News item | 30-09-2022 | 15:45
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) has today published the Future-proof Labor Market Care and Welfare (TAZ) programme. With the program, Minister Helder for Long-term Care and Sport wants to increase the job satisfaction of care employees and guarantee the accessibility of care in the future.
Minister Helder: “Together we face a major task in healthcare that we now have to tackle. Fortunately, this urgency is also recognized by the sector itself. There is a great need and a lot of energy to give healthcare employees pride, pleasure and control in their work. With this program we are taking the first step in a process in which employees are given more and more space. Space they deserve and need to continue working in healthcare. All parties in the healthcare sector are going to work with good employment practices, innovation and room for training. This way, the care worker can do what he or she likes to do best: provide good care to the client with passion.”
More control and job satisfaction
The starting point of the program is the agreement to maintain the ratio of 1 in 6 workers in the care sector. The economy and the working population cannot keep up with the rapidly increasing demand for care. To this end, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is focusing on more room for innovative working methods, more room for good employment practices and for training and development. By stimulating more control and thereby increasing job satisfaction, care workers should be retained for care. Good employership is crucial for this.
Together with care and welfare organisations, care purchasers, employees, trainers and professional organisations, the ministry wants to achieve this through, among other things, more flexible working hours and varied work. In this way work and private life can be better combined and the work pressure is reduced. There must also be sufficient internship and training opportunities that are appropriate to the changing demand for care in society. Students and starters are well supervised in a safe and inspiring working environment.
Joint task
From 2023, a total of 500 million euros per year will be available for the cross-sector collaboration that is needed to make the labor market in care and welfare future-proof. Concrete agreements follow from the program with employers, employees, professional and industry associations, education, healthcare purchasers and regulators. In this way, all parties contribute to the joint labor market task in health care. With a sounding board group led by Chief Nursing Officer Prof. Dr. Evelyn Finnema, healthcare workers within this program have a say in how good ideas can be put into practice.