Is your team stretched thin? We know the feeling!
Across the health, community, and government sectors, many organisations are feeling the pinch of workforce shortages. Increased service demand, staff turnover and unfilled vacancies are all factors adding pressure on frontline teams, and that pressure continues to grow.
But there’s a flexible and fast-response solution that’s often overlooked: locum support. More specifically, remote locum professionals who can step in and deliver social services support right away. Tradewind’s virtual locum service is designed to meet this need head-on.
To help organisations we've established a remote staffing solution, providing essential support to teams in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.
Here’s a guide demonstrating how a locum social services and education agency works, how Tradewind provides remote locum professionals and why organisations rely on our service.
What is a Locum?
A locum (formally known as a locum tenens) is a qualified professional who temporarily fills a staffing gap. While the term ‘locum’ is more commonly used in medical settings, locums are increasingly critical for temporary staffing across government, health, and community services.
At Tradewind, our locums are experienced practitioners ready to assist where and when you need them. Social services areas we support with locum professionals include:
Mental health
Child and Family services
Family Violence
Aged care
Disability services
Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD)
Youth
Housing/homelessness
Corporate services supporting front-line programs
Locum roles we regularly fill:
Case workers
Crisis response practitioners
Intake and assessment workers
Senior practitioners and team leaders
Telehealth and remote support specialists
Short-term project staff
Emergency or surge response workers
Administration assistants
Customer service staff
Whether you need one person for a few weeks or a coordinated team for ongoing support, our remote locum service can help you maintain service delivery without missing a beat.
Why Hire a Locum Social Worker?
In areas like health, community and social services, recruitment challenges are not exactly new! Yet the need for responsive and reliable staffing solutions has never been greater. Here’s how locum professionals can support your organisation:
Growing teams in need of interim support
When your team is expanding, but resources for permanent hiring haven’t caught up, locum staff can help bridge the gap. Experienced staff can temporarily step in as a locum, bridging the gap in between permanent hiring, working alongside FTE roles to keep services running.
Understaffed teams or hard-to-fill locations
Locums are ideal for roles in rural, regional, or high-turnover areas where recruiting permanent staff can be especially time-consuming or resource-intensive. Tradewind’s remote locums aren’t tied to location, so you can overcome one of the biggest recruitment hurdles.
Services under pressure from high demand
Backlogs, waitlists and unallocated cases put enormous pressure on teams. Aside from service disruption, these challenges can have broader ripple effects, like team burnout, which leads to higher staff turnover. Locums can step in to help clear the workload and provide timely support to clients. They are an excellent strategy for immediate sustainable service delivery.
Short-term projects that demand speed
Many projects, like pilot programs, service reviews, and targeted interventions, come with tight timelines. When engaging locum staff through Tradewind, you can access professionals quickly to get projects moving without long lead times.
How We Help You Hire Locums
Tradewind’s virtual locum service is purpose-built to help organisations deliver reliable services to the community, even when staff shortages are persistent or demand for services is rising faster than forecasted.
Because our virtual locums specialise in intake, crisis response, and case management, delivering phone based services remotely means minimal disruption to your day-to-day operations and immediate supports to your client base. Virtual staff quickly slot into your workflows with minimal lead time, saving considerable time and resources. Tradewind provide professionals who can start making a difference from day one.
Our service goes far beyond just filling a gap. Tradewind’s Virtual Teams recruitment strategy has been designed specifically for organisations in the government, health, and community services sectors. Our approach ensures you get:
Rapid deployment of skilled professionals matched to your needs
Minimal onboarding thanks to our pre-vetted and experienced candidate pool
Flexibility to scale up or down depending on service demand or funding cycles
Support for frontline roles across family violence, child protection, mental health, disability, aged care, AOD, disaster recovery and more.
Tradewind's virtual service isn't bound by location constraints. You get access to wider pool of talent, from experienced case workers to senior practitioners, no matter where your organisation is located.
Service That Goes Beyond ‘Temporary Staffing’
As Australia's leading social work and education agency, we know our stuff. We treat locum roles with the same care as permanent positions, and we’ve developed a solid support system to ensure virtual placements are a success. This includes:
Streamlined and tailored recruitment processes to meet urgent or specialised needs, whether it’s a single practitioner or full virtual team
Integrated systems for candidate screening, onboarding and consistent communication
Ongoing professional development and practical induction for all locum staff
A proactive employee wellbeing initiative that promotes personal safety, mental health, and physical wellbeing (supporting your organisation’s WorkSafe obligations).
Case Study: Locum Support for Family Safety Victoria
In August 2023, Family Safety Victoria and the Western Metropolitan Orange Door Hub faced an urgent staffing challenge. With large-scale, ongoing recruitment underway, they needed interim support to ensure vulnerable clients continued to receive timely assistance.
Tradewind responded quickly, partnering with the client to deliver a tailored, remote locum staffing solution. Within just three weeks, we successfully recruited and onboarded 2G qualified professionals, including 5 Team Leads and 24 Senior Practitioners, all with specialist experience in child wellbeing, family violence, and high-risk case management.
Key to the project’s success was our ability to:
Scale rapidly with 2G experienced remote hires
Deliver personalised onboarding and rigorous compliance to ensure seamless integration
Provide ongoing coaching, debriefing, and reflective practice support to locums
Maintain close collaboration with both the client and our locum staff throughout the project.
Initially planned as a 10-week engagement, the success of the project has led to our virtual team providing continuous support to Orange Door Hubs across Victoria, ensuring clients continue to receive real time support.
Get In Touch
If staff shortages are affecting your organisation, we’d encourage you to contact us to discuss how virtual locum support could benefit your teams. Tradewind continues to make a positive impact by providing ongoing locum support to organisations across Victoria. To find out more about how we can support your needs, contact our social services recruitment specialists today.