Ms O’CONNOR – Minister, nursing and allied health staff are entitled to leave and funding for professional learning and development. We have heard multiple reports of staff requests for study leave or professional development either being refused or the leave is approved, but no funding provided for course fees or travel. I know the budget’s tied, but this is despite both being part of nursing and allied health awards.
Minister was the Professional Development Fund created as stipulated in the 2022 Allied Health Professional Public Sector Union Wages Agreement? If so, how much money was allocated to this fund in 2024-25?
Mrs ARCHER – Thank you. I will ask the secretary to make some remarks, obviously noting there may be specific individual circumstances.
Mr WEBSTER – The agreement you referred to is for allied health professionals. The funds created and administered through our chief allied health officer sitting in our Clinical Quality, Regulation and Accreditation unit, CQRA. The fund has been created, there’s a certain amount per allied health professional. There are ongoing discussions about whether it remains as a fund as in the current agreement or whether it should be removed to individual as in other awards, like doctors. It is an individual allowance, but it has been created, and it is available, and they make the application through the Chief Allied Health Officers office for access to that fund.
Ms O’CONNOR – And for nurses? I am trying to get a picture here of how many allied health professionals and nurses have been approved for professional development under their respective awards in 2024-25.
Prof ARYA – For nurses, it is actually included in the award, very much like doctors, but for allied health it isn’t. That is the reason why there is a separate fund.
Ms O’CONNOR – I see, so nurses have a specific provision in their award; allied healthcare workers don’t, so it wasn’t established. My understanding is it was stipulated in the 2022 Allied Health Professionals Public Sector Unions Wages Agreement.
Mr WEBSTER – That sets up the fund arrangement, so they have to make an application, whereas with the nurses and doctors it’s actually part of their entitlements.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you. Is there data available on how many approvals there have been for professional development for allied healthcare workers and nurses in the past financial year? Does the data include how many were refused?
Mrs ARCHER – We can take it on notice.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay. Can you provide any data on the status of nurse and midwifery employer‑assisted study leave by division, classification and region in 2024-25 or is there a global figure that we could see?
Mr WEBSTER – We will pursue the study leave, which is a particular provision that people can apply for, but a lot of the time, for instance, with midwifery, it isn’t done as a study leave provision. It’s done as –
Ms O’CONNOR – A training add-on.
Mr WEBSTER – Yeah, as part of –
Ms O’CONNOR – Professional development.
Mr WEBSTER – professional development, but not just professional development, maybe a scholarship because we’re pursuing that upgrade.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay.
Mr WEBSTER – For instance, we’re bringing in graduate nurses. We put them in mental health, and we put them through the postgraduate in mental health, but it’s actually not treated as study leave per se. They’re doing their on‑the‑job learning and we support them to do their course. We can get you a figure on study leave, but it would be almost meaningless in nursing because of these other approaches that we take.
Ms O’CONNOR – Study leave is not the response in nursing generally.
Mr WEBSTER – Yep.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay. So, could we have some information on professional development of nursing and midwifery staff. And is it usual that staff, whether they’re an allied health worker or a nurse who applied for professional development legal funding would be responded to. Because we’re getting some feedback that some staff are putting in their applications and not hearing anything back, which sounds like a systems problem.
Mr WEBSTER – Nursing CPD would be very localised, so I couldn’t answer that one.
Ms O’CONNOR – Localised to each hospital?
Mr WEBSTER – No, to each nurse unit manager that’s managing rosters and things like that.
Ms O’CONNOR – Would they approve that kind of professional development?
Mr WEBSTER – That’s right.
Ms O’CONNOR – Within the small unit in the hospital?
Mr WEBSTER – Yes, except where it might be an interstate conference. Though in those circumstances it would in fact be escalated to my level to approve the interstate travel along with the CPD.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay. Do you have any information on the budget that’s provided for professional development or is that something that’s not recorded?
Mrs ARCHER – Across the whole workforce?
Ms O’CONNOR – If there’s a global figure for professional development, that would be most more useful.
Mr WEBSTER -Because some of its allowances –
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay.
Mr WEBSTER – we subsidise it because it’s an interstate conference and some of it is –
CHAIR – Some of it’s mandatory.
Mr WEBSTER – through the fund, some of it’s mandatory training so they actually do it through their workday.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay.
Mr WEBSTER -There are a whole lot of categories and there’s mandatory training such as CPR.
CHAIR – CPR. Keep people alive.
Mr WEBSTER – Those sorts of things. But there’s also mandatory training that’s prescribed by me as the secretary, for instance, child safety training.
Ms O’CONNOR – There’s no actual allocation within the health budget for professional development that you could point to?
Mr WEBSTER – No. there’s not. Because of the different ways it’s administered for each profession in the area we just don’t account for it in that way.
Ms O’CONNOR – As part of the savings that health has been asked to achieve, can you see that there would be any impact on professional development opportunities?
Mrs ARCHER – No, I wouldn’t because some of those things are mandatory, but also as part of workforce development and retention it’s necessary. We were talking with midwives the other day about ensuring that for upskilling midwives or re‑entering midwives, for example, it’s important for them to have those opportunities. No, but recognising that it’s accounted for in different ways. I would be interested. As I said, I can’t comment on specific individual circumstances and environments, but I would certainly encourage people if they feel that there’s something amiss there to get in touch.
Ms O’CONNOR – I think it’s just getting timely responses and hopefully approval for worthwhile professional development and training opportunities.
CHAIR – I will go back to Sarah for one more on this line item and then we will move to the next one.
