‘What more can we do?’
Aged care providers are doing as much as they can to be ready for 1 July, despite the lack of information making it an impossible task to achieve, says Ageing Australia chief Tom Symondson – who intends to hold the regulator to its promise of a proportionate response.
Four weeks out from the start of the new Aged Care Act and Support at Home, providers are anxious – but that’s due to the unknowns rather than changes coming, Ageing Australia chief executive officer Tom Symondson tells Australian Ageing Agenda.
Mr Symondson is in the middle of a national conference tour where providers are gathering in their home states to discuss the changes coming, transition challenges and strategies to address them.
“People are extremely anxious, but there’s a sense of ‘Look, we’ve done what we can do to be ready.’ There’s a lot of commentary that our providers won’t be ready, and they won’t be, but actually, the readiness is not because of a lack of effort from providers. It’s because there’s just so much that’s either unknown or still in draft,” Mr Symondson told AAA last Thursday following Ageing Australia’s state conference in Western Australia.
“Providers have worked their hearts out to be as ready as it’s possible to be. So there’s a sense of, ‘well, what more can we do?’ So whilst there is anxiety, there seems to be a sense of, we’ve been asked to do the impossible, and we’re doing as much as we can to deliver that.”
This sentiment aside, providers are not happy about the situation, added Mr Symondson, who will address providers this week in Melbourne at Victoria’s state conference.
“We should have had longer to implement this kind of reform. Everybody knows that.”
Instead providers are speaking to their colleagues about what they are doing to get over the hurdles and deal with the challenges. The latter, he said, includes:
- ensuring staff are not overwhelmed and can maintain good cultures
- achieving good retention rates and low turnover rates
- how to provide continuity of service and care to older people
- how talk to clients and families about the change so they’re as informed as they can be despite the missing detail.
“It’s [about] how do we do as much as we can do to make this work, recognising we are not where we would want to be if we had more time,” Mr Symondson said.
Peak prioritising ‘drop-dead’ concerns
A month from the start of the so called once-in-a-generation reforms, the top priorities for Ageing Australia are “drop-dead issues” like ensuring providers get paid in July.
“We need to be absolutely confident of that, and because the systems are so unready, which is what you’ll hear from every provider you talk to, that’s a big, big focus. It’s not something that can be taken for granted,” he said.
Ensuring organisations can continue to provide services even if home care agreements have not been signed is another, he added.
“Because we haven’t even yet been in a position to send them out, so making sure that we are able to continue to provide service when technically, without an agreement you’re not supposed to provide service. So those are the kind of focus areas that we have right now.”
“It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about the bigger picture things like fixing care management, like ensuring that residential care does start to become investable, all of those are still there.”
Four weeks out, Mr Symondson is telling providers to be as prepared as possible and that he will hold the regulators, including the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, to their promise of a fair response.
“The important thing is to be as ready as you can be so that nobody can say you didn’t do your bit. The big fear providers put to me is that when 1 July comes, there will be a tonne of bricks dropped on their head because they’re not ready – which they can’t be because it’s impossible.
“And so I’m saying to them, my job, Ageing Australia’s job, is to hold, for example, the commission accountable for what they’re saying publicly, which is, best endeavours is good enough. If you’ve got a plan to be ready at some point in the future, that is good. Not ‘Oh dear, you don’t have all of your home care agreements in place by 1 July, we’ll shut you down.’
“The commissioner has said that they will be supportive, that they will be proportionate, and their focus is on safety of older people. And if those things are not causing a problem for the safety of older people, then best endeavours is what we’re looking for.”
Peak establishing transition response team
To support providers during the transition, Ageing Australia is setting up a short-term response team to be able to escalate critical issues quickly to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and its own response team.
“Providers can come to us. They can say we’ve just had this issue, some terrible problem with a system in Services Australia, or some legal issue with one of the rules that’s incompatible with something else, and we can raise them and have them sorted quickly. Or at least get them raised quickly, because sometimes there won’t be easy solutions,” he said.
“The other thing we will be using this team for is making sure when information does come out, we quickly get it to the people who need it.”
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