NSW Ministry of Health acknowledges the people of the many traditional Countries and language groups of New South Wales. It acknowledges the knowledge and wisdom of Elders who have passed, those of today and tomorrow and pays respect to Aboriginal communities of the land.
This initiative started in 2000 to support people employed as Aboriginal Health Workers and Aboriginal Health Practitioners (as outlined in Information Bulletin 2018/018) to collaborate and share information on career pathways, professional development opportunities and workforce initiatives across NSW.
The 2024 event will be held virtually on Wednesday, 31 July 2024.
The NSW Health Aboriginal Workforce Composition (Composition) is taking the next step up in growing a strong and culturally supported Aboriginal workforce.
The Composition aims to support local health districts, speciality networks and other NSW health organisations to grow and develop their Aboriginal workforce. The Composition shares the vision of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Strategic Framework 2021 - 2031.
The Aboriginal Workforce Composition was published on 18 December 2023.
The Aboriginal Workforce Unit (AWU) hosted the NSW Health Good Health - Great Jobs 2023 Stepping Up Forum over two days at the International Convention Centre (ICC), Sydney 9-10 February 2023.
Approximately 300 delegates attended the Forum over the two days with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal health managers and staff working across all professions including clinical, non-clinical and leadership roles.
We have received some positive news in relation to facilitating diversity in Government sector employment. The Government Sector Employment Rule 26, Employment of eligible persons, has been amended to include the whole government sector (including the NSW Health service) in its scope. The updated GSE Rule 26 took effect on 1 June 2016.
GSE Rule 26 allows agencies to target positions to 'eligible persons' who belong to one of the groups deemed to be disadvantaged in employment. This will remove the need to seek a separate exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Board to target a position for eligible persons covered by the Rule. The Rule also allows for such modifications to recruitment and selection policies or procedures as are necessary to facilitate the employment of eligible persons in the agency. These changes have been incorporated into the revised and finalised Recruitment and Selection of Staff to the NSW Health Service, PD2017_040.
Stepping Up is NSW Health’s recruitment resource for Aboriginal people. It aims to assist Aboriginal job applicants understand how to apply for roles in NSW Health, and hiring managers to more effectively structure the recruitment to roles within NSW Health.
For more information on Stepping Up, please see Projects.
The Aboriginal Workforce Unit (AWU) is part of the Workforce Planning and Development Branch of the NSW Ministry of Health. More information on the organisational structure of the Ministry of Health is available.
Our core business is:
Information from Aboriginal Affairs NSW, key data - NSW Aboriginal people, September 2020 states there were 265,685 Aboriginal people living in NSW, representing 33.3% of the Aboriginal population of Australia and 3.4% of the NSW population.
The Aboriginal Workforce Unit connect with a number of agencies /groups / organisations across the health sector to support their work. These include:
