As we embrace hopes of a bright 2024, Australia’s aged care sector is facing the biggest year of reform in memory, and we need to embrace that as well. Funding is at the top of our agenda. For decades aged care funding has been left to wither on the vine, leaving the sector to wilt at a time when it should be growing.
We’ve also known for decades that the baby boomers are coming, with demand for aged care set to explode. There’s going to be a record number of older Australians entering care, and they have a higher expectation of what that care means than ever before.
Currently, aged care providers receive far less to provide accommodation and daily services such as food and cleaning than those services cost. That has led to the huge losses we now see in the sector, the lack of new and refurbished facilities across the country, and the increased threat of closures.
Despite significant investments from government in recent years, aged care providers are still struggling to keep their head above water with half still losing money. In any other sector, this would be seen as a national disaster.
We’re eagerly awaiting the release of the report from the government’s Aged Care Taskforce, which I was honoured to be a part of. We have high hopes that there will finally be a solution to aged care funding that’s fit for now and the future.
This is a once-in-a-generation chance to get the new legislation right
Tom Symondson
Finding enough workers to care for the growing number of older Australians is another challenge we must embrace and lean into reform with a focus on solutions. We need to take a fresh look at how to attract workers, and tailor the aged care workforce to the very different needs of Australian communities.
We’re calling for increased funding for education, easier pathways for migration, improved access to housing for staff – particularly in regional and rural areas – and particular help attracting registered nurses.
A new rights-based Aged Care Act is the other big reform for 2024. A new Act was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
This is a once-in-a-generation chance to get the new legislation right, so we have to make the most of the consultation process and take providers’ concerns to the government. It’s never easy, but we’re embracing reforms, as a means of growing and nurturing the green shoots of recovery in aged care.
Tom Symondson is chief executive officer of Aged & Community Care Providers Association
More stakeholder views from this edition
Why we keep talking about rights in aged care by Patricia Sparrow
More work needed on new Act by Dr John Chesterman
Reable the whole aged care sector by Dr Claudia Myer
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