NSW public school fees deterring overseas aged care nurses: Frank Price, CEO RBFI

Aged care workers arriving from overseas with family are having to fork out $5,600 for their children to attend NSW public schools – making the move unviable for some.

Frank Price, CEO of Not For Profit Royal Freemasons’ Benevolent Institution (RFBI), recently told ABC Radio Sydney, “When they come over here, they're being flooded with a whole bunch of additional costs, which you and I wouldn’t even have considered.

“We’ve got a couple of nurses coming over with four children. “So that’ll cost them about $24,000 [annually] in after-tax dollars, which really doesn’t make it viable for them to bring their families to Australia.” RBFI has 453 home care clients, 1,184 aged care residents in 22 aged are homes, and 20 retirement villages, some with co-located residential aged care and some with home care support. With the requirement for Registered Nurses to be on site 24/7 from 1 July 2023, Frank says the staff to meet this commitment simply aren’t there.

“The registered nurses simply don’t exist in Australia, so we’ve gone overseas to bring them in,” he said.

Earlier this year, The SOURCE reported that RBFI was spending millions on housing for staff in regional areas. Adding to the pressure for aged care providers attracting staff is the fact they are increasingly competing with State Governments developing policies designed to attract nurses to stretched public hospitals.

• The Queensland Government is offering critical health staff free or subsidised housing for workers moving to regional areas.
• The NSW Government is offering university fee subsidies of up to $12,000 for students who commit to the public health system for five years. Scrapping the public sector wage freeze will also boost nurse wages in NSW.

It’s impossible for aged care providers to compete.

Frank said the Department should review the definition of an RN, at least during a transition period to 24/7 RNs.