Workforce Survey Project

WA's inaugural survey of the community mental health sector workforce.

We are excited to be undertaking a historic project to conduct WA’s first ever survey of the state's community mental health sector workforce.

The survey results will provide a clearer understanding of the numbers and characteristics of those Western Australians who work in the sector, as well as the workforce trends, opportunities and challenges currently facing the sector as a whole.

Management and research consultancy firm, Human Capital Alliance, has been commissioned to develop and conduct the survey as well as collate the results.

How the survey results will be used

The results of the survey will be used in several crucial ways.

Advocacy – the data collected will shape our future advocacy efforts and help build a sustainable mental health workforce and system.

Representation – the survey results will ensure we accurately represent the needs of our members in the sector.

Workforce development – the results will inform our workforce development and training activities, as well as our proposals and advice to government on workforce initiatives for the purpose of system reform.

Data benchmarking – the survey will create a data set that can be built upon, added to and benchmarked against in future, to help recognise and understand changes in the sector over time.

National profile – adding Western Australian data to the results that have been collected over the past six years in NSW and the ACT will contribute to a national mental health workforce profile.

The role of the Project Reference Group

A Project Reference Group has now been established, in response to an Expression of Interest which was issued in July.

The group is made up of nine organisations from across WA's community mental health sector.

The Project Reference Group will oversee the project, providing insights and feedback on the development of the survey questions, as well as conducting pilot testing of a draft survey.

Project timeline

July 2025	Project launch. Expression of Interest issued to create a project reference group.
August 2025	Project Reference Group is formed and conducts its first meeting. Work begins on a draft survey.
September 2025	Pilot testing of the draft survey is conducted by the Project Reference Group. Feedback from the group informs the final survey.
October 2025	Survey goes live.
Early 2026	Survey results to be published and made publicly available.

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