0:03
Thank you all for attending today's webinar.
0:06
I'm Eleanor Brown, Assistant Secretary, Market Intelligence Branch from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, and I will be chairing this event.
0:14
I'll begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we are virtually meeting today.
0:20
I am based in Canberra on the lands of the Nunawal people.
0:23
I acknowledge and pay my respect to their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.
0:30
I also extend that acknowledgement and respect to other families with a connection to this region and any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who are here with us on the call today.
0:40
I'll start with a bit of housekeeping before we get into the content for today's webinar.
0:45
There is no option for attendees to turn on their video or microphone during today's session.
0:51
There will be AQ and a session at the end of the webinar, and I'm aware that some people may not be able to access the Q&A function in the live session.
0:59
If you are able to, please do submit your questions in the function.
1:03
You might need to click on the Q&A icon at the top of your screen to activate the function before submitting any questions.
1:11
If you don't have the opportunity to ask your question today, please do feel free to email us your question at acfrqfrqueries@health.gov dot AU.
1:21
We'll attempt to respond to as many questions as possible today, and all questions and answers answers, including any that we don't get to, will be published in an FAQ document on our website.
1:33
We've also received a number of questions through the registration process and ahead of today's session and we'll respond to some of these in the Q&A session at the end today as well.
1:43
We do sometimes receive questions that aren't clear or aren't directly relevant to this webinar.
1:47
And so and some questions might be technical or complex.
1:50
So if we aren't able to answer your question during today's session, we'll follow up and respond through the FAQ document to be published on the website.
1:59
We know there are a lot of changes to financial reporting in 2526, especially for providers transitioning to support at home.
2:07
So today's webinar is the start of sharing these requirements with the sector and we will continue to support you on these new requirements throughout the financial year, including through our FAQs, resources and future webinars.
2:20
You may have seen that we have now published the non uploadable templates and the definitions for the QFR Quarter 2 and the ACFR 2526, as well as a fact sheet which explains the changes with the 2526 financial year.
2:36
We'll post links to these resources in the chat, but there are also links to these resources on the webinar landing page.
2:43
In addition to the slides for this webinar, we'd also like to seek your feedback on content you'd like to see repeated in later financial reporting webinars or questions you would like to see answered in more detail in future webinars.
2:56
You can use the questions function or the survey at the end of the webinar to provide this feedback.
3:02
This session is being recorded and will be published on our website in the coming days.
3:08
Before I hand over to today's speakers, I'd like to give a brief overview of what we'll be talking about today.
3:15
Before we get into the financial reporting requirements for 2526, I just want to give some brief context on why we collect the information we collect from aged care providers and how we use this information.
3:26
There are many reasons we collect financial information from the sector.
3:30
These include to support pricing and policy decisions, to inform viability assessments and market monitoring, and to inform our range of sector publications, including our quarterly financial snapshot, our annual financial report on the Australian aged care sector and the information we publish on My Aged Care, which is important in supporting consumer choice.
3:51
We know there are a number of changes that we'll be introducing today for the first time and for some providers this will be a significant period of transition both to the new Act itself and to the updated reporting requirements that this entails.
4:06
And we also acknowledge that these resources are being released later than we would normally release them, noting the 2526 financial year has already commenced and we retain our commitment to notifying the sector as early as possible of future changes to financial reporting before the commencement of the next financial year.
4:24
When we update our reporting requirements, we seek to balance the impact on providers with the purpose or purposes for which we collect this information, and we'll continue to look for opportunities to refine these collections over time.
4:37
We'll also continue to work with the sector to provide earlier updates to financial reporting requirements in future and to engage with you over the year ahead to support you as you adapt to these changes.
4:50
We are presenting this webinar to update you on financial reporting changes resulting from the new Aged Care Act commencing on the 1st of November 2025.
4:59
There are changes to the way you will report financial information in the Quarterly Financial Report for Quarter 2 and the Aged Care Financial Report for the 2526 financial year.
5:10
This session will be most useful for those responsible for completing or reviewing the QFR and the ACFR on behalf of providers.
5:20
We've just published the quarter 2 QFR and ACFR templates and the definitions on the department's website, and we'll shortly publish the FAQ documents.
5:29
We've also published a document called Guide to Financial Reporting changes from one November 2025, which documents the information we will talk through with you today.
5:40
So finally, before I hand over to Kate and Jared to run you through the changes in detail, I want to provide a high level overview at the outset to help you navigate these changes.
5:50
If you currently have financial reporting obligations under the current Act, you will continue to have obligations under the new ACT Because the new ACT commences midway through quarter 2 and part way through the 2526 financial year.
6:04
Order two reporting and the ACFR report for 2526 will be submitted in the registered provider format rather than as an approved provider.
6:14
Providers who currently submit QFR reporting through GPMS will continue to do so at a high level.
6:22
Changes to reporting requirements include for residential aged care, there will be some new income and expense items, definitional changes, the introduction of the new Care Minutes performance statement and changes to the annual Prudential compliance reporting.
6:38
We'll come back in a future webinar to outline, outline requirements for the new care minutes performance statement and changes to the annual Prudential compliance statement, which will not be covered in today's webinar.
6:49
For home care and the short term restorative care providers transitioning to support at home, the changes are more significant, particularly for the ACFR, which will now be based around the new support at Home service list and the removal of some fields in the QFR.
7:04
And Jared will run us through this in detail today.
7:07
We will walk you through these changes in this session.
7:10
We know there is a lot of content and we've only just released the updated templates.
7:15
We plan to hold another webinar in the first half of next year to revisit the changes to the ACFR for 2526.
7:22
So this won't be the only opportunity we have to talk them through.
7:26
At the end of the webinar, I'll also cover off on the supports we have in place to assist with the completion and submission of your financial reporting and business supports more broadly if you require assistance transitioning to the new act.
7:39
Thanks again for joining us.
7:40
I'll now hand over to Kate to get us started.
7:44
And good afternoon.
7:46
My name is Kate Stewart and I am the Director of the Financial Reporting Strategy and Projects section.
7:53
My team is responsible for agreeing the changes to the QFR and ACFR each year and for ensuring the changes are updated in the IT systems.
8:05
I wanted to start by pointing out the obvious and I'm sure it's something you have all thought about.
8:11
A commencement date of 1N for the New Age Care Act and Support at Home Programme is one month into quarter two and four months into the 2526 financial year, which makes things challenging from a financial reporting perspective.
8:29
I hope you are aware and understand that the implementation was deferred until 1N to allow more time for key operational, digital and legislative work to be finalised and to support providers to ensure they were ready.
8:46
The focus was on ensuring the new Act and Support at Home programme were ready for older Australians and their families.
8:55
The deferral did result in complexities for financial reporting that we have had to work through, which has delayed us being able to communicate to you about the 2526 year reporting.
9:08
We will continue to support you by responding to your query queries and updating guidance materials.
9:16
We will also continue to align and refine the QFR and ACFR data collections over the next few years.
9:26
There are elements of the legislation supporting the New Age Care Act that are still being finalised.
9:33
What we are presenting to you today covering financial reporting for 2526 will be set out in the transitional rules.
9:42
We are giving you advanced information on what will be included in the rules and any variation will be communicated to the sector if required.
9:54
Even though the Aged Care Act 1997 and the new Act are both relevant legislation, within the QFR Quarter 2 and ACFR 2526 reporting periods, providers will be required to complete only one QFR and one ACFR for the relevant reporting period.
10:18
From QFR Quarter 2 onwards and in the ACFR 2526 onwards, providers will be required to complete reporting under their new registered provider structure.
10:31
We are aware that for a small number of providers, that transition from approved provider to registered provider will involve a change in organisational structure.
10:42
In these circumstances, we encourage providers to consider how this will impact their financial reporting.
10:52
I'll now talk you through the changes to the QFR at a high level.
11:00
If you currently have QFR reporting obligations, you will continue to have these obligations under the new Act.
11:10
If you are a registered provider delivering residential aged care or home care packages or the Support at Home programme, you are required to submit a QFR in Quarter 22526 onwards.
11:26
If you are a registered provider delivering Multi Purpose Services Programme and or the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Programme, you will continue to complete food and nutrition reporting only in the QFR.
11:47
In Quarter 2 providers will report one year to date financial statement as a registered provider that covers the entire quarter.
11:59
If you are a Home Care Packages Programme provider and you transition to the Support at Home Programme, you will complete one form that covers one month of the Home Care Packages operations and two months of the Support at Home operations.
12:17
The form will be relabeled to Support at Home.
12:22
Government providers are not required to complete the viability and Prudential compliance questions and the year to date financial statements in Quarter 2 QFR forms, declaration and guidance materials.
12:43
You will see updated terminology to align with the new Act and change to being a registered provider as well as the start of support at home.
12:57
There have also been changes relating to the introduction of the new financial and prudential standards.
13:05
Questions relating to your organisation liquidity have been removed from the questions section at the bottom of the year to date Financial Statements page.
13:16
There were previously 2 formulae formulas which calculated A liquidity ratio and a capital adequacy ratio.
13:25
These have been removed as the calculations did not align to the new standards.
13:31
Providers are encouraged to download a liquidity calculator available on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's website to assess their liquidity status each quarter.
13:45
We'll be working with the Commission to look at how this will be integrated into the QFR over the coming years.
13:55
For residential aged care providers, there are minor changes resulting from the change to allocating residential aged care places directly to older people.
14:05
From the 1st of November 2025 the Amortisation and impairment of Bed licences expense item has been removed from the year to date financial statements and bed licences has been removed from the definition of intangible assets available.
14:26
Bed days has also been renamed to Operational Bed Days.
14:30
This is purely A naming change and does not change how you calculate the bed days.
14:40
Support at Home providers will notice several sections and data items which have been removed from the QFR.
14:49
We have removed the question that asked what business structure does your organisation use to deliver aged care services where you had to select from options such as in house delivery, franchise, franchise or brokerage and so forth.
15:09
You do not need to report the one month of home care and two months of support at home data split by aged care planning regions, as aged care planning regions are no longer applicable under the new Act.
15:23
Instead you will report information at the Total Support at Home programme level in one column.
15:32
You also no longer have to report labour worked hours and non worked hours in the QFR.
15:40
These hours will be reported in the ACFR, but only for direct employees.
15:47
You will still have to report labour costs per employee category and the lowest, average and highest hourly rates of pay.
15:59
In order to align the labour cost reporting in the QFR, which is by worker type, to the Support at Home programme, we have updated the definitions of the labour costs to include the relevant Support at Home service list items.
16:20
This table shows the worker types such as RNEN Personal Care Worker aligned to the Support at Home Service list items which I have summarised from the definitions.
16:33
When you complete your reporting you will need to refer to the definitions.
16:38
The Personal Care Worker labour cost definition includes assistance with self care and activities of daily living, assistance with the self administration of medication and continence management that is non clinical.
16:55
You'll note the other direct care labour cost item includes nursing assistants, other types of allied health not included in the allied health item above, social support and community engagement, home maintenance and repairs and domestics assistance among other things.
17:17
In the calculation of labour costs, you can also now include staff travel to and from care recipients homes and staff time completing administrative tasks or paperwork before and after a care visit.
17:34
I encourage you to look at the definitions and guidance materials to familiarise yourself with these changes.
17:44
You will still complete your QFR reporting in the Government Provider Management System GPMS.
17:51
However, from the 3rd of November there are going to be two GPMS portals.
17:58
You will continue to use the GPMS Approved Provider Portal to submit your QF file for quarter one and to resubmit prior reports from when you were an approved provider.
18:11
You will use the new GPMS Registered Provider Portal to submit your QF files from quarter to onwards under your new registered provider.
18:21
There are support resources available on the GPMS web page and you can contact the department help desk for assistance logging in.
18:33
I will now cover the changes in the ACF file for 2526 at a high level.
18:42
If you currently have ACF file reporting obligations, you will continue to have reporting obligations under the new Act.
18:51
If you are a registered provider of residential aged care or the Supported Home programme, you are required to submit an ACFR.
19:01
Providers who delivered services under the Home Care Packages Programme, the Short Term Restorative or the Short Term Restorative Care Programme between the 1st of July and 31st of October 2025 will still be required to report information in the 2526 ACFR.
19:26
This table shows the form name and data collection level to report on by programme.
19:33
For most forms, you will report one form as a registered provider covering the entire financial year.
19:41
For example, you will complete one consolidated segment report for your registered provider for 2526.
19:50
Government providers do not have to complete the consolidated segment report.
19:56
Registered provider reporting movement schedules.
20:00
Financial support statement.
20:02
Or submit and publish the general purpose financial reports.
20:07
I will pause briefly now to allow you to read through this slide.
20:24
In the ACFR for 2526 there will be 3 separate income and expenditure statements for the Home Care Packages programme, the Short Term Restorative Care programme and the Support at Home Programme.
20:40
If you delivered services under either the Home Care or Short Term Restorative Care programme prior to 1st of November, you need to complete the respective statement.
20:53
If you transition to delivering services under the Support at Home programme from 1st of November, you also need to complete the new Support at Home Income and Expenditure Statement.
21:07
Using an example, a Home Care Packages programme provider who transitions to the Support at Home Programme will need to complete both the Home Care Income and Expenditure Statement for the first four months of operations and the Support at Home Income and Expenditure Statement for the remaining 8 months of operations.
21:29
The Home Care Income and Expenditure Statement contains the same light items as the 2425 statement.
21:38
However, you will not need to report these final four months of the programme by Aged Care Planning Region.
21:45
You can report at the total programme level.
21:49
The Short term Restorative Care Income and Expenditure statement is the same as the 2425 statement.
21:59
There is a new format in the Support at Home Income Expenditure statement which Jared will tell you about in the next section of the webinar.
22:09
Please attribute income and expenses received or incurred to the relevant programme.
22:15
For example, if you receive an invoice in December that relates to services performed in October under the Home Care Packages Programme, and even if you did not accrue the expense in October, this still should be reported as an expense under the Home Care Income and Expenditure Statement.
22:39
I will now explain changes in the ACFR for 2526.
22:44
Similar to the QFR, there are changes to terminology and references relating to the new Act and registered provider in the ACFR.
22:55
For residential aged care providers, there are a number of changes.
23:00
Similar to the QFR, Amortisation and impairment of bed licence expense data items have been removed and the definition of intangible assets has been updated to remove bed licences available.
23:16
Bed Days has also been renamed to Operational Bed Days.
23:22
We are working with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to determine the changes to the annual Prudential Compliance Statement and permitted uses reconciliation with regards to the new financial and prudential standards.
23:37
We are also working with the Residential Care Division regarding the implementation of the new Care Minutes performance statement, which is being introduced under the new Act.
23:48
We will provide further guidance about these as soon as we can and we'll discuss these at a future webinar.
23:57
This slide shows further changes for residential providers.
24:03
We have added an item to the Residential Income form under Hotel Services to report income received through the Higher Everyday Living Fee, which is a new fee arrangement starting 1st of November.
24:19
You will also answer a question to report how many residents were paying Higher Everyday Living fees, additional service fees or extra service fees as at the end of the year.
24:34
The relating expense items to report expenses relating to the provision of extra and additional services have been renamed to include expenses relating to the provision of higher everyday living and will be split between non agency staffing costs and consumables and contracting.
24:56
2 new expense items called Staffing Retention Travel Costs for Non Agency and Agency have been added to report travel related expenses for direct care staff that are paid for by the provider, such as transport to and from the provider's accommodation and the residential care facility.
25:19
These go together with two new staff housing expense items introduced in the 2425 ACFR to recognise the additional costs some providers incur in relation in relation to providing housing and travel in order to retain staff.
25:39
Consistent with reporting guidance for providers in the QFR, the ACFR will also have a definition change for residential aged care providers whereby staff training costs can be included in labour costs.
25:55
I will now hand over to Jared to talk you through the new support at home reporting.
26:03
Thanks Kate and good afternoon.
26:06
My name is Jared Beard and I'm the director of the Financial Insights and Publication section.
26:11
My team is responsible for the publication of the sector wide results in the financial report on the Australian Aged Care sector and the quarterly Financial Snapshot.
26:20
And I thank proprietors for the data report which informs both publications.
26:28
Over the next few slides, I'm going to walk you through key Aged Gear financial report changes to the Support at Home programme.
26:37
As Kate advised earlier, Support at Home programme providers will have a Support at Home income expenditure statement to complete in the 2526 ACFR.
26:47
The statement will cover 8 months between 1:00 November 25 and 30 June 26.
26:55
The statement will be significantly different to the Home Care Income and Expenditure Statement, with the statement expanded and redesigned to align with the Support at Home Service list.
27:09
The Support at Home Income and Expenditure statement focuses on the service being delivered to a care recipient as opposed to the type of care worker delivering the service.
27:21
This is a significant structural change from the quarterly financial report and the current ACFRS income and expenditure statement for home care providers.
27:31
To reiterate, the reporting focus will be on the service being delivered.
27:39
The Department recognises that reporting data on the service delivered will require providers to redesign data collection approaches.
27:47
Although this may initially present challenges, the Department is confident that the transition to report income expenses on the top of service delivered will result in providers using the data more readily for business intelligence and benchmarking purposes.
28:03
To assist with the transition to the new reporting requirements, labour hours in the 2526 ACFR for support at home providers will only need to be reported for internal direct care employee staff.
28:18
This means there is no need to report labour hours for agency staff and subcontracted or brokered client services.
28:29
Labour costs will however, still need to be reported for these cohorts.
28:35
Lastly, there will be more granular reporting of allied health, labour costs and hours, which I'll talk to further in an upcoming slide.
28:49
This slide aims to provide assurance that although the QFR and ACFR will look very different for providers in relation to income and expense reporting, the department has tried to remain consistent on many key elements.
29:05
For example, consistent with the QFR, there won't be a requirement in the ACFR to report by HK Planning Region.
29:13
In addition, the definition for expense items in the ACFR will include staff salaries associated with travel and administrative tasks.
29:21
Just like the QFR.
29:29
This slide focuses on how income is to be reported in the 2526 ACFR and the Support at Home income and Expenditure statement.
29:39
The table on the right hand side aims to complement the explanation.
29:43
Let's see how this one goes.
29:47
Firstly, the income items have been designed to align with the Support at Home participant contribution categories rather than the one line item for Commonwealth subsidies and supplements which is currently the case.
30:00
In the Home Care Income and Expenditure statement.
30:03
There will now be 6 line items which of shaded green in the table rather than separate line arms for the basic daily fee and the income tested care fee.
30:16
Participant contributions are to be recorded across five line items which I've shaded blue in the table.
30:24
Because there are no participant contributions for clinical support services, there is one less participant contribution item than for Commonwealth subsidies and supplements.
30:38
There's no longer a need to report package management income given there's no longer package management can.
30:45
Management income will be split across three items shaded orange in the table.
30:52
Please note there are slight definition differences between the three items, so please be assured that it won't be double counting income across multiple items.
31:04
Participant top ups and private clients is also a separate line item and no longer a component of the client fee other line item for income.
31:16
Lastly, the definition for other income now picks up grants and providers are to report the grant amounts received such as through the Support at Home Thin Markets 2526 grant, a New Age Care Act Transition Support grant where applicable for those providers that receive the grant.
31:36
To reiterate, any grants to the Support at Home provider receives is to be recorded against other income.
31:49
Now to expense reporting expense categories in the support of home income and expenditure statement will align with the support at home service list.
31:57
This is a fundamental shift whereby rather than reporting expenses across worker type, which under home care covered worker types such as registered nurses, personal care workers, other allied health care workers, there will now be a separate line items for service list items.
32:19
I'll provide an example in the next slide to demonstrate the change.
32:27
Employee superannuation non costs will be a new expense line item added added to administration and support.
32:35
There'll be two line items rather than just the one.
32:39
One of the line items for reporting employee superannuation and on costs for administration is for administration and non care staff.
32:48
The second item for reporting will be for care staff.
32:55
Currently for home care reporting, employee superannuation and non costs are collected against labour costs by worker type in the QFR and ACFR.
33:05
As the Acfr's Support at Home Income and Expenditure statement is being restructured to align with the Support at Home service list.
33:13
Superannuation and on cost would create a chance for providers to attribute to a service list item where an employee may work across multiple service list items.
33:25
Reporting it's the single line item will hopefully make it easier.
33:32
There's a separate expense item under other expenses for participant top ups and clients and private clients, just like we had I guess for the income.
33:41
So that's a common thread between the two.
33:45
Care management labour costs and hours to be split by those undertaken by clinical staff and those undertaken by non clinical staff.
33:58
Whilst expenses cover employee care staff, agency care staff and external subcontracted or brokered client services.
34:06
Labour hours will be reported for employee care staff only.
34:16
This slide aims to show how provider is to report labour costs in the QFR from quarter 2 versus the ACFR in the QFR from quarter 2.
34:28
Labour costs are still to be reported against the worker type in the table in the slide.
34:35
Personal care workers and other employee staff have been used as an example, now shifting to the right side column and reporting in the 2526 ACFR for support at home providers.
34:49
Labour cost reporting will be determined by the service provided, such as personal care or domestic assistance.
34:58
Tracking down the table, the labour cost definition is similar across both the QFR and ACFR.
35:04
However, we've won slight difference with the superannuation excluded in the ACFR definition with superannuation and other employee on costs to be reported under administration and support expenses.
35:19
Consistent with current reporting guidance, we are supportive home providers in both the QFR and ACFR to not include costs associated with staff amenities, staff recruitment, agency staff, worker compensation, premiums and payroll tax.
35:38
This slide shows an example for how support of home labour hours is to be reported in the ACFR and QFR.
35:46
In terms of the QFR, from quarter to 2526, labour hours are no longer required to be reported, in contrast to the support of Home income and Expenditure statement in the 2526 ACFR, labour hours are still to still be reported, but only for employee care staff only and to be reported against the service being provided.
36:20
This one will be a big one for home care providers, but those who I guess provide residential care will be familiar.
36:27
In the 2526 ACFR support at home providers will be asked to break down expenses and hours against six different allied health cohorts.
36:38
Those cohorts include physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, podiatrists, diabetic care, and other allied health.
36:53
In the ACFR and QFR to date, home care providers have been asked to provide a total figure combining all allied health activity with no differentiation between the type of allied health.
37:05
The data has had its limitations in terms of informing policy design, so the breakdown is a necessary step, particularly in the context of pricing items.
37:19
Although the focus of this webinar is to advise providers on upcoming reporting changes to the ACFR and QFR, given providers are currently in the process of completing their 2425 ACFR, I thought it'd be timely to cover one data quality issue that is easy to create.
37:39
For home care, we see a high number of providers allocating 100% of their income against direct care services or subcontracted services.
37:49
As a result of the 100% allocation of income to care, these providers are likely to be to be displaying inaccurate information on My Age Care.
37:57
This is no allocation towards administration or other non care items.
38:04
Although not Privy to the individual monthly statements that providers have with their care recipients, it's unlikely that any provider would record that all of their career recipients have 100% of their package allocated to direct care components.
38:20
For providers who charge care recipients for care management and or package management, please record data in the ACFR against care management service fees and package service fees under income for expense reporting in the ACFR.
38:37
If you have staff engaged in care management work, please record expenses under care management and for package management under administration and support.
38:49
I'll now pass back to Eleanor to talk through available support.
38:55
Thanks, Jared, and thanks, Kate.
38:57
I want to acknowledge here that it's a lot of change and we've covered a lot of content in the session already today.
39:05
We know providers are going to need time to adapt to the new requirements and we're here to support you through that.
39:12
We'll also continue to review and update our supporting materials throughout the financial year.
39:18
So as questions pop up throughout the financial year, you're able to send them through to us and we can update our materials so that that advice is available to everyone.
39:28
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission also acknowledges that this is a significant change and of course that there is a lot of change underway in the sector at the moment.
39:38
The Commission expects that providers will do their best with financial reporting and the Commission will apply a risk based and proportionate regulatory principle, as they do with a focus on education, to support providers to fulfil their reporting obligations and over the year ahead we will have a focus on that education and support to assist providers to adapt to these changing requirements.
40:06
There are a number of help desks that you can reach out to for guidance depending on your query.
40:12
The My Aged Care Service Provider Assessor helpline, which you can see in the purple box on the left, is specifically for any problems that you have logging on to GPMS and accessing the QFR.
40:27
Many of you will have dealt with forms administration previously and they can assist and continue to support you with general reporting queries.
40:36
Their details are in the blue box for questions relating to content we've covered today to do with changes to reporting and the new support at Home Reporting.
40:46
We have a Financial Reporting Operations Team help desk available to email which you will see in the green here.
40:54
And finally, if you have specific questions about residential labour costs and hours and care minutes reporting, there is a dedicated help desk which is in the orange right hand box here.
41:06
And if you're not sure where to start, ACFR QFR queries at health.gov dot AU will receive your query and we'll make sure that it is actioned by the right area.
41:18
If you do need further assistance, I'll just remind you of our business advice and capability supports that are available, including the Business and Workforce Advisory Service and the Service Development Assistance Panel.
41:33
Both of these programmes are available for residential and home care support at home providers, with the Service Development Assistant Panel, SDAP, available to providers in rural and remote areas.
41:47
There's further information on the slides here, but I encourage you to look into these programmes if you think they would be right for your organisation and there are contact details available in the resources on the screen.
42:00
That's it for the content of today's session.
42:03
And we've now got some time for Q&A.
42:06
We've received some questions ahead of the session today and you you might have seen some of those coming through as we've been talking.
42:14
We'll cover some of those questions here.
42:15
And I can see our moderators have been busily working to respond to questions where we can.
42:21
If we're not able to get through to your question today and and we may not be able to get through to all of them, we will group these questions up and respond to them throughout FAQ and webinar resources after today's event.
42:34
So if you don't hear your question responded to, please know that we've seen it and we will come back to you.
42:41
OK.
42:44
I can also see in terms of questions popping through that we've received some questions about the templates and the definitions just to confirm that they have now been published on the department's website and they are available.
42:56
They I think we've posted them in the chat and there will be recent around to participants today with the webinar resources.
43:05
This webinar will of course be recorded.
43:07
So if you do have any questions, you'll be able to refer back to it.
43:12
And I've seen some questions popping through in the chat that referred to specific questions about your organisation or your organisation type, including for example, around calendar you're reporting.
43:23
Please do reach out to us directly if you've got a question that relates to your specific organisation type that we haven't covered in the session today.
43:34
OK, Now I can see that we have answered some questions already in the chat.
43:40
I might go to a question that we received ahead of time.
43:43
And Jared, this is a question for you about our wages.
43:48
How will the wages section with highest, lowest average be treated?
43:54
Will that question be removed?
43:58
Yeah.
43:59
Thanks, Adam.
44:00
Good question.
44:01
So for context, the hourly wage rates we've been asking in the QFR now for nine quarters.
44:07
So it commenced in the fourth quarter of 2324 for both residential care and home care package providers.
44:16
I guess initially it was designed, set up that question to be able to monitor whether or not Fair Work Commission wage increases, I guess flowed through from providers through to their staff.
44:31
In some ways, we're close to the end, I guess the Fair Work Commission pay increases, but the data itself for the wage has improved significantly.
44:42
So to let providers know, I guess for the 1st 3/4, we did see teething issues in terms of providers understanding how to report the maximum minimum and trying to derive the average.
44:53
But over the last six quarters, the quality of the data's improved.
44:58
We've been able to detect, I guess, in particular, state and territories where enterprise bargaining, bargaining agreements have kind of nurses have gone up, etcetera and come into place.
45:09
So the data itself has been very, very useful conscious.
45:14
On the flip side to that, we are asking roughly 1400 providers 4 * a year to report on their maximum, minimum average.
45:25
And in some cases, possibly some providers, but particularly in home care may have more than 100, more than 1000, sorry, personal care workers that operate across more than 50 aged care planning regions.
45:37
So it's not very difficult I guess to probably from a coordination perspective.
45:42
So in short, not looking to remove it at this stage, but there definitely will be, I guess, active consideration in terms of wage those questions and probably the frequency to which we ask those questions.
45:55
But for the time being, we'll continue to collect the the hourly wage data.
46:02
Thanks, Jared.
46:03
And I think, you know, important to reiterate that we do continue to review over time the questions that we're asking for our providers and continue to look at whether this information is still needed so that we can update and and refine these reports over time.
46:17
Kate might come to you next.
46:19
We've got a question here around our consultation.
46:22
What consultation did the department do ahead of deciding on this approach?
46:30
Yes, thanks, Elle, and thanks for the question.
46:33
We did consult with Providers, Ageing Australia, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority ahead of developing the QFR and ACFRS for 2526.
46:50
And as Elle said, we want to continue consulting with providers on changes to financial reporting in future years.
46:58
Thanks.
47:00
Thanks, Kate, I can see your question here and I think this will be front of mind for a lot of providers transitioning to support at home.
47:08
And Kate, I'll go to you on this one.
47:10
Why do we have to report labour hours costs for support at home in one format in the QFR?
47:16
In a different format in the ACFR?
47:21
Yes, so I can certainly understand that question.
47:24
The format for reporting the labour in the QFR has continued in the same format as there presently is for home care packages reporting.
47:37
And we still require that data in the QFR so that the department can monitor the new Support at Home programme in the short term because the more detailed data that we'll be collecting in the ACFR will not be submitted by providers until 31st of October 2026.
48:00
So we understand that this reporting may be challenging providers and we do not expect that the sum of the labour costs from the four QFR to exactly match the labour costs in the ACFR.
48:16
We will then look at aligning the reporting in future years though.
48:23
Thanks, Kate.
48:24
I've got some feedback here from Peter.
48:27
Peter Cooper, thank you for sending us around.
48:28
I can see you've got a lot of likes on your comments.
48:31
So I'll read it out and then respond feedback.
48:34
We feel the changes applying from 1 October, one November 2025 are an unrealistic expectation that providers can make significant changes to financial and payroll systems to be reporting ready.
48:46
And I want to acknowledge that, Peter, that there is a lot of change happening in the sector at the moment and in financial reporting specifically and that we have covered a lot of content and a lot of change in the session today.
48:59
We know that providers will take time to respond to and adapt to these requirements and we are here to support with our materials and queries and help desks throughout the year as you need it.
49:13
And, and just note that the Commission also acknowledges that there is a significant amount of change underway and, and expects providers to do their best.
49:22
But we know that there will be a period of transition.
49:25
And of course the Commission, as as I mentioned towards the end there will apply that risk based proportionate approach.
49:31
And the focus really will be for this first financial year in particular, focusing on educating and supporting providers to understand the new requirements and, and to comply with those and to adapt to those over time.
49:45
So thank you for your comment.
49:46
And I'm sure for many on the call you've, you've captured the sentiment well and, and we do acknowledge this, there is a lot of change that we've run through today.
49:57
Just going back to other post.
50:03
Oh, there's a question here just right at the top from Cecile.
50:06
Just looking at the QFR quarter 2 template for support at home.
50:10
Do you still require reporting at an area level?
50:15
I can, I can answer that one.
50:17
We have removed the requirement to report at the age clear planning region level in the QFR as as that's a concept that no longer exists under the the New Age Care Act.
50:34
Jared, there's a question here about billing and questions are popping around on my screen.
50:40
So I will try and work through them methodically if you haven't yet heard yours come up.
50:45
How will providers leverage billing and monthly statement information under the Support at Home programme to assist with completing the ACFR?
50:56
Yeah, thanks, Hal.
51:00
So I guess contextually from a background perspective, home care providers have been required, I guess to provide monthly statements to their care recipients since July 2015 when Consumer Directed Care came into home care.
51:14
Over time in 2019, I think it was the department updated definitions so that providers could report monthly against the definitions and then also provided I guess a monthly statement template that providers could follow to date.
51:31
I guess it's focused always on filling out those statements on the service being delivered.
51:37
So I can understand a lot of providers through feedback to date on the ACFR and QFR has always had some difficulties when trying to utilise the monthly statements to then report in the ACFR and QFR for home care, when trying to report against the worker type rather than the service delivered, obviously support at home.
51:56
Now we're moving in the ACFR to reporting on service being delivered.
52:02
The department's published to support at home monthly statement.
52:05
So providers will be able to, in a lot of instances, I guess when they're filling out their monthly statements for both income that comes in and also the expenses that are going out be able to I guess align that reporting and setting that reporting up into their ACFR.
52:23
So it should be, sounds simplistic for myself saying this, but it should be a lot easier to apply your monthly statements and your billing data a lot more than what's currently the the case for the home care in the QFR and the ACFR.
52:39
Thanks, Jared.
52:41
I can see a couple of questions.
52:44
I might just bundle up Kate, that I think you can cover that are for MPs and Nazi FAC providers.
52:51
So the first question is do these reports cover MPs as well and what other impacts to Nazi FAC providers?
53:01
Yes, thanks Elle.
53:03
So yes, they do cover MPs as well.
53:06
In the QFR, providers of Multi purpose services will continue to complete the food and nutrition reporting only, and in the ACFRMPS, providers will continue to complete the annual Prudential Compliance Statement only.
53:23
So their reporting obligations do not change under the new act for Nazi FAC providers.
53:31
They will still just be completing the food and nutrition reporting only in the QFR similar to what they do now.
53:40
Thanks, Kate.
53:42
OK, question here from Mandy and Kate, this one will be for you.
53:46
If we are doing a quarterly report, how will the one month of October reporting work with the two months of November to December under support at home changes?
54:01
Yeah.
54:02
So that's where in the QFR quarter two, there will be one form for you to report both the one month of the home care packages and the two months of the support at home programme in the one form in the one QFR.
54:20
And that will be in the registered provider GPMS portal and you will report it in your registered provider format.
54:33
Thanks, Kate.
54:35
Look, we're getting pretty close to time, but I think we've got one time for one more question.
54:39
I can see there's a similar question here from Elaine about the ACFR.
54:43
So for ACFR 2026 where there will be four months under home care packages and then eight months under support at home, will these need to be submitted in two separate GPMS portals?
54:59
OK, thanks for that.
55:00
So firstly, for the ACFR 2526, it will still be on the forms administration portal and you will just submit 1 ACFR for the entire 2526 financial year.
55:17
Within the ACFR, there will be though 2 separate income and expenditure statements.
55:24
So there'll be 1 income and expenditure statement for the home care packages programme covering the first four months of operations and that will be in the existing.
55:38
Can you still hear me?
55:41
Yeah, I can.
55:42
Yep.
55:46
Oh, OK.
55:50
It looks like Kate may have frozen.
55:54
We are actually getting very close to being out of time.
55:57
So I will hope that I haven't frozen and you can still hear me and we'll wrap up the session for today.
56:04
It's really fantastic to see so many questions coming through, and no doubt you'll have more questions after today's session as you have time to look through the templates, the definitions, and the resources that we have posted on the department's website.
56:18
As I said, we're very happy to receive further questions from you.
56:21
And of course, for those questions that we weren't able to get to, we will come back to you with responses to those in our FAQ document following the session.
56:33
Thank you for your time today.
56:35
I've got a couple of final announcements before we close.
56:38
We encourage you to stay up to date with issues affecting aged care and subscribe to our Aged care newsletters and mailing list.
56:46
Thank you again for your attendance today.
56:49
We would really appreciate it if you could take about a minute to answer the survey.
56:53
You can see the QR code there on the screen.
56:56
It takes approximately 1 minute and there are four questions.
56:59
And we'd really appreciate your time.
57:00
This helps us improve our webinars.
57:03
And feel free to also share any suggestions on what you'd like to hear more about, specifically in terms of financial reporting over the remainder of this financial year.
57:13
This concludes our presentation for today.
57:15
Please note that recording will be available alongside our additional QFR and ACFR guidance material and we'll notify attendees when this information is published.
57:28
Thanks again for your time.
57:29
Good afternoon.