We asked Uniting NSW.ACT CEO Tracey Burton, Fronditha Care CEO Faye Spiteri, StewartBrown’s David Sinclair and COTA Chief Executive Ian Yates for their reaction to Tuesday’s Federal Budget – here’s what they had to say.
Tracey Burton, CEO of Uniting NSW.ACT
Tracey told The Weekly SOURCE she was “disappointed” in the Budget, which did not address aged care staff compensation.
“I think it was the perfect opportunity for the Government to address, at least with a placeholder, the urgent need for uplifting aged care workers’ salaries and wages. So it was, as far as I'm concerned, a missed opportunity, and now really places aged care and the wages issue as a key election matter,” she said.
UnitingCare has called for an extra $4 billion per year from the Government for aged care award wages; according to Tracey, research from Flinders University for the Royal Commission showed that taxpayers are willing to pay more if it meant the aged care system was properly funded.
“During COVID, people, the community, the voters have actually woken up to the plight of aged care workers – they’re widely recognised now as being heroes, but also widely recognised as being some of the lowest-paid people in the country. So, I think there’s a great alertness of the community to this issue,” she said.
While she did identify some positives in the Budget – for example, around $350 million to support medication safety and on-site pharmacists, and $20 million to help RACs transition from ACFI to AN-ACC – Tracey believes more is needed to help the sector.
“It’s about the people that we’re here to serve. Not the providers, not the Government. It’s actually about senior Australians and what they need, and unfortunately, it’s an expensive problem to fix,” she said.
Faye Spiteri, CEO of Fronditha Care:
Faye welcomed the announcement of the $216.80 starting price for the AN-ACC funding model, but said the organisation will need to receive the results of its shadow assessments to understand what the real impact of the additional funding will be.
“In a very quick analysis, we determined that that is potentially $20/30 a day more per resident, but it is still about getting that advice around what the Department believe our entitlement will be.”
However, the $800 payments for aged care workers – while appreciated – could be directed towards a more long-lasting solution for workers, said Faye.
“The Budget was interestingly silent on wage increases. [This] indicates to us that we will have to determine what we give our staff, especially in our EBA negotiations, from that extra funding we receive.
“We are very keenly aware that we need to give wage choices to our workers, and in a competitive market providers delivering NDIS are giving a lot more money. We want bilingual staff, and in a sector where our average hourly rate is $24 to $28 an hour, depending on what roles people have, they can go into NDIS and get at least $10 more an hour, and nurses too can go into the health system rather than the aged care system and earn more."
As a residential care and home care provider, Faye also considers that the Budget’s focus was still on residential care.
“We treat our staff as one organisation and we want equity across those teams that deliver in-home care, as well as those that deliver residential care because it is about a continuum of care,” she said.
"There were no announcements or conversation made about releasing more Packages or supporting providers in that space. As a provider who is strategically looking at built-in capability across its workforce to have that equity, it is challenging because we then need to ensure that we create that cohesiveness.”
David Sinclair, Partner at StewartBrown:
“The 2022 Federal Budget provided little significant additional funding for aged care. Most of the budget and reform initiatives announced by the Government formed part of the 2021 budget and Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook which included budget outlays of $17.7 billion over five years.
“The Budget included some specific initiatives which were not previously announced, including improved medication management and aged care training and governance, however there was little funding to improve the financial sustainability of the sector outside of increased respite care funding.
“It was noted that there was no funding to improve the remuneration of aged care workers, and it is likely that this will be addressed after the Fair Work Commission ruling has been given later this year.”
Ian Yates, Chief Executive of COTA Australia:
After his predictions last week, Ian says the Budget’s most significant announcement is the $216.80 base rate for the AN-ACC.
“The average per person per day will be $225, and that compares to the ACFI at the moment of 188.60. I’m sure providers will say that is not enough but in our discussions, many of them thought that it wouldn’t be much over $200,” he said.
“We will have to wait until the shadow assessments are released to know precisely how the funding will work.”
Ian also pointed to the $20 million set aside for the AN-ACC transition to assist providers where their AN-ACC scores fall below their previous ACFI allocations.
The CE believes the low amount indicates that the Government does not think many providers will lose out on funding – but COTA does want to see greater accountability on how the funding is spent, including how operators are meeting the 200 direct care minutes requirement when it is launched next year.
“If providers receive extra money, we want to see exactly how they spend it,” he said, adding that the minutes should be included as part of the new star ratings being introduced in December.
Looking ahead to the expected May Federal election, Ian expects the Government will release more information about the implementation of their aged care package including the roll out of new Home Care Packages.
“The wait times for medium priority clients varies on the level of package, but is now down to about six or seven months. They have not blown the trumpet about how far we have come.”
He also anticipates that when the Fair Work Commission (FWC) makes its ruling, the new Government will have to provide more funding to meet the cost, citing the previous increase to the Social and Community Services (SACS) award a decade ago.
“That was a staged increase and this one may be so also, but the State and Federal Governments paid for it.”
