On 14th September, the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women and PeakCare will be jointly hosting a full-day workshop for all providers of residential care services in Queensland. As flagged within the Strengthening the Queensland Residential Care Workforce – Minimum Qualification Standards Information Sheet, this workshop is regarded by the Department as an important step in the development of a comprehensive implementation strategy with PeakCare and service providers for managing the transition to the new standards concerning the minimum qualifications to be held by residential care workers.
This important workshop is being held to:
- collectively identify issues that may impact the transition of service providers towards meeting the new standards
- provide information to service providers about the Hope and Healing Framework e-learning modules that are currently under development, their relationship with the transition to the minimum qualifications, and the anticipated time frame for the modules becoming freely accessible to residential care workers
- identify and explore other professional development topics and learning needs that may be incorporated within a second series of ‘Hope and Healing Masterclass Workshops’ to support organisations in their implementation of the Hope and Healing Framework
- hear from service providers about their own initiatives in embedding the Hope and Healing Framework within their delivery of residential care services, and
- identify and explore other matters of topical interest, such as those concerning the intersection between the child protection and youth justice systems as highlighted within the recently released Report on Youth Justice and their implications for future residential care policy and service development.
Senior representatives of organisations delivering residential care services were sent information about the workshop on 9th August with more information to be sent to them shortly. This included advice about a Residential Care Workforce Survey being conducted to collect information about:
- firstly, the number of residential care workers who do not yet hold and will need to obtain one of the recognised qualifications in keeping with the new standards, and
- secondly, the total number of residential care workers (and their immediate supervisors) who will need to complete the Hope and Healing e-learning modules
If your organisation delivers residential care services, check with members of your senior management team that they received this information. Queries about either the workshop or the survey may be directed to Lesley Leece, PeakCare’s Assistant Director (Ph. 07 3368 1050; email: lleece@peakcare.org.au.)