Response to Consultation on the Draft Outline of the National Allied Health Workforce Strategy

This response to the Department of Health and Aged Care’s May 2024 consultation on the draft outline of the National Allied Health Workforce Strategy reproduces Research Australia’s answers to an online survey. Its central argument is that the Strategy should recognise allied health clinician researchers, practitioners who combine clinical work with research, as a means of building a self-improving allied health sector and retaining experienced staff. Research Australia proposes an additional goal to develop a workforce that generates and implements evidence-based practice, supported by more clinician researchers at all career stages, career pathways that allow movement between practice, research and teaching, and more research funding. It identifies further issues for the Strategy, including keeping skills current, opportunities to join clinical research teams, co-design with consumers, pathways for overseas-trained practitioners, transdisciplinary models of care and the split between state and federal funding. It recommends practitioner-led research and flexible training and placement pathways to grow the First Nations and culturally diverse allied health workforce, noting that the shift to graduate-entry Masters degrees limits access. Recommended priorities include university and health service partnerships, research training across the spectrum from research-aware to research leader, and industrial awards that recognise clinician researcher roles. To measure impact, it suggests periodic workforce and exit surveys and better reporting of research activity in health services, citing the Victorian Allied Health Research Framework as a model.