CLOSE to 80 local health, aged care, disability and workforce leaders came together at Alexandra Hills Hotel on May 21 for the Redlands Health & Care Workforce Symposium – an industry-led event focused on practical solutions to growing workforce pressures across the region.
Hosted by the Redlands Regional Jobs Committee (RJC) and Redlands Coast Chamber of Commerce, the Symposium brought together employers, clinicians, educators, government representatives and workforce agencies to move “from consultation to coordinated employer-led action”.
Opening keynote speaker, the newly appointed RJC Health and Care Working Group Chairperson and Mater Private Hospital Redland General Manager Chris Junge, described the challenges facing the sector as “no longer just a recruitment issue, but a structural workforce design issue requiring collaboration, innovation and long-term regional planning”.
Discussions throughout the day highlighted growing workforce shortages, burnout pressures, training gaps, housing affordability challenges and increasing competition for workers across South East Queensland.
A key feature of the Symposium was a frank and insightful Q&A discussion between industry leaders and elected leaders including Henry Pike MP and Amanda Stoker MP, where workforce shortages, infrastructure pressures, training barriers and policy challenges impacting local health and care delivery were openly discussed.
The event also featured a lived-experience panel, with workers sharing personal stories about career changes, returning to the workforce after raising families, and the workplace support approaches that help attract and retain skilled staff in the sector.
Importantly, the event focussed heavily on practical solutions already working locally and ideas that could be progressed collaboratively over the next 18 months by the newly forming RJC Health & Care Working Group.
Some of the key solutions identified included stronger school-to-health career pathways, expanded traineeships and work placements, local “grow your own” workforce models, better alignment between training and employment, stronger public-private sector collaboration, improved workplace flexibility and staff wellbeing initiatives and localised training hubs and upskilling pathways.
Redlands RJC Chair Des Kerr said the event demonstrated a strong willingness across the sector to collaborate rather than compete.
“The workforce challenges are significant, but what stood out was the genuine commitment from organisations to work together on practical long-term solutions,” Mr Kerr said.
