Community Services COVID-19 Taskforce
This Industry leadership group, with representatives from organisations and government, has been convening for more than two years and remains a critical source of intelligence and action in the ongoing response to COVID.
The aim of the Taskforce is to build insights and anticipate issues that would arise in a way that accelerates Industry’s capacity to respond.
Between sessions, CSIA takes the big issues around business continuity and workforce planning offline and designs new practical responses to workshop at the next sessions. These responses will enable Industry to continue delivering essential services.
After each session we are providing Industry with what was discussed and what we are doing to advance Industry to meet challenges:
The Community Services Industry Taskforce met on Friday 25 March and took the opportunity to share key challenges organisations for organisations. Some common themes raised by the group:
- Organisations are still recovering from the floods in a number of ways, while managing the ongoing challenges of living and working with COVID:
- To their buildings, cars and other equipment
- Supporting workers who were impacted who are also continuing to work and provide additional recovery support to their communities
- Supporting service users who are finding the challenges of the pandemic and the floods .
- Workforce planning and management is still impacted by the pandemic. Organisations reported that workers are unable to come to work as they have a family member or themselves with COVID. Some staff are working longer hours to continue delivering essential services and organisations are using flexible agreements to cover services during this time.
- Workforce resilience. The Community Services workforce has faced challenge after challenge through the COVID pandemic and the natural disasters. Organisations are reporting their workforce are tired, exhausted and at risk of burnout. We shared a link to our Workforce Resilience event focused on burnout.
- The increase in the cost of petrol in metro, rural and regional is a significant issue for many organisations, particularly if they have a fleet or provide transport for service users. The additional costs is also making it difficult for some workers to get to and from work and to attend home care/support shifts.
- Obtaining insurances, changing coverage and increase costs are of a concern to industry. The Physical and Sexual Assault Insurances are a key focus, with our government partners continuing to work at a national level on the issue. Organisations are also turning their eye to their cyber insurances and security, finding out they need to increase their IT infrastructure to meet insurance requirements, which is another cost.
During the session, the link to a story released by Social Ventures Australia was shared with the group. Paying what it takes to create impact talks about the direct and indirect costs of operating not for profit organisations and the challenges around it.
Update: COVID Industry Taskforce 11 February 2022
50 representatives from industry stakeholders and state and government attended the session. Members of the taskforce are working together to share information and solutions to address the challenges of COVID-19. We aim to keep you updated and share the outcomes, resources and solutions.
The key themes arising from this session were around:
- The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has recommended moving away from the term “fully vaccinated” to using “up-to-date” after receiving three vaccines https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-10/fully-covid-vaccinated-two-doses-atagi-advice/100821406
- Organisations are exploring what the delivery of essential and non-essential services looks like under the current guidelines and workforce availability, weighing up the long-term impacts of not delivering the full array of services on the people they work with. This will be an ongoing discussion for Industry.
- Many organisations fall under health vaccine mandates for their workers. Discussion focussed on the emergent issues of managing the health and safety of frontline workers who are unvaccinated and have short term exemptions for four months. The group talked about the importance of thorough consultation and risk assessments and about weighing up workers continue working face to face versus finding them roles without this contact. Emerging form this are arrange of issues related to workplace health and safety, WorkCover and industrial relations which will form the basis of further discussions at the next meeting. The Taskforce will invite speakers with expertise in this area to speak in the next session.
- Another issue facing Industry is the accumulation of high leave balances across organisations. Many are exploring how they can encourage workers to take holidays and promote health and well being. Representatives reiterated that at the moment it can be hard for staff to have leave due to workforce shortages and the group agreed to share practices, procedures and policies in this area.
- Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) were a key topic of the discussions, particularly around understanding the best practice for administering for the different levels of contact after a confirmed infection. Further work will be done to develop a protocol to guide use of RATs across a variety of settings.
A resource that was shared that is useful for organisations in terms of management protocols can be found at this link: https://www.cyjma.qld.gov.au/resources/dcsyw/news/covid-19-prevman-resi-nfbc-services-guidelines.pdf
Queensland Health has provided the following advice:
- The Commonwealth conducted a Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) Pilot within residential aged care facilities (RACFs) that commenced on 16 August 2021. 80 sites in NSW and Victoria participated in the trial.
- RATs were found to be a positive tool to reduce the risk of COVID-19 incursions into RACFs (including identifying positive cases prior to RACF entry).
- The timing/frequency of RAT testing was found to be important. Modelling indicated daily testing was of no increased benefit. Testing every 3 days (72 hours) appeared to be demonstrate the biggest public health benefit. This finding matched international experience.
- The trial also found saliva testing more tolerable and had less side effects than nasal swabbing – saliva testing may be a useful tool for regular workers, but sensitivity levels may not be high enough for use on occasional visitors. Whether saliva testing this is an option for your stakeholders, will depend on the availability of RAT test types.
- Some RACFs participating in the trial tested residents when they returned from an external outing. It was noted that to maximise benefit from this it should probably be done 48hrs after a resident they return not directly after they return. This might be relevant to CSIA if testing protocols apply to visitors and residents.
Finally, as a participant in the trial, Victoria’s guidelines may be of some assistance in developing your own documents as I think they reflect Victoria’s learnings. Surveillance testing industry list – COVID-19 | health.vic.gov.au
The Taskforce is just one of the ways CSIA is engaging with Industry.
We have a number of avenues for community services organisations to share their challenges, insights and local responses.
Contact CSIA to find out more about being involved in the Taskforce.
CSIA is here to advance the Community Services Industry through doing business better, especially in times of disaster and health crisis events.
