A new workforce planning platform to support Specialist Homelessness Services and the community and social services sector

The Council to Homeless Persons (CHP) and the Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) sector have sought to establish an ongoing, reliable approach to address significant information gaps and inconsistencies in SHS workforce planning and development. This formed a key part of the SHS Transition Strategy 2018–2022.

In 2021, WIDI was contracted by CHP to design an ongoing workforce insights system, through sector consultations and a review of the evidence of workforce insights approaches. WIDI’s recommendation was to use a two-pronged approach, establishing a system that drew on existing government data through a new, linked data platform hosted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and drawing on surveys to fill any critical gaps. CHP published these findings and recommendations in ‘Who is the Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) Workforce in Victoria?’ report.

WIDI subsequently established a PLIDA project and linked Victorian Government funding data to tax, Census and business data in PLIDA, with CHP launching the report with the Victorian Minister for Housing, the Hon Harriet Shing in August 2024.

WIDI’s groundbreaking report found that annual staff turnover in the Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) workforce has consistently remained around 20% since 2011 and reached as high as 26% in recent years, and documented the recruitment load on the sector. The report also found much higher rates of people in their prime working age than the Victorian workforce with the majority of the workforce aged 30-49 years and highly educated, self-reported rates of anxiety and depression were twice the Victorian workforce average, over 22% of new workers left within 12 months, workers were twice as likely as Victorian workers to care for another person due to disability, health, or age, and that the workforce was significantly less diverse than service users and the Victorian workforce.