Annual Report - Performance Information

PART 2: PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Information for Administered Items

Administered Funding - Aged Care and Population Ageing Programs, including:

Aged Care Assessment;
Aged Care Workforce;
Ageing Information and Support;
Community Care;
Culturally Appropriate Aged Care;
Dementia;
Flexible Aged Care; and
Residential Care.

Target:	Quality: Progress towards the provision of 88 operational residential places per 1,000 persons aged 70 years and over.
Result:	Target met.	At 30 June 2006, there were 85.6 operational residential places per 1,000 persons aged 70 and over.
Target:	Quality: Improvement in the quality of care and services to residential aged care recipients.
Result:	Target met.	At 30 June 2006, 88% of residential aged care services met the 1999 Certification Instrument, an increase from 62% at 30 June 2005. All services were required to meet the Instrument by 31 December 2005. The 12% of services that were not compliant are being closely case managed by the Department. 95% of services met privacy and space targets at 30 June 2006, compared with 93% at 30 June 2005. The Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency Ltd conducted 1,743 accreditation site audits, 64 review audits, and 3,190 support contacts - an increase of 12.6% in the total number of audits and support contacts compared with 2004-05. As at 30 June 2006, 93% of homes were accredited for at least 3 years, compared with 92% in 2004-05.
Target:	Quality: Progress towards the provision of 20 operational community care places per 1,000 persons aged 70 years and over.
Result:	Target met.	At 30 June 2006, there were 19.9 operational community care places per 1,000 persons aged 70 and over.
Target:	Quantity: Up to 30% of providers of Community Aged Care Packages, Extended Aged Care at Home, and National Respite for Carers Program services will have participated in the newly implemented quality reporting process.
Result:	Target met.	40% of providers of Community Aged Care Packages, Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH), and National Respite for Carers Program services participated in the newly implemented quality reporting process.
Target:	Quality: Improvements in the level of services provided through the Home and Community Care (HACC) program.
Result:	Target met.	Services were provided to some 744,000 people in 2004-05. Data for the first three quarters of 2005-06 indicate a growth of 5.5% in the number of HACC clients receiving services.
Target:	Quantity: Growth in instances of respite provided through carer respite centres.
Result:	Target met.	125,895 events of service were provided by Commonwealth Carer Respite Centres in 2005-06 compared with 125,627 in 2004-05.
Target:	Quality: Improvements in care and support for people with dementia and their carers.
Result:	Target met.	4 Dementia Training Study Centres and 3 Dementia Collaborative Research Centres were established and 41 community support grants were made. In addition, the Department allocated the first 667 EACH (Dementia) packages.
Target:	Quality: Improvements in access to flexible care places.
Result:	Target Met	The Department met its target of allocating 1,500 transition care places by 30 June 2006 as a new program. 200 new places were allocated to Multipurpose Services (MPS); the number of operational MPS places increased from 2,148 at 30 June 2005 to 2,259 at 30 June 2006. 915 new EACH and 667 EACH (Dementia) places were allocated in the 2005 Aged Care Approvals Round; the total number of operational EACH places increased from 1,672 at 30 June 2005 to 2,575 at 30 June 2006.
Target:	Quantity: Maintain or increase the number of assessments conducted by Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT).
Result:	Target not met.	In 2004-05, 187,723 assessments were recorded, of which 176,877 were completed. This compares with 190,203 for 2003-04, of which 176,955 were completed. The recorded small decrease can largely be attributed to the removal of the requirement for ACATs to re-assess residents ageing in place in residential aged care services, and continued improvements to data validation procedures. This information is reported for 2004-05, as annual ACAT data are not available to the Department in time for each year's Annual Report.
Target:	Quality: Improvement in the level of awareness of ageing issues and the role of older people in the community.
Result:	Target met.	The Department distributed over 8,000,000 individual information products to consumers. These included 60,000 copies of the Australian Government Directory of Services for Older People, which were distributed to aged care stakeholders, community organisations and consumers. Visits to the Seniors' Portal averaged 30,000 per month while more than 1,000 people attended A Community for All Ages - Building the Future National Speakers Series. Through its partnership with the Australian Local Government Association, the Department continued to help local government plan for an ageing population. The Department also sponsored the Senior Australian of the Year Award, the Older People Speak Out National Media Awards, Diversity@Work Employment and Inclusion of Mature Age Workers Award and the Master Builders Australia Lifestyle Housing for Seniors Award.
Target:	Quality: Level of service provision for frail older people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, veterans and older people in rural and remote areas.
Result:	Target met.	The allocation of aged care places for special needs groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, takes account of advice from the Aged Care Planning Advisory Committees on identified community need in each state and territory. These committees provide advice on comparative aged care needs across planning regions, including the needs of people with special needs. The committees consider data, local knowledge and input from the community, received in letters and submissions. Following an open competitive process, the Department allocates places to approved providers that demonstrate that they can best meet aged care needs within a particular planning region, community or group. In 2005-06, this process was applied to the 2005 Aged Care Approvals Round, in which 11,208 new places were allocated.
Target:	Quality: Increased training opportunities for the aged care workforce in order to improve skills and qualifications.
Result:	Target met.	The vocational training and education component of the Better Skills for Better Care program provided funding to train over 5,000 personal care workers in approximately 1,000 aged care facilities in full certificate courses ranging from Certificate III in Aged Care work to enrolled nurse qualifications. The Support for Aged Care Workers Training program in 2005-06 provided funding to train over 6,000 personal care workers in approximately 263 aged care facilities in Certificates III and IV courses and other short vocational courses. The Aged Care Nursing Scholarship Scheme offered over 340 scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate continuing education study. The scholarships are assisting people who wish to become nurses in aged care and enable existing aged care nurses to undertake a broad range of professional development opportunities. In 2005-06, the Enrolled Nurse Medication Management initiative through the Better Skills for Better Care Program offered funding to 28 registered training organisations to train 1,153 Aged Care enrolled nurses in medication administration.

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Performance Information for Departmental Outputs

Output Group 1. Policy Advice, including:

Aged Care Assessment;
Aged Care Workforce;
Ageing Information and Support;
Community Care;
Culturally Appropriate Aged Care;
Dementia;
Flexible Aged Care;
Residential Care; and
2005-06 Budget measures.

Target:	Quality: Ministers' satisfaction with the quality, relevance and timeliness of our advice for Australian Government decision making.
Result:	Target met.	Ministers were satisfied with the quality, relevance and timeliness of advice provided for Australian Government decision making.
Target:	Quality: Production of timely evidence-based policy research.
Result:	Target met.	The Department: funded a number of research organisations to produce 4 major reports about continence outcomes measures, and the incidence and prevalence of continence in Australia; supported the aged care workforce through the development of a range of evidence based best practice resources aimed at improving clinical care for residents; and managed the completion by independent consultants of the evaluation of a number of pilot projects trialling new approaches to the care of older people. These included the Innovative Care (Rehabilitation) Services and Retirement Villages Care Pilot programs. The reports are expected to be published in the first part of 2006-07.

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Output Group 2. Program Management, including:

financial management and reporting;
development and management of grants and contracts; and
administration and revision of legislation as required.

Target:	Quality: Administered budget predictions are met and actual expenses vary less than 0.5% from budgeted expenses.
Result:	Target met.	Administered budget predictions were met. Actual expenses varied by less than 0.4% from budgeted expenses.
Target:	Quality: Opportunity for stakeholders to participate in program development.
Result:	Target met.	The Department: supported the Aged Care Advisory Committee, which includes representatives of peak stakeholders and provides high level expert advice to the Minister for Ageing and the Department; consulted stakeholders on program development, including consultations on The Way Forward reform in community care and with specialised groups such as the Resident Classification Scale Working Group, the Transactions and Technology Reference Group (relating to eBusiness and payment related matters), the Aged Care Workforce Committee, the Dementia National Health Priority Taskforce and the editorial board for the Seniors' Portal; and consulted stakeholders on a range of issues, including: sexual and serious physical assault through the Residential Aged Care Abuse Taskforce; the evaluation of the impact of accreditation; legislation to improve protection of residents' accommodation bonds; and the quality reporting process for certain community care programs.

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