Client Services Industry Reference Committee (IRC)

Industry Summary
Part A – IRC Details

Name of the IRC

Client Services
IRC members
Name
Jacqueline Brady
Domenique Meyrick
Philip Armstrong
Miro Lojanica
Jesu Jacob
Bernadette Gigliotti
Judy Williams
Helen Westwood

Part B – Industry Details

Industry areas (1,000 words, include attachments where relevant)

Overview of industry sectors / sub-sectors covered by the IRC, including:
• employers (size, local/state/national/global, government/not-for-profit/for-profit, key enterprises)
• key links with other industries and cross-sectoral work

Overview:
Client services represents a range of sub-sectors which primarily operate within the wider community
services sector. The VET Training Package specifically supports job roles across the following areas:

• Career development – is a service which is focussed on supporting people to understand

their skills and preferences, and develop them further to ensure individuals are equipped to
make good decisions about their working lives.1
• Celebrancy – celebrants provide a range of ceremonies and celebrations related to love, life
or loss.
• Counselling – is defined as ‘a type of therapy that enables participants to address their
troubles, concerns, and all complicated insecurities they have in a protected, non-judgmental
setting.’2 Counsellors work with all members of the community (i.e. adults, youth, children,
couples, and families) providing information, support and advice to address issues raised and
experienced.
• Financial counselling - financial counsellors provide information, support and advocacy to
people experiencing financial difficulty.3 Examples of financial difficulty include struggling to
purchase food, struggling to pay rent/mortgage and managing numerous debts. Financial
counselling is a free s and impartial service, funded by both the federal and state
governments.
• Employment services – involve a range of labour market services to support Australian job
seekers. Services are provided by employment services providers as contracted by the federal

1 Career Industry Council of Australia [Available at: https://cica.org.au/]

2 Australia Counselling. What is Counselling? [Available at: https://www.australiacounselling.com.au/what-is-
counselling/#:~:text=Counselling%20is%20a%20type%20of,is%20most%20appropriate%20for%20you.] [Accessed 23 May 2022]
3 Financial Counselling Australia. About Financial Counselling [Available at: https://www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au/fca-

content/uploads/2019/08/financial-counselling-infographic_2018.pdf][Accessed 23 May 2022]

 government, as well as directly from federal government departments including Workforce
Australia and Job Seekers.
• Child protection – services provide support and interventions to promote child and family
wellbeing. It is focussed on the protection young people (0-17 years) who are at risk of abuse
and neglect.4
[Note: The Client Services IRC oversees the training product CHC81215 Graduate Certificate
in Statutory Child Protection, however there are other training products which also cover child
protection skills training and which are overseen by different IRCs. For example, the
Community Sector and Development IRC is responsible for the review and update of
CHC40313 Certificate IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention and CHC50313 Diploma of
Child, Youth and Family Intervention]
• Family dispute resolution (FDR) - under the Family Law Act 1975, FDR is defined as a process
(other than a judicial process) in which an FDR practitioner, as an independent party, helps
people affected, or likely to be affected, by separation or divorce to resolve some or all of
their disputes with each other. 5 FDR Practitioners provide structured and objective
mediation services that allow individuals to safely negotiate agreements between separating
parties across family/parenting, property and finance areas.

A diverse range of individuals and families experiencing complex and at times sensitive personal and
professional problems access the services listed above and so the workforce is involved in supporting
an extensive number of people. For example, in 2020-21, 178,800 children under the age of 18 years
were accessing child protection services across Australia. 6 Just over 30% of Australians are
experiencing financial stress meaning they are having difficulties in paying for essential goods and
services.7 COVID-19 restrictions have meant that many individuals have had to adapt to working from
home and having limited contact with colleagues, friends and family. Mental health and general
wellbeing have been affected significantly.

While the labour market is reported be recovering well from the COVID-19 restrictions, registering an
unemployment rate of 3.5% (ABS June 2022), financial hardships are expected to increase across the
community. Trends regarding increasing interest rates, the rising cost of living, housing shortages and
affordability issues are forecast to add significant levels of financial burden and stress to households.
As the community adapts to the changing economic environment, the workforce delivering client
services will most certainly experience an increase in demand for its essential services and support.

Employer landscape and workforce:

Entities operating in the client service sectors outlined represent a range of public and private, small,
medium and large enterprises, and are spread across the country. A significant proportion of the
organisations within the scope of this IRC, however, are not-for-profit. For example, child protection
support worker roles, community workers, financial counsellors and case managers can be found in
the not-for-profit sector. Examples of sub-sectors that work outside the not-for-profit sector include
celebrants operating as sole traders, and certain counsellors operating in sole or multi-professional
group practices. Some examples and counts of relevant business types involved in hiring workers
across the sectors include:

4 Australian Government productivity Commission. Report on Government Services 2022. 16 Child protection services [Available
at: https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2022/community-services/child-protection]
[Accessed 23 May 2022]
5 Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), s. 10F
6 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, AIHW (June 2022) Child protection Australia 2020-21 ;Available at:

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2020-21/contents/about]
7 Financial Review (15 March 2021) Financial stress spreads to a third of Australians: survey [Available at:

https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/financial-stress-spreads-to-a-third-of-australians-survey-20210312-
p57a9w#:~:text=Overall%2C%2031%20per%20cent%20of,cent%20in%20April%20last%20year.]
 • 7,888 employment placement and recruitment services (ABS, 2021), with 68% of career
counsellors working in the education and training industry (i.e. schools, TAFE and Higher
Education) (National Skills Commission, NSC, Occupational Profiles 2022)
• 192 financial counselling organisations across 674 sites (supplied by Financial Counselling
Australia 2022)
• 221 non-government child protection organisations across Australia (Families Australia 2019)
• 695 public hospitals (2019–20) and 657 private hospitals (2016-17) (Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare, AIHW)
• 371 nationally recognised community housing providers (National Regulatory System1,525
• 296 disability support service agencies (AIHW, 2018-19).

Employers predominantly operate in the wider community services sector, and the diverse range of
roles and service contexts covered within client services means that it is difficult to group and define
the workforce. For example, there are roles such as support workers that span across other industries
such as health and can be referred to by different job titles such as a child protection worker, welfare
worker or family support worker.

Overall, the wider health care and social assistance industry is the highest employing industry in
Australia, with a workforce of 1.9 million (November 2021), and the workforce supported by the client
services CHC Training Package falls within this industry. The workforce for the client services sector is
sizeable with social and welfare professionals and welfare support workers alone represent 174,800
workers and 75,600 workers across Australia respectively (November 2021).8

Overall, there is significant shared content between the CHC and HLT Training Packages which are
reflected in the following cross sectors:

• advocacy • legal and ethical practice

• anatomy & physiology • policy and research
• communication • professional practice
• diversity • oral health
• information management • work health and safety
• management and leadership • first aid
• infection prevention and control • language literacy and numeracy

Regulatory context (200 words)

Brief description of relevant industry standards, licensing or accreditation requirement
The ethical framework for working in the industry has now largely been formally documented through
agreed legislative statutes. All work undertaken in the industry reflects understanding and
compliance with relevant local, state, national and international statutory and legislative
requirements, including those relating to:

• workplace practices
• human and civil rights e.g. all government funded organisations who work with children need
to implement and adhere to policies and procedures that give life to the National Principles
for Child Safe Organisations.
• specific client service delivery.

8National Skills Commission (NCS) 2021 NSC Employment Projections [Available at: https://labourmarketinsights.gov.au/our-
research/employment-projections/#5] [Accessed 18 May 2022]
All work undertaken in the industry needs to comply with accepted industry standards of ethical
practice, including those related to:

• client relationships
• financial management
• information collection, storage and dissemination
• workplace behaviours
• operation of community (and other) organisations.

Examples of specific areas and job roles where licensing and regulatory requirements are set include:

Financial counsellors are adept in a large scope of law and policy, including consumer and credit law,
debt enforcement practices, bankruptcy, industry hardship policies and government concession
frameworks. Due to the nature of financial counselling work, e.g. providing advice regarding credit
contracts or bank accounts, some activities are regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission (ASIC). Financial counselling agencies are exempt from needing to obtain relevant
licences, subject to their financial counselling staff undertaking adequate ongoing training, receiving
professional supervision and being eligible to join the peak financial counselling body in their state.

Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) Practitioners require a pre-requisite qualification in an area such as
law, social work, psychology or dispute resolution and must then be accredited with the
Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department in order to be classified as a FDRP (FDR practitioner).
To be accredited a person must meet the accreditation standards in the Family Law (Family Dispute
Resolution Practitioners) Regulations 2008.9

Part C – Industry Priorities

Major priorities for the industry sector (500 words)

Brief description of skills and training needs the IRC has focused on each year of the program and why these
were a priority. What are the current top 3 skills priorities for the sector?

Past Skills Priorities

Financial Counselling Training Package update 2022
One qualification, six units of competency were reviewed and updated.
The update was driven by the following:
• to address recommendations made in the 2018 Royal Commission into Misconduct in the
Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services
• to support the increased demand for financial services due to natural disasters and COVID
19
• to support workforce shortages; and
• to support small businesses to adjust to complex needs of the client.

9Australian Government (2017) Attorney-General’s Department, Fact sheet: Accreditation as a family dispute resolution
practitioner
Responsible online wagering services
One unit of competency was reviewed.
In response to the Review of Illegal Offshore Wagering, that identified a rise in online gambling and
the increased convenience of online wagering, the Commonwealth Government launched a National
Framework to provide strong consumer protection for Australians who wager online. The
development of an online training module for staff involved in providing online wagering services was
undertaken to assist in reducing harm and create a culture of responsible gambling.

Current and Future Skills Priorities

SkillsIQ’s 2022 Skills Survey, in addition with consultation with stakeholders across the related
community services sector has revealed that the key skills a worker requires are those which are job-
specific and technical for the job. For example, child protection officers, youth support officers and
other job roles involved in working with young people need skills for keeping a child safe, as well as
understand child protection practices. Financial counsellors need to have financial knowledge and
skills. FDR Practitioners provide specialised mediation/dispute resolution to a client group with
significant complexity, including family violence, financial hardship, mental health and substance
abuse issues and need knowledge and skills in these areas as well.

When enquiring on non-technical skills requirements across the workforce, the top short-to-medium
future skills needs identified for the workforce collectively in the survey reflected a number of soft-
skill areas - communication, teamwork and customer service.

Similar soft-skill areas have been voiced by employers via the Australian Government’s National Skills
Commission (NSC) occupational profiles. For example, employers of counsellors have indicated that
important skills and knowledge areas include social perceptiveness, active listening, reading
comprehension and speaking. 10

National qualifications not substantially updated11 since 2015, and where possible indicative timeframe for
when they may need to be reviewed (add additional rows as necessary)
Qualification code Qualification title Reason Timeframe for review
Celebrants and Pastoral Care
CHC41015 Certificate IV in Please advise need for Please advise timeframe
Celebrancy update and rational.
Employment Services and Career Planning
CHC41215 Certificate IV in Please advise need for Please advise timeframe
Employment Services update and rational.
CHC21415 Certificate IV in Career A review was due to be February 2023
Development conducted in 2020
however it was delayed
due to COVID-19.
CHC81315 Graduate Certificate in The impact of changes to February 2023
Career Development BSB modules in this
practice qualification means that it
needs to be reviewed and
updated.

10 Australian Government National Skills Commission (NSC) Occupational Profiles: Counsellors ANZSCO ID 2721 [Available at:
https://labourmarketinsights.gov.au/]
11 Includes where a qualification was solely updated to transition to the to the 2012 Standards for Training Packages
 CHC82015 Graduate Certificate in Please advise need for Please advise timeframe
Client Assessment and update and rational.
Case Management
CHC81015 Graduate Diploma of Please advise need for Please advise timeframe
Relationship Counselling update and rational.
CHC81115 A review was due to be 2023
Graduate Diploma of
conducted in 2020
Family Dispute
however it was delayed
Resolution
due to COVID-19.
Critical challenges and opportunities for this industry sector (1,000 words)
Summary of key challenges, lessons learned, and any identified opportunities (at local/state/national/global
levels) related to vocational education and training, including but not limited to:
• issues with the implementation or delivery of training
• challenges achieving stakeholder consensus
• intersections or collaboration across industry sectors.

Workforce challenges
As in other sectors, stakeholders across the wider community services sector have indicated that
COVID-19 and associated restrictions and requirements has been by far the most significant
workforce challenge experienced in the last 12 months, and the disruption continues to impact
stakeholders. For example, it has been creating general uncertainty in the operating environment,
and difficulties in maintaining staff motivation and ensuring mental health wellbeing (SkillsIQ’s 2022
Skills Survey). Skills shortages and staff recruitment are also key challenges faced by the sector, along
with government policy and legislation changes. For example, the various outcomes of key Royal
Commissions which impact the sectors of focus, including the current Australian Government’s Royal
Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability12 and the recent
Northern Territory Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern
Territory13 are identifying key skills and training needs for workforces.

Previous industry consultations indicated that challenges for the sector also included the adoption of
new technologies, low language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills and overall staff wellbeing and
retention.14

Client services sector and VET

Organisations operating across the client services sectors are diverse, and a variety of skills needs and
priorities exist across metropolitan, regional and remote locations. This therefore means that
reviewing and developing VET Training Package Products that provide the skills and knowledge
required of job roles, as well as achieving smooth implementation and the provision of quality training
outcomes are especially challenging. Some of the main challenges and opportunities identified
include:

• Competing views often existed during training package consultations. Differences in

preferred approaches, training content and skills priorities were often voiced by stakeholders
and captured in feedback therefore the IRC was fundamental in exploring the issues and the
associated evidence to make decisions that reflected the needs of industry from a national
perspective.

12 https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/
13 https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/child-detention
14 2019 Client Services Industry Reference Committee Industry Skills Forecast. SkillsIQ [Available at:

https://www.skillsiq.com.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/Industry-Skills-Forecasts-
June2017/2019%20Final%20ISFs/2019%20Industry%20Skills%20Forecast%20Client%20Services%20IRC%20Web.pdf]
 • Implementation issues for new VET training products include administrative burdens on RTOs
as they transition to deliver the new products. To ensure systemic issues are addressed and
effective implementation is achieved, the following measures are recommended:

• Strong and ongoing relationships between industry and training providers, and
industry involvement in the validation of learning and assessment materials/activities
• Robust and reliable assessment by RTOs, including in relation to prior recognition
practices
• The creation of new and improved training and assessment resources to reflect the
new and revised Units of Competency.

• Opportunities for the portability of skills across sectors has always been of focus of
consultation efforts, with industry and other stakeholders asked to consider the relevance of
proposed Training Package Products to their sector and business models. Training Package
Products have been developed in a manner which addresses the needs of a diverse range of
industry sectors and organisation types, allowing for portability of skills across the industry.

• Recent feedback captured from community services industry stakeholders showed that
important priorities for the VET sector in the short-to-medium future should be industry
engagement, achieving an increase in government funding for VET and employment
pathways.15

Moving forward these opportunities need to continue to be explored and ensure that there is cross-
sectoral consultation and collaboration between industries, the VET sector, and government.

IRC Chair/s

15
SkillsIQ’s 2022 Skills Survey – to be published