Providers told reform a time to reflect, strategise

The upcoming 1 July reforms should be viewed as a strategic opportunity, FTI Consulting senior managing director Nicki Doyle has told the AlayaCare Residential Aged Care Roadshow Sydney audience this week.

“You’ve got rules, you’ve got a whole lot of things that are going on. You need to make sure that you actually put that to one side and you’re really clear about who you are as an organisation and where you’re going so you don’t get lost in everything that needs to be done around the new Aged Care Act,” she told the breakfast event on Tuesday morning. “We are at a really, really interesting point in time,” she added.

Ms Doyle pointed to three key reasons why providers should be thinking about strategy:

1. during times of change, strategy keeps people grounded and helps organisations understand where they are going
2. there are parts of the Act that can and should be leveraged by providers
3. there is no forward agenda after the Act comes into effect, giving providers an opportunity to plan what they would like to see.

“Not since 2012 when the Gillard government had their Living Longer, Living Better reforms have we actually had a point in time where we are almost at the point where there is no forward agenda from government… Once we get to the 1st of July, there are no more reforms on the table at the moment,” she said.

“There’s no forward consideration, and we have no further vision about where government wants to take aged care… I think that presents collectively, for all of us in the room, a wonderful opportunity to actually start to be able to step back and think strategically about where we’re going.”

Ms Doyle also told providers that now was a good time to consider setting up and implementing consumer advisory bodies and rethinking client engagement processes.

“What is your vision around the aged care sector? And what do you need to do to start? Because we have a unique opportunity to actually shape where we’re going which we haven’t had since 2012,” she said. “So please make the most of that opportunity and I think it will be very exciting for everyone.”

Also speaking at the event was Mission Australia national service operations and reporting manager Amanda Sweeney, who agreed with Ms Doyle that this reform period should be viewed as a period of opportunity. She urged providers to keep moving with the changes, as clarity will not be coming any time soon.

“The reality of the situation we’re in today is we’re mere weeks away from change, and we don’t have all the answers,” she said.

“We’re still waiting on clarity around rules, we’re still waiting on various pieces of information. The Act refers to the rules 700 times, so we’ve got a bit of legislation that’s referring to something that we actually don’t know the detail of. So my advice certainly is, don’t stop, keep going.

“This is a fundamental change, and I think it actually comes down to a fundamental culture change as well.”

Instead of treating compliance exercises as a simple “tick and flick” exercise, Ms Sweeney told providers to look at how they can strengthen the industry and really cement person-centred care as a core practice.

“I want to challenge you to think about your capabilities,” Ms Sweeney said. “So what does capability mean? This is your people, your process, your technologies, your systems that are in place that actually support this reform, but also this is what you use every day to run our facilities.

“I think of capabilities like muscles. They’re the muscles you flex to lift things, to respond to things, to do things. So how strong are our muscles and how do we strengthen our muscles as we go through? Because this is a really good opportunity to work with, because we need to systematically review a lot of what we’re doing.”

In particular Ms Sweeney told providers to look at whether they have the right skills in the workforce, the right risk and governance frameworks in place, whether they are digital and data ready and whether they are financially sound.

“Without capability, you are going to be carrying more and more risk and you’re going to be continuously responsible,” Ms Sweeney reiterated.

She also emphasised the importance of demonstrable policy and processes that staff confidently understand.

“The clear message through the changes in the Act is, again, it’s no longer good enough just to have a policy and a procedure in place. It needs to be demonstrable. We need to actually show it in action, show that we’re reviewing it, show that we’re responding where it’s not working or where it is working, these types of things,” she said.

“That’s really the fundamental change that I see here. Again, go through and make sure that your guidelines and your care protocols are rights-aligned. And, again, we really just need to move from this intent or a policy to that actual evidence.”

Russell Kennedy aged care and home care principal Anita Courtney noted the new whistleblower protection at the event too, and encouraged providers to review their complaints and feedback policy.

“Whistleblowers is new and the point to make about whistleblowers is that it’s a much lower threshold than what we see under other legislation such as the Corporations Act,” Ms Courtney explained.

“Basically, any complaint where there’s reasonable grounds to suspect there has been a breach of the Aged Care Act can qualify for whistleblower protection, and that doesn’t matter whether it’s made by a staff member, a board member, or a care recipient.

“So what this means for staff who are receiving complaints is that they may need to be aware to ask a question of a care recipient as to whether or not they want this treated as a whistleblower complaint because if it is a whistleblower complaint, it gives the person anonymity and that needs to be respected, so it may not go in your normal complaints register.”

This complexity will require providers to ensure staff understand the rules surrounding whistleblower complaints and Ms Courtney encouraged providers to introduce a clear system that allowed people to choose how they wanted their complaint treated.

“It’s obviously a bit more significant with staff. So if staff raises a complaint, that means they can’t be subject to disciplinary action and so forth and I’ve got clients who are concerned that staff may use this… if they know they’re about to be somehow subject to disciplinary action, they may then raise a complaint, say they want it as a whistleblower protected complaint and then manage to delay them being disciplined or sacked. So that could be a difficult thing as well,” Ms Courtney explained.

“You must have a policy, and you must train your staff and responsible persons on that policy. So that is quite a big change.”

Comment on the story below. Follow Australian Ageing Agenda on LinkedIn and Facebook, sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter and subscribe to AAA magazine for the complete aged care picture.