[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘GO7752 Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme (ACVVS)’, ‘Grant Opportunity 2026/27 to 2030/31’, ‘Industry Briefing’, ‘Leigh Westcott, Acting Director, Advocacy and Volunteering’, ‘Craig Mastersson, Assistant Director, ACVVS’, ‘health.gov.au/acvvs’]
[The visuals during this webinar are of each speaker presenting in turn via video, with reference to the content of a PowerPoint presentation being played on screen]
Leigh Westcott:
Good afternoon everyone and thank you all for attending today’s webinar. I’m Leigh Westcott, Acting Director of the Advocacy and Volunteering Section of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. I’m co-hosting this event with my colleague Craig Mastersson, Assistant Director of the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme. The purpose of the industry briefing is to provide information for applicants and interested parties on the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme Grant Opportunity for 26/27 to 2030/31, noting it is a condition of the grant that applicants must attend an online grant round industry briefing or review the webinar recording.
There will be a Q&A session at the end of the presentation and you can submit questions in the Q&A function. You will need to click on the Q&A icon at the top of your screen to activate the function before submitting any questions. We will attempt to respond to as many questions as possible during the webinar however all questions and answers including ones that we don’t get to today will be published in an FAQ document on our website. Questions pre-submitted during the registration process have also been considered for today’s Q&A session. We sometimes receive questions that are a little unclear or not directly relevant to the scope of this webinar. If we’re unable to answer any question during the session rest assured we’ll follow up with the relevant area in the Department and respond through the FAQ document. There is no option for attendees to turn on their video or microphone so as I said if you can pop any questions you have into the Q&A function.
Webinar slides are available on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website and this session is being recorded and will be published on our website in the coming days.
I’ll begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we are virtually meeting today. I’m based in Canberra on the lands of the Ngunnawal people. I acknowledge and pay my respect to their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region. I also extend that acknowledgment and respect to other families with a connection to this region and any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who are here with us today.
I’ll provide some brief background on the program before handing over to Craig to talk more about the Grant Opportunity details. The Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme commonly referred to as ACVVS commenced on 1 July 2023 replacing the Community Visitors Scheme, a Commonwealth funded program that ran for more than 30 years. The current ACVVS grant concludes on 30 June 2026 and the Department’s now seeking applications from organisations to deliver the program over a five year period from 1 July 2026 through to 30 June 2031.
Since its inception the program has expanded its reach providing an increasing number of visits to older people in residential aged care and community settings. Over the past two years ACVVS has delivered more than 650,000 volunteer visits to older people nationwide. The aim of ACVVS is to improve quality of life for recipients of residential aged care and Support at Home services. This is demonstrated through outcomes such as a general feeling of wellbeing, increased selfesteem and sense of purpose, a sense of connectedness to the individual’s culture and identity, a sense of connectedness and increased interactions to other care recipients in the residential aged care homes, reduced feelings of loneliness and isolation and reduced feelings of depression and anxiety. ACVVS will continue to focus on older people from particular linguistic, cultural and vulnerable backgrounds or circumstances who may be at greater risk of social isolation.
I’ll now hand over to Craig. Thank you.
Craig Mastersson:
Thank you Leigh. The Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme GO7752 Grant Opportunity will offer three activities. Activity one is the service delivery of ACVVS to Australian Government subsidised residential aged care and Support At Home recipients. Activity two is the ACVVS network member role to support ACVVS community organisations in their state or territory. Activity three is the Community of Practice Coordinator role to undertake collaboration and knowledge sharing across the ACVVS network.
There is just over $186 million in grant funding available over the five years from 2026/27 to 2030/31. For activity one service delivery organisations will be funded per ACVVS visitor placement at $1,970 per annum. For activity two there is funding of $20,000 per annum for each network member jurisdiction plus an ACVVS visitor placement levy and travel allowance. For activity three $20,000 per annum funding is available for each Community of Practice Coordinator role. It is important to note that existing placements within community organisations currently delivering ACVVS under the GO5795 grant are not automatically carried over. You must apply to this grant round to have the opportunity to continue delivering ACVVS from 1 July 2026.
Another important thing to note is if you are successful in the Grant Opportunity to deliver ACVVS services the number of ACVVS visitor placements awarded to your organisation may differ from the number you nominate in your application.
Under the grant activity ACVVS activity one is available to recipients of Australian Government subsidised residential aged care or Support at Home services. This includes care recipients approved and on the waiting list or national priority system for these services. Commonwealth Home Support Program recipients are not eligible for ACVVS unless the Commonwealth Home Support Program recipient is approved or waitlisted for residential aged care or Support at Home services. ACVVS volunteers must be a minimum of 18 years of age reflecting the level of maturity required to engage safely and meaningfully with older individuals including the potential to navigate sensitive situations such as illness, cognitive decline or the passing of a recipient.
Visit types offered under this grant round include one on one in person visits to Support at Home recipients, one on one in person visits to residential aged care recipients, and one on two in person visits to residential aged care recipients. A one on two visit is otherwise known as a dual visit. Dual visits may be offered when a recipient feels more comfortable meeting with their volunteer visitor alongside another recipient. Group visits are not offered under this grant round to ensure a strong focus on fostering genuine one on one friendships and meaningful companionship.
The ACVVS website features many examples of successful volunteer recipient friendship matches. These include Peter and Jack and Annie and Matilda. To ensure the intended outcomes of ACVVS are achieved person centred matches should occur with the intent that the matched volunteer visitor would ideally visit with the recipient for at least six to 12 months. If a potential volunteer visitor is only available to participate in the program for six to eight weeks this would not be considered as meeting the intended outcomes of the ACVVS program.
The grant is offered under the Aged Care Act 2024 which will commence on the 1st of November 2025. The Aged Care Act focuses on the right of the older person and ensures the older person is at the centre of every decision made about their care. ACVVS is officially recognised as a grant activity of the Aged Care Act 2024 and ACVVS volunteer visitors are defined as aged care volunteer visitors. An aged care volunteer visitor means a person who volunteers for or is otherwise engaged by a personal body that receives financial assistance under grants recognised by the Act and implements that purpose by visiting individuals accessing funded aged care services to provide companionship, social support or friendship to those individuals who are socially isolated or at risk of social isolation.
Importantly the Act strengthens the ability of the aged care volunteer visitor to access aged care recipients ensuring they can continue to offer meaningful social connection. Section 156 states it is a condition of registration that a registered provider of a kind prescribed by the rules must allow and facilitate access by aged care volunteer visitors to an individual to whom the provider delivers funded aged care services.
While the Aged Care Act 2024 includes volunteers in its broader definition of aged care workers the ACVVS volunteer visitors are defined separately as aged care volunteer visitors due to their unique role and purpose.
To ensure effective delivery of activity one the roles of both the community organisation and the community organisation’s nominated volunteer coordinator are detailed under section 5.3 of the ACVVS National Guidelines. Minimum duties include appointment of a volunteer coordinator and facilitating introduction to the network member, promoting the program to actively seek recipient referrals and recruiting volunteers, maintaining high levels of communication and positive relationships with network members, aged care providers and recipients, as well as establishing and maintaining strong collaborative partnerships with fellow ACVVS community organisations, volunteer coordinators within their contracted aged care planning regions. And additionally maintaining access and regular engagement with the ACVVS Community of Practice portal which provides access to resources including ACVVS guides, templates, good news stories, webinars and KPI reporting tools. I’d like to emphasise it is important to carefully review the National Guidelines when preparing your application.
Community organisations will be required to deliver a minimum of 40 ACVVS visitor placements per annum in either Support at Home, residential aged care or a combination of both settings. Applicants unable to meet this criteria due to exceptional circumstances such as geographical distance or serving a particular diverse, vulnerable or cultural population may submit an exemption request for a reduced number of ACVVS visitor placements in their application. Please note exemptions will not be granted after Grant Agreement is executed.
To accommodate changes in recipient care needs and service types the ACVVS Agreement allows for flexibility to move visitor placements between the two contracted service types. This is for up to 25% of total placements awarded under the executed Agreement. Community organisations may be awarded placements on a state and territory basis rather than by aged care planning region if they are awarded 75 or fewer ACVVS visitor placements and 80% or more of their visitor placements target a single diverse, vulnerable or cultural group as outlined in section 2.1 of the National Guidelines.
Under this grant round community organisations that are approved aged care providers for Support at Home or residential aged care services must ensure that at least 50% of their visitor placements are delivered to recipients outside of their own organisation. Applicants that believe they are unable to deliver the 50% external placement requirement due to exceptional circumstances may submit an exception request noting exemptions will not be granted after the Grant Agreements are executed. Community organisations will be required to report on placement delivery in their six monthly reporting indicating whether each recipient is a client from within their organisation or from outside their organisation.
To support the delivery of complex ACVVS visitor placements the Department is introducing a new funding element to this grant round, the Complexity Placement Levy or CPL. CPL provides an additional 10% in funding for visitor placements categorised as complex. Application of CPL funding is optional and it is not applicable to all ACVVS visitor placements as CPL funding is capped at a total of 1,000 volunteer visitor placements. Applicants can nominate up to 50% of their total awarded ACVVS visitor placements for CPL. For example if applying for a total of 40 ACVVS visitor placements you can also choose to apply for CPL for 20 of the 40 placements. Funding for CPL will be prioritised for placements serving the older people of First Nations, LGBTIQ+, rural and remote clients in areas defined under the Modified Monash Model as MMM4 through to MMM7 and CALD recipients who are not fluid in English and converse in native speaking small language communities.
ACVVS remains focused on delivering face to face in person visits for genuine social connection. In rare cases non-face to face visits may be approved for recipients of Support at Home or residential aged care when none of the standard minimum 20 in person visits can occur. These exceptions may apply due to the geographical distance between the recipient and volunteer, recipient’s illness or the recipient’s preference for non-contact visits. For example exceptional circumstance placements may be undertaken if a recipient lives in a rural or remote community which lacks suitable volunteers or environmental circumstances such as hoarding prevents in person visits.
Aged care recipients must agree to these exceptional alternative arrangements to facilitate the delivery of exceptional circumstance visits. Non-face to face visit mediums include virtual platforms such as Facetime Messenger, Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp, telephone calls, emails and/or letters. All non-face to face visits must be recorded in the biannual reporting.
To ensure regular contact and genuine friendship and companionship is maintained nonface to face visits may be temporarily substituted for scheduled in person face to face visits. For example substitution may occur when the recipient or volunteer has been exposed or potentially exposed to a virus and is unable to attend the scheduled meeting location in person. The one off virtual visit should then be recorded as a non-face to face visit in the reporting system. Non-face to face visits do count towards the KPI 1 minimum 20 visits per year however ACVVS remains focused on delivering face to face in person visits for genuine social connection. From time to time the Department may seek additional deidentified information in relation to reported exceptional circumstances and temporary substitution visits.
Funded organisations will be required to submit performance reports every six months. The Department of Social Services Community Grants Hub will oversee and manage the performance of all ACVVS Grant Agreements. This includes liaising with community organisations in relation to the day to day management of the Grant Agreement, responding to queries from community organisations to ensure consistency in the implementation and operation of the ACVVS program and ensuring value for money is provided and that the visitor placements are delivered. Community organisations delivering activity one must report on their KPIs and the demographic data of ACVVS recipients and volunteers. All recipient and volunteer data must be deidentified to protect the privacy of recipients and volunteers.
The Department notes that community organisations may also be able to deliver more visitor placements than originally awarded if the capacity and funding allows. As of 31 December 2024 23% of ACVVS community organisations are delivering above 100% of their funded placements under the current grant round.
ACVVS network members represent and support community organisations to deliver the program in each jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions combine a state and territory. One network member is funded for each of the six jurisdictions being New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Successful applicant organisations for activity two must nominate an individual to the role of the network member to facilitate links between ACVVS community organisations and the Department and to provide support to ACVVS community organisations in their jurisdiction. A portion of network member funding is specifically allocated to travel to ensure the network member can undertake the necessary engagement with community organisations within their jurisdiction. Applicants must be able to demonstrate the individual that they would nominate to undertake the network member role has strong knowledge and understanding of the ACVVS program and how it operates. For further information about activity two please refer to the network member role in the National Guidelines under section 5.2.
The Community of Practice Coordinator plays a key role in supporting the functionality and delivery of the Community of Practical Portal on the Department’s SharePoint website. The coordinator role helps to promote shared knowledge across the ACVVS network, encourages the cultivation of best practices and fosters innovation in volunteer engagement and program delivery. Applicants of the Community of Practice Coordinator role must also apply and be successfully awarded the network member role under this grant round to be considered for the Community of Practice Coordinator role. The successful community organisation will provide an individual to undertake both the network member role and the Community of Practice Coordinator role. For full details please refer to the Community of Practice Coordinator role in the National Guidelines under section 5.4.
ACVVS reports will be submitted on the Community of Practice Portal using Excel templates provided by the Department. Reporting requirements for funded community organisations will include but not limited to the quarterly reporting which will report on vacant or unallocated visitor placements. The biannual reporting every six months will measure organisational performance and include progress against agreed grant activity key performance indicators, deidentified volunteer demographic details, deidentified recipient visit and demographic details, consortia members and any engaged subcontractor details. As part of the biannual reporting organisations must confirm that all volunteer visitor and recipient matches are delivering the objective of genuine friendship and companionship. They must also confirm that the activity work plan is delivering effective outcomes and that their organisation is complying with the Grant Agreement’s terms and conditions, associated legislation and regulations.
In addition to the biannual reporting every six months community organisations must provide financial data reporting each year detailing the expenditure of their awarded grant funding. Financial expenditure is reported across seven expenditure categories and also reports on the number of FTE, full time equivalent frontline staff employed to deliver the ACVVS service.
Network members and Community of Practice Coordinators are required to undertake biannual six month reporting on progress against their KPIs as well as annual reporting on financial expenditure categories. All reporting must be submitted by the ACVVS Community of Practice Portal on the provider Departmental templates by the required due dates. I’ll now hand back to Leigh.
Leigh Westcott:
Thanks Craig. To support applicants to develop a high quality submission the following slides highlight some key considerations and best practices for completing your ACVVS grant application. Please refer to the ACVVS 26/27 to 2030/31 FAQs for all tips. Late submissions will not be accepted. It is recommended that you submit your application at least three hours before closing time to allow sufficient time to address any technical issues you may experience. You can submit up to three applications for this grant opportunity, one for each activity. The application form is set up for activity one. If you’re applying for activities two or three you’ll need to enter zero under compulsory placements and select ‘both’ for service types.
If more than one application is submitted for the same grant activity in one location the last valid application submitted before closing time will progress. The online application form does not support formatting in text fields. If you copy and paste text from a document into the application form you may encounter issues and the formatting will be automatically removed. Only one user can edit the form at a given time. To avoid data conflicts or errors multiple users should not access or attempt to edit the form simultaneously. Again any questions which are not responded to during this webinar will be responded to via an update to the FAQ document.
Applicants must complete the activity work plan as part of their application. This Excel file has a total of 11 tabs. Applicants are strongly encouraged to refer to sections 7.1.1, 7.1.2 and 7.1.3 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines which clearly outline which tabs must be completed for each activity. Each tab includes instructions and you’re only required to complete the tabs relevant to your application. For example if you’re applying for activity one service delivery you must complete the AWP nomination table A1.1 which specifies the number of places your organisation is applying for and your relevant aged care planning region, AWP diversity table A1.2 where applicants can identify their capacity to provide specialist services to diverse, cultural and vulnerable recipients, AWP complexity table 1.3 which needs to be completed if your organisation is applying for the complexity placement levy, AWP delivery table A1.4 where your organisation will describe how it will deliver ACVVS, the indicative activity budget table A1.5 where applicants indicate how grant funds will be spent based on the number of nominated placements and also include the number of full time equivalent frontline staff allocated to the program, and also the risk management plan table A.3 where organisations identify potential risks and mitigation strategies.
Activities two and three will be completed in different coloured tabs to activity one and the risk management plan must be completed by all activity applicants. All applicants for activities one, two and three must submit the activity work plan in the provided Excel template.
On this slide we’ve listed some key information and contacts and encourage you all to reach out to the appropriate contact for any queries you have with your grant application. We now have time to answer some questions and we’ll start with answering some of the pre-submitted questions that were sent in.
The first question for you Craig is:
Q: There are multiple competing priorities at the moment not least with end of year ACVVS KPI reporting due. Why has the Department decided to open the grant round now?
Craig Mastersson:
Thanks Leigh. The Grant Opportunity is a culmination of lots of hard work and many months of planning and approvals and this goes across multiple areas of different Government Departments. The timeline for the Grant Opportunity has been optimised to ensure contracts can be executed in a timely manner allowing successful applicants the time to plan effective service delivery from 1 July 2026. The Department does acknowledge there are competing priorities which is why we sought to provide the forecast ahead of the grant opening.
Leigh Westcott:
Thanks Craig.
Q: Why is the funding allocated the way that it is?
Craig Mastersson:
Thanks Leigh. There is a limited amount of funding allocated to the grant over the five year period so the funding we’ve applied is distributed across all areas of the program based on careful consideration, analysis of sources such as the KPI data reporting, interim results from the Monash evaluation and stakeholder engagement and feedback.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. We’ve also had a few comments and questions about the complexity placement levy. One question was:
Q: What is the eligibility criteria process and expectation for the CPL?
We hope we addressed most of that question in the webinar but do you have anything else you want to add to this Craig?
Craig Mastersson:
Thanks Leigh. So probably one additional item is organisations that are awarded CPL will be able to report foundational visits which will be activities like initial engagement undertaken such as outreach or a community event.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. And the last pre-submitted question on CPL is:
Q: If a community organisation has more than 50% of its placements nominated to support a specific diversity group is that community organisation still not able to apply for the CPL for more than 50% of its placements?
Craig Mastersson:
That’s correct Leigh. The maximum is 50% of awarded visitor placements. That’s the maximum an organisation can apply for. And this is regardless of the percentage an organisation nominates to a specific diversity group. Again this was done to ensure that we’re able to distribute CPL across different organisations and different aged care planning regions right across the country and noting we’ve only got 1,000 placements that are supported with CPL at this time.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. I’ll move on now. We do have a couple of questions on the eligibility, the first one being:
Q: If my organisation is a home care provider can we apply for the fund? What are the chances of being successfully awarded a contract in comparison to the not for profit organisations?
Craig Mastersson:
So yes a home care provider can apply for ACVVS. All applicants for the ACVVS grant are assessed as per the Grant Opportunity Guidelines section 8 which outlines the grant selection process. And home care package provider applicants should note the outside of organisation criteria requirement of 50% as per the Grant Opportunity Guidelines section 5.1.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you Craig. Sorry about that. My lights turned off everybody but I’m back now.
Q: If an ACVVS provider currently operates in one state can they apply for grant funding to expand their services targeted at a specific ethnic group to other states where there is a demonstrated high demand for the program?
Craig Mastersson:
Yes. Yes Leigh they can. An organisation can apply for grant funding in any other states and territories and may nominate to service a particular CALD diversity or diversity.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you. And we’ve had one here from a person who is part of a small family owned business. They’re interested in applying for the ACVVS grant for the first time. Are you able to clarify if there are any specific considerations, support or eligibility criteria for small or family owned businesses applying for this grant for the first time?
Craig Mastersson:
So to apply for the grant an organisation must meet the eligibility criteria in section 4.1 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines. So that section of the Guidelines details the types of organisations that can apply for the grant such as incorporated organisations. In addition all organisations that are awarded ACVVS funding, they’ll get support from their state and territory network member, the Community of Practice Portal and of course their Funding Agreement Manager in the Community Grants Hub.
Leigh Westcott:
Thanks Craig. And moving on now to a couple of questions regarding activities two and three.
Q: Is the network member role and the Community of Practice Coordinator linked or can an ACVVS provider apply just for one of these roles? And to follow on from that can we have more than one network member per state or is it restricted to one?
Craig Mastersson:
Thanks Leigh. So an applicant can apply for the network member role alone or they can apply for the network member and Community of Practice Coordinator role. An applicant cannot apply for the Community of Practice Coordinator role on its own. And then there are six network members in total. So there’s one for each of the jurisdictions noting that we have a couple of combined jurisdictions which is SA/NT and NSW and ACT. As mentioned earlier applicants must be able to demonstrate the individual that they would nominate to undertake the network member role has strong knowledge and understanding of the ACVVS program and how it operates.
Leigh Westcott:
Thanks Craig. And we’ll move on.
Q: In terms of the reporting requirements that you detailed previously just in terms of the process will we still be using Excel for program reporting and are there any improvements to this or streamlining that’s taken place?
Craig Mastersson:
Thanks Lee. Yes. So under this grant round the KPI reporting will be continuing to be submitted as the same reporting systems we have in place for the current grant. So that will be using Microsoft Excel templates via the Community of Practice Portal. There’s been some significant improvements made to the reporting template since the commencement of ACVVS and this is done to minimise the amount of time and effort on reporting for all [0:32:35]. Migration to a different reporting system at this junction would incur significant resources and costs which would take away funding from ACVVS providers and visitor placements.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you Craig.
Q: The diversity list is different for this grant in terms of what’s detailed in the Grant Opportunity. Notably cognitive impairment is no longer listed. Can you explain why that’s changed?
Craig Mastersson:
Yes Leigh. So this grant round the diversity list reflects the diversity listing that is in the new Aged Care Act 2024. So dementia and cognitive impairment, they’ll be reported under disability. And disability is included in the diversity list as per section 2.1 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines.
Leigh Westcott:
Great.
Q: For an organisation which has a diversity focus, example LGBTI, can we nominate only for exceptional circumstances online/phone visits in an aged care planning region, acknowledging that providing in person visits might be constrained by some of those reasons you mentioned earlier around geographic distance or finding suitable volunteers in a region which is best matched to a person’s identity?
Craig Mastersson:
So placements can only be nominated via an aged care planning region. Exceptional circumstances are offered on a case by case basis noting the focus of ACVVS is on delivering face to face in person visits.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you.
Q: And is there scope or provision [0:34:20] respite in patients as part of visit schedules providing they meet the appropriate checks to enter the premises?
Craig Mastersson:
Yes. So if a respite patient is receiving Support at Home or residential aged care services they are eligible for ACVVS. We would advise providers though to be aware of the situation a recipient’s in – they may only be there for a very short amount of time for respite – and make the appropriate arrangements according to what’s best for that friendship.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you Craig.
Q: Now in terms of required number of visits does the new round still require a minimum 20 visits per client per annum or has this moved to 40 visits per client per annum? Just seeking clarification on that.
Craig Mastersson:
So the minimum visits is still at 20 visits per client per annum and this is reflected in the National Guidelines in the glossary section. It’s outlined there.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you.
Q: And in terms of the future of the program are there any plans to expand this service to CHSP clients?
Craig Mastersson:
The grant round at present is being offered only for residential aged care and Support at Home clients. There is at this time no plans to expand into CHSP clients.
Leigh Westcott:
Thank you. And just jumping back to placements we’ve answered a couple of questions about this.
Q: What’s the actual rationale for having at least 50% of placements outside of the community organisation?
Can you expand on that for us?
Craig Mastersson:
So under the current round it is currently 25%. When that grant round was delivered there was approximately 370,000 people in residential aged care and home care package. That figure is now in excess of 480,000. So to ensure that the people across the country have access to the program this is why we’ve increased that placements outside of community organisation to 50%.
Leigh Westcott:
Great.
Q: And to clarify with reporting will phone calls and letters still be counted as a valid visit in the face to face visits category or will they only be counted in the non-face to face visit category?
Craig Mastersson:
So a phone call and a letter is not a face to face visit. And basically in the reporting mechanism you’ve got your recipient and there’s the three categories there where you can actually just report a face to face, the virtual and the letter. All of those visits do contribute towards the minimum 20 visits per annum but once again a reminder ACVVS’ focus is on a face to face in person visit wherever possible.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. Thank you.
Q: In terms of once the grant opportunity is complete what’s the management strategy for if an organisation is not successful that currently delivers the ACVVS program? Will those volunteers need to leave the program or will they move to another community organisation to maintain their friendships?
Craig Mastersson:
So throughout ACVVS in the present grant we have had a couple of occasions where organisations have exited from the program and in those instances we’ve worked closely with the network members and the Community Grants Hub FAMs to transition those volunteers across to a newer organisation so they can continue to receive that ongoing support if there’s a requirement. So the Department would look at that when and if it arises once the outcome of the round is known.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. Thank you.
Q: What encouragement is given to aged care homes to supply referrals noting with the program at present it can be very difficult with some aged care homes?
Craig Mastersson:
So the Department as part of the last two years we’ve undertaken quite an awareness program to ensure that residential aged care homes are aware of the program. Additionally we’ve provided fact sheets which details the requirements for access around that. One of the things we know from the program which operates the key to success to sort of accessing residential aged care facilities quite often sits with the volunteer coordinator creating that really great relationship with the lifestyle coordinators in the RACs. So we’d be obviously strongly encouraging that moving forward. And the Department will also be producing some updated fact sheets post 1 November reflecting the changes of the new Aged Care Act and how ACVVS volunteers are recognised as aged care volunteer visitors.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. Thank you. And just in terms of seeking some clarification Craig on the difference between diversity and complexity placements in terms of reporting and funding.
Craig Mastersson:
So diversity there’s an opportunity for applicants to nominate if they want to target a particular diversity within their application. Wherever possible we obviously do prioritise funding to diversity applications. Complexity placements has that element of an extra 10% funding and we’ve sort of highlighted that for the initial grant round we’ll be targeting or prioritising those four areas for complexity placement levy, which was First Nations, LGBQTI+, remote and rural in the Modified Monash areas of MMM4 to 7 and also in CALD focusing on what we’re calling smaller language speaking communities. So we know through the current program that some of the more cultural backgrounds in Australia obviously there’s a lot of people that speak that language but certainly through our current program we’ve seen that there are some languages that there’s very few people in the community speak so that’s why we’re sort of really targeting those languages that it can be quite hard to find someone who speaks that language.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. Thanks Craig. And I think we’re still having a couple of questions come through around the complexity placement levy noting that this is something new for the program for the next grant round.
Q: Is it mandatory to have complexity placement levy numbers in your application?
Craig Mastersson:
No. Absolutely not Leigh. CPL is an optional element. So organisations can choose to apply for it or they can certainly just apply without the CPL. That doesn’t form part of the assessment application process. That is there for once the assessments have been undertaken and a decision will be made on that.
Leigh Westcott:
Okay. And so in that case:
Q: What’s the total amount per year to be recorded on the form if you are applying for CPL? Do you include the payment?
Or you’re saying Craig that that’s separate?
Craig Mastersson:
No. So in the activity work plan template when you nominate the number of placements you are seeking, for instance if it’s 100, it will automatically include the value of that funding in the activity indicator budget. If you apply for CPL it doesn’t include that. And the document actually states that. So it’s just about the activity indicator budget is just the normal funding element.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. Thank you. And I think just time for one last question.
Q: Can two organisations apply as a partnership or can one organisation subcontract some places to another organisation?
Craig Mastersson:
Yes. So within the Grant Opportunity Guidelines there is a section there where it talks about consortiums. So yes you can apply as a consortium which is basically where one organisation undertakes an agreement with the Department to deliver the service but they may have other organisations that they work in partnership with. So yes you certainly can do that. We do currently have several consortiums that operate in the ACVVS space.
Leigh Westcott:
Great. Thank you. That’s all the questions that we have time for today but please do rest assured that we will be publishing answers to all questions received on the FAQ document. We would really appreciate it if you could complete a short survey to help us gain insights on feedback about our webinars. So to do this you can scan the QR code or you can follow the link that we’ve posted in the Q&A. The survey will take about one minute to answer four short questions.
This concludes our presentation today. I would like to thank everyone for making time to attend and for those that aren’t able to attend we will be circulating the recording as soon as possible. Thank you everybody and enjoy the rest of your day.
[End of Transcript]