Three Top Aged Care Issues On Our Radar in 2024

1.

An aged care levy

To recap, the two Commissioners in charge of the Royal Commission agreed that a levy of Australian taxpayers was needed to implement their reforms. However, they could not agree as to what form the levy should take^[3].

In June 2023, the Minister for Aged Care, The Hon Annika Wells, set up an Aged Care Taskforce to find a solution. A final report was due from the taskforce in December 2023 and we're yet to see it^[4].

No money means piecemeal reform or asking Australians to pay more. We're currently keeping an eye out for that final report and will keep our readers informed of any changes.

2.

Find me a workforce

You can have all the reforms in the world, but if you don't have the workforce, you're in trouble. Having a plentiful supply of good quality carers and nurses continues to concern us^[5].

The aged care sector may feel the pain more when, from 1 October 2024, 215 care minutes must be provided to each residential aged care home resident each date, of which 40 minutes must be provided by nurses. This is 15 minutes more care per resident per day after 200 minutes became a mandatory requirement from 1 October 2023.

While this is great news for residents, we need to make sure our aged care sector is being supported with effective recruitment drives, encouraging caring people to join our rewarding sector. We are hearing on the ground how difficult it still is to get good, reliable, skilled staff.

If you're an Australian receiving in-home care in a larger city, your roster of carers is constantly changing because those carers are enticed by the more stable hours and less 'running around' of working in aged care residential homes. Longer hours in home care each day does tend to secure a more 'stable' team of carers.

In August 2021, the Morrison Government announced funding of $91.8 million to selected organisations to help grow Australia's home care workforce by 13,000 by mid-2023^[6].

Just before the change of government in May 2022, six organisations were chosen to carry out this initiative which is called the Home Care Workforce Support Program^[7], and the deadline of delivering 13,000 workers was extended to March 2024.

In April 2024, we'll be looking out for the report on whether the sizeable investment delivered the numbers.

3.

Carriage of the new Aged Care Bill 2024

Public consultation on the exposure draft of the new Bill closes 16 February 2024^[8]. If you're interested, there's plenty of material for you to sift through to deliver informed feedback.

From our point of view, it is tremendous to see all aged care law and regulation in the one document, rather than three. The Bill's drafting is logical, in plain English, and a welcomed update to the existing dated legislation passed in 1997^[9]. The Bill also incorporates 33 Royal Commission recommendations that could only be implemented through legislation.

The challenge for the Labour Government will be to see this Bill through the House of Representatives and then the Senate in 2024. We'll be monitoring its progress as it is a significant and welcomed reform for the sector as a whole.