Kaiawhina Support Worker Workforce Action Plan

Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ) and Careerforce are working together to develop a

workforce action plan that will focus on the development of the health and disability Kaiāwhina/

non-regulated workforce.

This workforce encompasses non-regulated workers in the health, mental health, aged care,

public health and disability services sector. Currently only small percentage of those workers

are undertaking workplace training annually. Of those home support workers dominate in terms

of employees working towards qualifications (largely at Level 2 and Level 3 on the Qualifications

framework).

Trained, well-resourced and fairly paid staff are better able to support the needs of clients, whether

those clients need rehabilitation or restorative care, or whether they are living with declining

health. There are approximately 25,000 staff in our sector. Ideally we would like to reward their

improvements in competency with appropriate remuneration. We also need continued financial

support for literacy and numeracy training for support workers. We rely increasingly on new

migrants and older unqualified workers, for whom home support employment allows them to step

onto the qualifications pathway.

More information on the Kaiawhina support Worker workforce Action plan is available on the

Careerforce website