s participation in the Australian workforce and in particular the care sectors or as defined by the draft national strategy the system of care and support. Not only are these sectors significant employers of women and diverse people, there success is critical for women’s participation in the Australian workforce, economy and society as a whole.

As noted in the Australian Government’s Issues Paper for the Jobs and Skills Summit (Australian Government, The Treasury, 2022) “The health care and social assistance sector has more than doubled in size over the past 20 years, rising from 10 to 15 per cent of the workforce and now employs more than 2 million people. Employment in the sector is projected to grow by 15.8 per cent over the next five years.”

Any conversation with the Australian community about the vision for our care and support system needs to be centered on the reality that these sectors suffer from the negative impacts of intersectional gender inequity and the stereotypes, norms and attitudes that our society has to care work.

Specifically that:

• The workforce is feminized and therefore suffers from the perception that the work of the sector is low skilled and therefore not well remunerated

• The services that are delivered by these sectors do not attract ”prestige” as other industries due to the gendered stereotypes of care and care work and as such, suffers from higher forms of contention and contest that funding for the services is as equitable and/or deserved as other industries.

Our submission will speak to the need to address these key realities for without doing so, any “proactive approach” to address the issues of the care sector, will not succeed.

Read the full submission at the link: