The health and community arm of the Uniting Church of Queensland has confirmed home care jobs will be cut as the retirement living, home care, and residential aged care provider prepares for the new Aged Care Act.
More than 100 staff will reportedly lose their jobs, however, BlueCare has confirmed that none of the redundancies will be made to frontline staff.
UnitingCare Queensland also laid off about 2% of its workforce, or around 340 employees, due to "proposed structural changes" early last year, including BlueCare workers.
BlueCare told The Weekly SOURCE, "proposed structural changes .... will see some reduction in roles throughout BlueCare, as part of a strategy to position itself for operational sustainability with the introduction of the Australian Government Aged Care Reforms".
Maria McLaughlin-Rolfe (pictured right), Acting Group Executive overseeing BlueCare at UnitingCare Queensland, said BlueCare's Neighbourhood home care model, introduced 18 months ago, has been "very successful" but "opportunities have been identified to create further improve the experiences for clients in readiness for reform.
“Regrettably, this change and the impact of reform means some roles are no longer viable or required."
Last month, Uniting Care Queensland sold seven BlueCare aged care homes and four co-located retirement villages to Not For Profit aged care turnaround specialists Respect Aged Care.
UnitingCare Queensland is a conglomerate of household care brands, including BlueCare, UnitingCare, ARRCS, Lifeline in Queensland, The Wesley Hospital, Buderim Private Hospital, St Stephen’s Hospital and St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital. It owns and operates 36 retirement villages, 46 residential aged care homes with 3,419 beds and serves 54,876 clients in the community.
