Informing Workforce Strategy Through CILCA360

Project Overview

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety highlighted the need for stronger resources to support workforce leadership, development, skills and culture, as underpinning practices to support provision of high quality and safe care.  We know that good leadership skills are important to lifting the standard of care in Australia. But what does good frontline leadership in the sector look like and where are the gaps? To get a better understanding of this we undertook a research initiative to collect this data from across Australia.

The Initiative

The HSSO subsidised 1,000 places for individuals to use the CILCA360 tool. These places were for frontline and middle management staff in aged care and disability services who had been nominated by their employer.

About CILCA360

The CILCA360 is a capability assessment tool which has has been aligned to the Aged Care Leadership Capability Framework. It also incorporates aspects of both the Aged Care Quality Standards and The National Disability Practice Standards. The assessment helps individuals understand their existing strengths and identify any skills gaps.

The CILCA360 tool combines data from self-assessments and feedback gathered from an individual’s peers to identify strengths and opportunities for development.

Outcomes

Findings from analysis of the anonymised assessments included:

• The workforce has a strong focus and capability in legislation, policy and procedures and safety and wellbeing of others
• The most common development need was in the area of leading otherd including managing conflict, effectively addressing challenging situations and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
• The disability workforce performed better than aged and community care workforce in almost all capability areas except practicing self-care
• Greater leadership impact would come from focusing on areas such as – taking ownership of mistakes, demonstrating sincerity, being aware of impact on others, developing climates of healthy discussion and actively building good working relationships with other teams.