New flexible funds – program consolidation

Funding the nation’s health and ageing priorities - a new way of funding as part of the government's health reform agenda

Introductory statement

Funding the nation’s health and ageing priorities

The Australian Government has introduced a new, flexible way to fund many of the nation’s health priorities, better reflecting the more responsive, connected health system it is creating as part of its reform agenda.

Funds overview

As part of this process, 159 health and ageing programs were consolidated within eighteen larger, flexible Funds with a further six programs transferred from the department to the portfolio agencies of Cancer Australia and the National Health and Medical Research Council. The creation of the Funds will, over time, reduce red tape, increase flexibility and more efficiently provide evidence based funding for the delivery of better health outcomes in the community.

A number of the flexible Funds are comprised of predominantly grant-based activities and these Funds have been designed to continue to support health priorities through the provision of grants, but in a more streamlined and flexible manner. This will reduce the administrative burden for grant recipients, leaving them more time to focus on their core business.

A number of non-grant related Funds have also been established, such as incentives for general practice (the Practice Incentives for General Practice Fund), medical indemnity support (the Indemnity Insurance Fund) and social health data priorities (the Health Social Surveys Fund), among others. These Funds have been established to improve administrative arrangements, and to provide greater policy flexibility over time.

New funds

Chronic Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Fund
Communicable Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund
Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund
Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grants Fund
Health Social Surveys Fund
Aged Care Workforce Fund
Aged Care Service Improvement and Healthy Ageing Grants Fund
Single Point of Contact for Health Information, Advice and Counselling Fund
Regionally tailored primary care initiatives through Medicare Locals Fund
Practice Incentives for General Practices Fund
Rural Health Outreach Fund
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Chronic Disease Fund
Health System Capacity Development Fund
Health Surveillance Fund
Quality Use of Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Pathology Fund
Health Workforce Fund
Indemnity Insurance Fund
Health Protection Fund

Grant related Funds
From 1 July 2011, funding recipients receiving grants for ongoing services continued to be funded under existing agreement(s) until 30 June 2012, or until they expired (whichever was later). After this time, further funding will need to be applied for through grant rounds under the relevant Fund(s).

Non-grant Funds
These Funds consolidated a range of programs to achieve streamlined administration and provide greater policy flexibility over time. Stakeholders will be consulted as part of the ongoing management of the Funds, in keeping with the department’s usual practice of working closely with its stakeholders in the design, implementation and management of programs..

Grant rounds
The Department of Health and Ageing has been undertaking grant rounds under flexible Fund arrangements since November 2011.

Funding rounds cover a broad range of activities targeted at building the capacity of the health and ageing sectors to deliver improved health and ageing outcomes.

The department continues to undertake both open competitive and targeted grant rounds consistent with relevant Fund guidelines. These approaches are advertised on the Tenders and Grants page of the department's website.

Resources

Budget link
Portfolio Budget Statement link