Achievements in Aged Care- First Anniversary Report Card

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1 December 2008

The Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot today released a Report Card of Achievements in Aged and Community Care – marking the first anniversary of the Rudd Labor Government.

The Australian Government is committed to improving safety and quality standards that protect frail aged Australians and ensuring the long-term viability of the aged sector through record funding.

Australians now have one of the longest life expectancies in the world due to advances in medicines and active lifestyles.

Currently, there are some 2.8 million Australians – about 13 per cent of the population – aged 65 and over. This number is expected to triple in 40 years.

This Government is committed to tackling the challenges of the 21^st century and responding to our ageing population.

In the last 365 days, the Rudd Government has:

• Begun investing more than $41.6 billion over the next four years into aged and community care;
• Increased funding to community care in 2008-2009 to $2.2 billion – an increase of $260 million over 2007-2008 – recognising that older Australians want to remain at home and independent as long as possible;
• Allocated 228 transition care places under its $293.2 million four-year election commitment;
• Offered $150 million in Zero Interest Real Loans as part of Round One of $300 million election commitment to create nursing home beds in areas of high need;
• Announced an Indigenous Aged Care plan worth more than $46 million;
• Introduced improvements to quality/compliance, including strengthening accreditation standards and processes, extending police checks and better arrangements for missing residents;
• Increased unannounced visits by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency to nursing homes to record levels;
• Selected Australian actor, Ms Noeline Brown as Australia’s Ambassador for Ageing;
• Expanded programs to retain, recruit and support nurses and personal care workers to the aged care sector; and
• Made improvements to aged care assessments, including a rapid response team and reducing duplication – helping older Australians access aged and community care services when they need them.

RECORD FUNDING

Over the next four years to 2011-2012, funding for aged and community care will reach record levels of $41.6 billion. No Government has invested more into aged and community care than the Rudd Government.

As at 30 June 2008, there are 2,830 nursing homes and hostels in Australia; 174,669 operational residential; 46,475 community care and 1,963 transition care places.

Funding in 2008-2009 for community care services will total $2.1 billion – increase of $209 million over 2007-2008.

For 2008-2009 alone, there will be an increase of 10.8 per cent in funding for aged and community care.

On March 20, the new funding arrangements – Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) – in residential aged care commenced which will see more than $1.13 billion in additional funding to the sector over the first four years.

In addition, an increase in the Conditional Adjustment Payment (CAP) in the 2008 budget will see an increase of more than $407 million over the four years to 2011-12 flow to the sector – bringing the total CAP funding for aged care to $2 billion.

Over the next four years, on average, we will provide on average, $41,500 a year a resident in subsidies a resident in Australian Government funded nursing homes and hostels.

PROVIDING MORE NURSING HOME AND HOSTEL BEDS

Over the next three years, the Australian Government will create more than 37,000 new aged care places – building on the 221,144 aged care beds and community care places already operational.

The Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) 2008-2009 application process closes
December 19.

In the 2008-09 ACAR Round, there will be 3,026 places in Queensland, 2,994 in NSW, 2,096 in Victoria, 1,544 places in Western Australia, 288 in South Australia, 214 in ACT, 206 in Tasmania and 79 in the NT. In total, there will be 10,447 places - nationally this year.

TRANSITION CARE PLACES

As of December 1, the Australian Government has allocated all 228 new fully-funded transition care places with 202 in operation. These places would benefit up to 1,710 older Australians – in a full year. It is a $293.2 million four-year plan.

Transition care can be provided for up to 12 weeks of care either in the client’s own home or in a home-like environment in a bed-based residential setting. It is about getting older people out of hospital sooner and independent as well as freeing up valuable hospital resources for those needing urgent treatment.

All States and Territories have received allocations for transition care beds. The Australian Government is now working with the States and Territories to prepare the next stage.

$300 MILLION ZERO INTEREST LOANS – MORE BEDS IN HIGH NEED AREAS

The $150 million Round One of the Australian Government’s $300 million Zero Real Interest Loans to construct/extend residential aged care facilities was announced on September 17.

Round One will create 1,455 nursing home beds and community care packages for older Australians in areas of high need, including 375 places in Western Australia and 154 places in Tasmania, which were undersubscribed in the 2007 Aged Care Approvals Round.
The process for applications for Round Two – worth $150 million – will begin in 2009.

INDIGENOUS AGED CARE

The Australian Government is providing more than $46 million to lift the standards of Australia's Indigenous and remote aged care services. The plan includes:

• The development of the first independent quality framework to set standards for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care services;
• A Peer and Professional Support Program to give aged care providers access to a range of support services such as locum relief and governance, financial and care management;
• A capital grants program to improve infrastructure including new buildings, refurbishment, staff housing and ongoing maintenance;
• An emergency assistance program, to provide short-term help in a crisis;
• Expanding employment and training opportunities for Indigenous people in aged care. This process includes converting Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) positions to paid employment in Home and Community Care (HACC) and flexible aged care services;
• Approving in-principle the establishment of a new aged care service in Mutitjulu and another in East Arnhem Land;
• Providing funding for aged care staff accommodation at Mutitjulu and additional aged care staff accommodation at Tjilpi Pampaku Ngara (Docker River);
• Completion of risk and safety site visits for all flexible Indigenous aged care services in order to identify and address any of these issues;
• Helping 11 flexible aged care services to improve their open pit fire protection; and
• Setting up the Indigenous Aged Care Taskforce in the Department of Health and Ageing to implement the $46 million Indigenous Aged Care Plan.

AMBASSADOR FOR AGEING

This was an election commitment. The Australian Government appointed actor and national icon, Ms Noeline Brown, 70 as the nation’s first Ambassador to promote healthy and positive ageing. In the United Kingdom, Sir Michael Parkinson holds a similar position.

Ms Brown has already participated in healthy ageing promotions including free flu vaccinations for the elderly, bowel cancer screening and nutrition seminars as well as conferences on community care, water safety and falls prevention.

IMPROVING QUALITY IN AGED AND COMMUNITY CARE

The Australian Government has undertaken a comprehensive quality program to improve the quality and care of residents in Australia’s nursing homes and hostels – after 12 years of neglect by the previous government.

While the vast majority of nursing homes and hostels are providing a world class care and accommodation, there are a small number that need to improve with support from the Australian Government.

There are currently sanctions imposed on 14 nursing homes out of a total of 2,830.

• Police Checks

From January 1, 2009, the Australian Government would extend its compulsory police checks for all staff working in Australia’s nursing homes and hostels – supervised and unsupervised. This would be implemented by changes to regulations which will be tabled in Parliament later this month (December 2008).

• Missing people

From 1 January 2009, approved providers will need to report to the Department any resident who is missing without explanation, whose absence has already been reported to the police. This will allow the Department to verify that the provider has called the family, and put in place preventative measures so that no other residents are at risk.

This would be implemented by changes to legislation and regulations. The legislation is currently before Parliament, and the amended regulations are expected to be tabled in Parliament in December 2008.

• Unannounced Visits

In the period July 1 2008 to November 15 2008, the independent Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency conducted 1,507 unannounced visits.

Overall, the Accreditation Agency plans to make 7,000 visits this financial year, of which at least 3,000 will be unannounced.

Since 1 July, there have been seven instances where sanctions have been imposed as a direct or indirect result of unannounced visits.

In addition, the Department of Health and Ageing has conducted 590 unannounced visits in the period – July 1 2008 to November 15.

Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency – unannounced visits

NSW/ACT	VIC	TAS	SA/NT	QLD	WA	Total
470	463	50	151	219	154	1507

Department of Health and Ageing – unannounced visits – unannounced visits

NSW/ACT	VIC	TAS	SA/NT	QLD	WA	Total
153	138	18	126	140	15	590

AGED CARE ASSESSMENTS

The Australian Government has introduced measures to reduce waiting times for assessments of frail older people to give them more timely access to residential and community care services. This includes funding for a new mobile Rapid Response Team in NSW and new legislation – which is currently before Parliament – to remove unnecessary re-assessments.

Approval for residential respite and high level residential care will not lapse automatically after 12 months – as is the current situation.

Removing the need for unnecessary reassessments in these areas will reduce the number of assessments by up to 30,000 a year from a base of up to 200,000 completed assessments.

SUPPORT FOR NURSES

The Australian Government has a number of measures, programs and plans to support nurses – particularly those working in aged care. They include:

Bringing Nurses Back into the Workforce in Aged Care - $6.9 million over four years was announced in January 2009 for the Bringing the Nurses Back into the Workforce for residential aged care. The Royal College of Nursing Australia has been appointed to administer the program. It pays cash incentives to returning nurses in two $3,000 (or pro rata) installments – the first payment six months after the nurse has returned to work and the second payment 18 months after their return.
In addition, $1,000 (or pro-rata) per returning nurse will be provided to the employing aged care home to assist with the cost of re-training and re-skilling the nurse.

Aged Care Nurses Scholarships Scheme – The Royal College of Nursing Australia administers the scholarship scheme which aims to encourage more people to enter (or re-enter) aged care nursing particularly in rural and regional areas. Undergraduate Scholarships are valued at up to $10,000 per year, up to a maximum of $30,000 an applicant. Postgraduate-Continuing Education Scholarships are valued at up to $10,000 an applicant.

The Australian Government has recently announced improvements to the Scholarships including:

• Allowing Enrolled Nurses to access continuing education scholarships;
• Increasing the number of scholarships awarded annually;
• Allowing Registered Nurses to access full postgraduate scholarships to study in Commonwealth supported places; and
• Developing a dedicated support system website to provide a communications hub for students.

(250 scholarships were awarded in last 12 months.)

In addition, the Postgraduate Community Aged Care Nursing Scholarship also administered by the Royal College of Nursing Australia provides scholarships to registered nurses/division 1 nurses wishing to undertake further studies, educational programs, workshops and conferences related to the community aged care sector. A total of 410 scholarships of up to $10,000 will be available over the next three years.

SUPPORT FOR PERSONAL CARE WORKERS

Better Skills For Better Care Program - This program funds the education and training of residential aged care workers through courses including Certificate III in Aged Care, Certificate IV in Aged Care, Certificate IV in Aged Care Lifestyle and Diploma in Nursing (Enrolled Nurse Qualifications). This provides a career path for workers to advance from personal care into nursing.

So far this year, nearly 5,000 places have been allocated at a cost of $29 million. A further funding round allocating another 5,000 places is expected to be finalised in December/January.

Support for Aged Care Training - This program provides training for personal care workers employed in smaller, less viable residential aged care services in rural and remote regions of Australia. The program is providing $30 million over four years through to June 2010 to assist upgrade the skills of personal care workers, increase the availability of skilled staff, and free up registered nurses to focus on the clinical care of residents.

A further funding round for the delivery of up to 1400 certificate level training places is expected to be finalised in December. This will support the close to 600 residential aged care services in these regions including Multipurpose Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flexible services, who provide such a valuable service.

Community Aged Care Workforce Program -This program supports training for personal care workers who are involved in the delivery of Australian Government-subsidised Community Aged Care Packages (CACP), Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH) packages and Extended Aged Care at Home Dementia (EACH - Dementia) packages. Round One was conducted in late 2007 with more than 3,000 places in Certificate III in Home and Community Care and Certificate IV in Service Coordination. A further funding round will be finalised in December/January, which should deliver close to a further 2,700 places.

For more information, contact Mrs Elliot's office on (02) 6277 7280

 

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