With the Aged Care Taskforce’s Final Report due to be released any day now, executives across the sector should be rallying themselves for the New Year when convincing the community of the need for funding reform – including Plan B – will be the top priority.
As we reported last week, Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells’ office has confirmed that the Taskforce’s Report will be made publicly available in December or January at the latest.
This piece of good news comes on the back of several positive changes for the sector in the last 12 months including a significant shift in funding – the recent increase in the AN-ACC price the latest example – and a new respect from the Government.
But there is no doubt that aged care is still doing it tough.
This year has seen a continued exodus of senior leaders with many leadership teams tired after years of COVID-19, ongoing financial and workforce pressures and the ongoing reform agenda.
As Respect CEO Jason Binder recently put it to The Weekly SOURCE: “The amount of change in aged care is brutal.”
The reality is that few operators have had the time or energy to raise their heads above the parapet and talk up the aged care sector in recent years.
But this is what will be required of the sector’s senior executives in 2024.
CEOs will need to talking consumer contributions
The first step following the release of the Final Report must be a national discussion on its recommendations – including the possibility of Plan B, or increased consumer contributions for aged care accommodation and daily living expenses.
As we also report in this issue, early insights from the Kantar Public research commissioned by the Federal Government earlier this year to look at “current and future consumers’ knowledge of the policies relevant to the funding of aged care services” found:
“People have limited understanding of how the aged care system works and how changes to the system will impact them.”
With the May Budget the next opportunity for any reform to aged care funding to be announced, this conversation will need to start as soon as possible.
Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA) CEO Tom Symondson recently told SATURDAY that his main priority for the next 12 months was rebuilding trust with the community.
CEOs should also consider this to be their main task when they return from the holiday break.
The message? The Final Report should deliver long-awaited funding certainty to the sector – but senior executives should begin preparing now to sell the need for change in the New Year.
