More health workers, teachers and police boost frontline services for Qlders

Published Thursday, 21 December, 2017 at 04:01 PM

Premier and Minister for Trade
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

The latest report on the Queensland Government’s workforce highlights additional staff for the priority areas of health services, education and police during the September 2017 quarter, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

The Premier said the Public Service Commission quarterly data showed the number of full-time equivalent staff employed by the Queensland had increased to 218,990.5, a net increase of 1412.61 FTE or 0.65 per cent since June 2017.

“The areas of growth are areas of priority for Government – health, education and police,” the Premier said.

“In Queensland, more than nine out of 10 public servants are delivering frontline and frontline support roles, providing services direct to the community,” she said.

There was an increase of 728.98 FTE frontline and frontline support roles in Health including:

•             Sunshine Coast HHS – 183.51 FTEs  with continuous development of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital;

•             Metro South HHS – 149.51 FTEs  with growth in eHealth projects including Digital Hospital, additional workforce at Logan Hospital, additional nursing workforce at QEII Hospital and additional nursing workforce in addiction and mental health services;

•             Gold Coast HHS – 118.32 FTEs  with growth in additional workforce in cancer services at Robina Hospital, and Gold Coast University Hospital;

•             Mackay HHS – 76.76 FTEs to respond to demands on services;

•             Metro North HHS – 70.91 FTE with growth in additional operational workforce in patient support services at Royal Brisbane and Royal Women’s Hospitals, additional nursing workforce at Prince Charles Hospital.

In terms of Education, the net increase in staff is 459.9 FTEs, including 296 more teachers, 141 more teacher aides, 17 more corporate roles and 11 more cleaners.

Meanwhile, Queensland Police Service had a net increase of 126.36 FTEs, primarily due to the graduation of recruits to become police officers.

Over the September 2017 quarter, Department of Justice and Attorney-General had a net increase of 112.74 FTEs with 62.73 of those FTEs in Queensland Corrective Services as part of the Government's response to Queensland Parole System Review recommendations and an increase in custodial correctional officers due to the increase in prisoner numbers, ensuring the protection of the Queensland community, another 35.52 FTEs increase in Youth Justice Services is mainly due to the number of staff to support the transition of 17 year olds into the Youth Justice System and an increase in the number of youth workers to ensure protection of the Queensland community against youth offending, and 11.73 FTE increase in Justice Services is mainly due to the increase in staff for Office of Public Guardian due to growth in children and young people going into care, growing guardianship appointments and impacts of progressive implementation of the NDIS across the State.

Media contact: Kirby Anderson (Premier's office) 0417 263 791