The Greens have called for an independent statutory body to oversee accreditation and complaints in aged care.

The new authority would also be responsible for benchmarking care costs, developing the sector’s workforce, investigating innovative models of care and providing advice to consumers.

The long-term recommendation comes as part of a broad-reaching discussion paper based on consultations with the sector and consumer groups.

The Greens’ health spokesperson, Senator Rachel Siewert, conceded that the body authority was an ambitious idea but she hopes the concept will generate constructive debate.

Senator Siewert said an independent aged care body would also be able to provide high quality advice to the government.

“One of the biggest problems we are having at the moment is that the government does not recognise, or does not acknowledge, that there is a need for substantial change from a funding and regulatory point of view,” she said.

“The management of the aged care system by the government is flawed but the department that is providing them with advice is also running the flawed system. That leads to obstructions and potential conflicts of interest.”

The Senator added that the proposed a body would help to ensure that the accreditation of residential aged care is focused on quality improvement and not punitive measures.

“A lot of providers have expressed concerns about the way the assessment process is carried out,” she said.

“They have said that they would like the process to have more input from their peers because they say that some of the assessment is done by people without much hands-on experience in aged care provision.”

In the long term, the Greens believe aged care consumers who have the means should be encouraged to contribute more to the cost of their care.

But Senator Siewert stressed that the system must remain sustainable and equitable.
 
“We do recognise that we need to be really careful in doing this,” she said. “We absolutely want to ensure that there is support for everybody, especially those people with lower incomes.

“I think there is room for change and we need to think about separating the costs of care and accommodation but we want everyone to be assured quality care.”

In the short term, the Greens want to see more funding for residential and community care packages in this week’s federal budget.

The party is also calling for $100 million to boost wages for care staff and $15 million for a national trial of teaching nursing homes.

Click here to see the Greens' discussion paper.