LANCASHIRE, Claire 0:05
Hello everyone, thank you for joining. We'll just wait another moment or so to let people in. I think we're expecting particularly big numbers today, kicking off with the first in this series on the end of life pathway extension. So we'll just give it another moment or so and then we'll kick off. I think we've clocked over the 100 people on the call and people are continuing to call, but we might make a start. A big hello and a warm welcome to everyone joining us here today. For those that don't know me, I'm Claire Lancashire and I lead on Engagement for Support at Home.
Please note this session will be recorded and made available on the department's website. If you ask a question during the session, your name and your question will be included in the recording and will be publicly visible.
Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on the lands on which we're virtually meeting today. I'm based on the lands of the Wurundjeri people. I pay respect to their continuing culture and I also acknowledge the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region. I also extend that acknowledgement and respect to other families with a connection to this region and other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples who are here with us today.
So I might just step through some housekeeping and apologies for those who have been on the journey. And I think we were just saying, I think we've kicked off these sessions at the tail end of May. So they have been running fortnightly. So I think we've been going for about 22 weeks. So apologies for those who have heard me kind of work through the housekeeping, but I think it's really worth while going over again, particularly as we're starting off a new series of topics as well. So today's session is focused on operational matters to support the changes resulting from the End-of-Life Pathway Extension announced in September of 2026. This session is not a forum to discuss other Support at Home matters.
As I mentioned, this is our 11th of these fortnightly Provider Sessions and it's the first dedicated to the End-of-Life Pathway Extension. And we'll continue to focus on this for the remainder of this year. And we will resume early next year and continue with these sessions and the End-of-Life Pathway Extension as a focus leading up to the implementation date of the 8th of March, 2027.
So strap in, you'll be with us for quite a few weeks to come. For those who have not attended these sessions before, unlike a traditional webinar, this is a two-way conversation. So you'll hear from us up at the beginning. Typically I'll be chairing and then you will hear from Penny to take you through the change aspects. We tend to hold questions until the end of the session, although the chat and QA is enabled. Feel free to post questions in there as you go. And the session materials, including this presentation and the recording will be made available to everyone. And we post the link to the collections page in the chat towards the end of this session.
So I thought it was worthwhile before we move into the detail of the Pathway Extension, I thought we should reflect on what providers have told us through previous implementation activity and how this is shaping our approach into this next phase of these series. So firstly, providers have told us they need sufficient lead time to understand the changes, plan your activities, prepare your systems, workforce and participants. And in response, we're starting engagement early and providing a long lead time ahead of implementation on the 8th of March 2027. Providers have also said they value clear, action-focused tools that translate the policy into practical implementation steps.
And for the Pathway Extension, we're developing a provider readiness checklist and supporting resources, including transition guidance, practical examples and an easy read resource. So for those that have been working through with us on the changes to personal care, we're really taking what worked well from those sessions and those resources and mapping it into this next phase. So you will see a lot of similarities and that's really intentional in the work.
We've also heard that providers need materials they can use to communicate consistent information across their organisation and with participants. We will develop a stakeholder kit with key messages, participant information and adaptable communication materials.
We also recognise that different stakeholder groups and communities need information delivered through relevant, accessible and trusted channels. Our engagement and resources will be targeted to providers, health professionals, assessors, First Nations organisations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
And on that thread, while these sessions have typically been a forum for aged care providers to meet and ask questions, and they really came out of feedback earlier through the Support at Home Implementation journey that we needed a forum not just for software developers and kind of the tech enabling tech forums, but you needed these forums as well to talk through with workforce and management level as well. We are hoping that we can support attendance by the relevant health sector organisations as well, but in tandem to this, we're doing a lot of work to work with those adjacent sectors.
So thinking about primary health networks, palliative care networks, also looking to work with hospital discharge planners. And I really welcome reflections through the chat today if there are established forums or networks that you think that we should be engaging to really support all players in this space to understand the changes to the Pathway, and that what they mean for older people.
And so finally, stakeholders have also valued the regular opportunities to ask questions, revisit information, and access answers outside the live sessions. We'll continue these provider information sessions, record and publish the sessions, and maintain an interactive question and answer process and work towards enabling questions to be submitted before sessions as well as taken on notice. These reflections will guide how we work with you and support the sector in preparing for this change and potential future Support at Home refinements.
So as always, I'll now hand over to Penny, who will lead you through the session, and then you'll hear from me again as we go through and ask any questions at the back end. So over to you, Penny.
WARD, Penelope 7:44
Thank you, Claire, and welcome everybody to today's session. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Penny Ward and I'm one of the change managers with the Support at Home program, specifically working on some of the refinements. So some of you may be familiar with me. You may have attended some of the previous sessions.
For some of you, this might be your first time. You will start to get familiar with me over the next couple of months. Both Claire and I will be leading these presentations. And as Claire said, there's a familiar tempo, also materials as well. And we're trying to make sure that this is as easy for you to follow as we possibly can and then also make accessible soon after also the materials as well. So what we'll do, we'll jump straight into today's topic, the End-of-Life Pathway Extension. So let's talk about the End-of-Life Pathway Extension is a short-term pathway under the Support at Home
program for older people who are approaching their end of life and wish to remain at home. It provides access to in-home aged care services and complements existing state and territory palliative care services, including through personal care, domestic assistance and also nursing care.
Now, the End-of-Life Pathway Extension, the core intent of the extension is to support continuity of care for older people who remain living at home beyond the initial 12-week pathway period. Now, end-of-life journeys don't always follow predictable time frames. The extension is intended to help eligible older people and their families continue receiving support at home at a critical and sensitive time. Now from the 8th of March 2027, the Pathway will provide support for up to 24 weeks and participants who remain living at home after the initial 12-week period will automatically continue on the Pathway for a further 12 weeks and receive additional funding allocation of approximately $25,000. Now, Providers will not need to arrange a reassessment or submit a new form for the participant to continue on the Pathway.
Participants will not need to apply again. And importantly, eligibility criteria and arrangements for accessing the Pathway are not changing.
And so let's go into a little bit more detail. So the previous slide introduced the extension. This slide looks more closely at the arrangements that are changing and those that remain the same. So what's changing from the 8th of March 2027? So participants who remain living at home after the initial 12-week period will
automatically continue on the pathway for the further 12 weeks. They will receive an additional funding allocation of approximately $25,000 to support their care during the second period. Providers will not need to arrange a reassessment or submit a new form for the participant to continue on the pathway.
And the rules also include transition arrangements for eligible participants who are already approved for or receiving End of Life Pathway services when the changes commence. And those eligible participants will transition automatically to the extended arrangements. They will not need to submit a new application, undergo reassessment or request a support plan review solely to transition to the extended Pathway. More detailed information about which participants are covered and what providers need to do will be provided as part of the Implementation and Transition guidance and you will be able to receive that information through this as one of those channels.
And now, what's not changing? Now, eligibility criteria and arrangements for accessing the pathway remain unchanged. A medical practitioner or nurse practitioner must continue to certify that the person has an expected prognosis of approximately 3 months or less to live.
The participant must also have an AKPS score of 40 or below. And a completed end of Life Pathway form continues to be required to confirm eligibility and an older person can access the pathway once through Support at Home. The pathway will also continue to complement rather than replace state and territory specialist palliative care services. And so the key message for this transition is that the extension is designed to support continuity of care while reducing unnecessary administrative steps for eligible participants at a very sensitive time.
Now the next slide looks at the arrangements that support continuity of care when a participant requires ongoing support at home services after the Pathway. So supporting Continuity of Care is important both during and the extended Pathway and when a participant needs to move to ongoing support at home services. This slide focuses on what happens when a participant requires ongoing support at home services after the End-of-Life Pathway.
If a participant requires these services, an urgent support plan review can be undertaken to determine their ongoing support needs. Where appropriate, the review can support the participant's transition to ongoing support at home classification. From week 20, providers will receive a reminder to consider the participants longer term support needs and request a support plan review where appropriate. Now, there'll be new indicators and filters in systems to help assessors identify participants returning from the End-of-Life pathway.
And participants who are previously receiving ongoing Support at Home services will have their ongoing account reinstated at the conclusion of the Pathway. And together, these arrangements are intended to support continuity of care as participants, they may move from the End-of-Life Pathway back to ongoing Support at Home Services.
Now let's look at what it might mean in practice. So this slide summarises what the extension means for providers, older people and assessors. Now at this stage, it's very high level. We'll be going into much more detail in our next session for a range of stakeholders.
Here, for providers, providers will need to plan care across the extended pathway and to funding allocations. Providers will also have an important role in helping participants and their supporters understand how the extended pathway operates. Service agreements may need to be updated where required, to reflect the participants Pathway arrangements.
Now for older people, the extension is intended to support their continuity of care and reduce disruption at a very sensitive time. And so participants who remain living at home after the initial 12-week period will automatically continue on the Pathway for the further 12 weeks and receive an additional funding allocation. Again, participants will not need to apply again or be reassessed to continue on the Pathway. And eligible participants covered by the transition arrangements will also move automatically to the extended arrangements. And so together these arrangements are intended to allow eligible participants to continue receiving support at home without that unnecessary administration and those steps.
Now for assessors, as mentioned, there'll be new indicators and filters which will support the identification of participants returning from the End-of-Life pathway. Eligibility criteria is not changing and assessment arrangements for accessing the pathway are not changing. And so participants must continue to meet those eligibility requirements supported by a completed End-of-Life Pathway form and a certification from a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner.
And so overall, the extension provides continued support for participants and introduces some practical changes for providers and assessors.
Now, in the coming weeks, we'll work through with you to build out exactly what those transition steps will look like. And we'll have a guide, we'll have a range of support materials to help you with that. But before we go on, what I'll do is to share with you how you can learn more information about the Pathway. And so from a stakeholder's perspective, we will be engaging with many stakeholders, as Claire mentioned. At this stage, for further information, you can scan the QR code on the screen to access the information about the End-of-Life Pathway and also a snippet about the extension.
Now, the department has updated the End-of-Life Pathway information on our site to reflect the extension. And we'd like to just reinforce that our website is the primary source of information for stakeholders seeking guidance about the pathway and the extension. And the website includes information about eligibility, access arrangements, Pathway duration, funding, and the extension to support participants who remain living at home after the initial 12 week period. And we recognise that many stakeholders will need the detailed information as they work towards implementation.
So like I said, we're developing additional guidance materials. They'll be progressively released over the coming months and also as part of our readiness and engagement activities. So what you can expect, we will have the provider readiness checklist. We will also have some key messages for providers. We'll also have frequently asked questions and a range of other resources, not only for providers, but also assessment organisations, health professionals, and also importantly, older people, their families and carers as well on the My Aged Care website.
We're also updating some other existing materials that speak to the Pathway, End-of-Life Pathway in general, including the fact sheet for doctors and nurse practitioners, which is another web-based resource. These stakeholders play a really important role in identifying eligible participants and supporting access to the pathway. There's more to come in the coming weeks about that.
Let's go into a little bit more information about what the sector can expect in terms of support. So we know that the extension will require preparation and coordination across the health and aged care systems. We've spoken about providers, health professionals, assessors, we have sector partners, all these stakeholders have an important role in supporting implementation. And so for providers, as example, preparation may include understanding the two funding periods, supporting participants to understand the extension and updating service agreements where required. Health professionals, of course, will play that important role in supporting access to the Pathway including the existing clinical certification requirements. Assessment organisations will continue to apply the existing eligibility and access arrangements while preparing for the relevant process and system changes. And our approach will focus on early engagement, practical support, clear guidance well and truly ahead of implementation. And so we'll also continue to provide support so that questions and emerging issues can be addressed as the changes take effect. And so we have these sessions, the provider information sessions scheduled for a fortnightly, on a fortnightly basis. And this is a really great way to get some of the detailed information and also raise some of those issues or questions that you may have.
So our goal is to work really closely with the sector, understand the implementation needs and support consistent delivery of this change across the sector.
Now, let's look forward to the 8th of March next year. What you're seeing on the screen is a high-level timeline view of the sort of support that we have already started and leading through to the 8th of March and early into the implementation period. In October, we started out early engagement and the focus has been on building awareness of the extension, engaging with stakeholders who support older people to access and receive end of Life Pathway services. That has included providers, some assessment organisations, health professional sector partners, older people, families and carers. And the engagement is focused on the extension, the existing eligibility and access requirements and the practical implications for the different stakeholder groups. And as we move towards the targeted engagement and readiness support, we'll be getting down into the practical details.
As mentioned, providers can expect updates in these sessions. We also have a community of practice, which we'll make available for the links. If you're not in the community of practice, we'll make sure that you can access the link to request and join. We also have sector partner Engagement. And of course, as I mentioned earlier,
progressively released readiness materials. And the focus will be on what the extension means for the transitioning participants, as well as those who will commence the Pathway after implementation. We'll start to look at some of those impacts that might have in terms of your participants, your organisation, your workforce, it also could be your business and IT systems as well. GPs and nurse practitioners, registered nurses and allied health professionals will receive information through professional bodies, primary health networks, local networks, newsletters and relevant forums. And this will focus on awareness of the extension, the existing eligibility requirements, referral pathways, and where practitioners can access additional information for themselves and also for their patients.
And communication for older people and their supporters will explain the purpose of the Pathway and what the extension means, eligibility, access requirements, and where to find further information.
And our transitioning participants will receive targeted communication about the extension and the additional funding. So more information to come on that at the moment. And Providers will be a really important source of that information for this cohort and we will be focusing our efforts on that transition communications in the next session and the following sessions.
As we move to February and early March, this is when we will focus our efforts on final readiness. And that will be about confirming that the sector is ready, resolving any outstanding issues. It will include any final communications and guidance, updated online information, final readiness activities and preparation of any effective processes or systems. And again, we will still maintain this channel. This will be a key channel to have questions answered, to test understanding and to raise any risks or issues before the changes commence. It doesn't stop there. On the 8th of March, as we move through implementation, at this point, stakeholders are expected to understand the new arrangements and the impacts relevant to their role and their organisation and where to go for support and we will continue to be here to support after implementation. We'll be monitoring how the new arrangements are operating, responding to emerging questions or issues, and providing further guidance where needed. And our ongoing engagement will also help us to understand whether and how the change is operating as intended for participants, providers, assessors and health professionals. So I might just pause there for a moment. I might just check in with Claire and see how we're tracking from a question perspective.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 25:29
Look, we're getting heaps through. I'm thinking the best way through, Penny, is potentially through the remainder of the presentation, and then I've got heaps that I can start to go to from questions through the chat and QA function.
WARD, Penelope 25:44
Okay. What we'll do then, we'll move on to the role of the GP. I've just got two more slides, one more slide to cover off and then we can go into that part of the session. So we wanted to also mention here the role of the GP and nurse practitioners, primary health stakeholders. The previous slides explained what's changing. We'd like to focus now on the role of these stakeholders and how they can help in older people benefiting from these changes. So GPs and nurse practitioners are often the first professionals to identify when an older person may be approaching the end of life and could benefit from additional support at home. Their role remains critical in supporting discussions with patients and families, confirming clinical eligibility and completing the end of Life Pathway form. And so importantly, as I've mentioned, the extension does not change the eligibility requirements. Clinicians should continue to apply the existing criteria, including an expected prognosis of approximately 3 months or less to live and an AKPS score of 40 or below.
One of the key messages that we're reinforcing through the engagement activities is that the extension does not mean eligibility has changed to six months or less to live. So we'll be providing some key messages around this so you can use these almost as scripts as well.
And for primary health networks, they play an important role in helping primary health stakeholders understand the changes and access trusted information. And through these networks, they'll be able to help connect GPs, nurse practitioners, hospitals, palliative care services, and allied health professionals with resources and updates.
The aim is not to create new referral pathways or new eligibility arrangements, but to ensure that clinicians understand that support may continue for up to 24 weeks where a participant remains living at home. And our engagement with our primary health networks will include webinars, newsletters, professional bodies, engagements and primary care communications to help build awareness about the extension. So we might just pause there. We'll move into the next part of the session and we might refer to the questions that we have. And I might hand over.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 28:21
Yeah, I think maybe what we can do, Penny, is I'll start to ask some of the questions. What I'm noticing is we've got a real mix here and I think it's showing that the Pathway was introduced with the birth of Support at Home. It's been around for coming up this weekend a year, but it's still relatively new to people.
We did expect that we would probably get some questions about working within the pathway generally versus the extension. What I think I might do, Penny, is focus on the extension questions first, and then we'll go to some of those broader questions about how the pathway operates. So bear with me attendees just as I kind of navigate through and I'll try and make sure that I vote up the ones that we have responded to. But I might jump into this first one. So if the person outlives the initial allocation of 24 weeks and transition onto a Support at Home classification, can you apply again for the End-of-Life funding later on? And if there's a policy person on the call that might be able to jump in on this, or we can take it on notice, Penn.
ORTON, Arianne 29:39
I'm not necessarily the consciousness, but I'm happy to jump in on this one. And no, it is a single, same as it is at the moment. It is a single access pathway, so single time use. So at the moment, if you are in the pathway for 12 to 16 weeks and you outlive that pathway, you cannot reapply for it. That requirement or that constraint still applies with the introduction of the extended pathway to the 24 week timeline. So if you outlive it after the 24 hour period, no, you cannot get another access to the same pathway.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 30:14
Thanks for clarifying, Arianne. And what we might do is put this, some of the questions that we're providing through the session in the next while, we might put into our materials when we release as well, so people can reflect on those responses or we'll point you to the right parts back in the program manuals, etc. as well.
ORTON, Arianne 30:37
But there's another question very similar to that one in the chat. If the End-of-Life participant Pathway has ended and they are not a transitioning client, so they're on the existing arrangements at the moment, the 12 week, they also cannot reapply for the extended Pathway after it is introduced. It is still counted as using that pathway and there isn't an opportunity to get access to that pathway again after it is finished, regardless of whether you're into the transitioning cohort or whether it's the access to the new 24 weeks.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 31:12
Thanks, Arianne. There's another question in here which might be for Penny or you may be well placed to answer. So if a participant utilises the initial approximately $25,000 funding allocation before the 12-week period ends, are they able to access the second allocation immediately, or do they need to wait until the completion of the initial twelve-week period before additional funding becomes available?
ORTON, Arianne 31:42
The funding is broken up, is allocated as 20 as 25 pay at the first, when you first enter the Pathway and then not again until day one of week 13. If it is exhausted before that, no, the second allocation will not be brought forward. It doesn't enter the account until the 13th week of it. So it isn't able to be accessed earlier. But once you've reached that part of it, the next bit will be automatically allocated in there. So providers are encouraged to plan out the use of that 25k over the period.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 32:22
Thanks, Arianne. And in linking to that, there's been some additional questions. Can you please clarify what triggers the additional funding at week 12?
ORTON, Arianne 32:35
Time triggers it. There is no process or application or anything that needs to happen in the pathway or by the provider or the participant. If you, if the, if we haven't been told that the participant has left the pathway, either passed away or moved to residential care, you know, left it, then they will get the next allocation of funding into that budget.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 33:04
So I've been focusing on some of the chat, the Q&A questions. I'm just returning to the chat. I think you've covered some of those. So, with the extension, and I think I've seen this come up twice in some of the questions, with the extension, can the person access more AT-HM funds if needed?
ORTON, Arianne 33:27
The, I might look, I'm very happy if others from the policy area want to jump in. The AT-HM scheme is a separate Pathway in this and while the participant can access both at the same time and will have access to AT while they are in the End-of-Life pathway. The extension to the End-of-Life pathway is strictly for the End-of-Life pathway and does not have any bearing on the AT-HM scheme or extensions to that scheme.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 34:01
Thanks, Arianne. Penny, have you had an opportunity to have, I'm just looking at some of the other questions and adding them to the chat. I will come to any that kind of go to the kind of the core of how the Pathway operates currently, but I'm just wondering if you've had a look through in any extensions. Likewise, we welcome people if you want to, by a raise of hands, ask questions to the forum directly. We were just working through some of the initial ones. But if you've got a burning question, feel free to raise your hand and we'll do some of the work behind the scenes to bring you up as a speaker to ask the question as well.
Amos, if the team could bring Amos up to this to the floor, would be great.
Amos Sharan 35:06
Hi, oh, thanks. Just a quick question around that extension funding of the 25K is if a participant has remaining Eol funding at the end of week 12, will the additional 25K replace? or will that get added on to any remaining funds?
ORTON, Arianne 35:29
It'll get added on. So you'll still be able to access the 1st 12 weeks allotment of funding. When you get the second allotment of funding, it'll all just join into the same budget and be able to draw down from that.
Amos Sharan 35:42
Wonderful, thank you.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 35:51
Just having again look through the chat and questions. I might go to, actually, this is a good one, maybe for you, Arianne, that I'm just going to publish now. Is time on the Pathway dictated by the Services Australia entry date or the MAC approval date?
ORTON, Arianne 36:12
The time on the Pathway is based on the entry that you submit through Services Australia. So I think you call it an ACER form. So it is the entry into the Pathway is based on the signed service agreement for entry into that Pathway and is based off that Services Australia date that you enter them into care.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 36:38
Thanks, Arianne. And I think we've got another question from Helen in the audience. If one of my team can bring, give Helen the tech to ask the question. You should be good now, Helen.
Helen Morley 36:59
It did. Oh, there we go. Hi there everybody. My name is Helen Morley. I work for Country SAPHN, just overseeing the Care Finder programme. I don't know if this is a relevant question for this forum, but the extension is really welcomed. But can I ask how those providers operating in really thin markets actually do the practical delivery of the Pathway?
We've just found on quite a number of occasions in those rural and remote regions that service providers are not having the capacity either through workforce or they feel they're not ready to deliver the End-of-Life Pathway. So even though the person has had a really expediated assessment and be absolutely eligible that it is not or never implemented. Just frustrating for those that do live in outside, you know, more populated areas where perhaps there are a greater workforce.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 38:01
Thanks, Helen. It's a great question and great to have PHNs on the call and I suppose that's really putting a question out to the group and I'm not sure if people want to pop their hands up and respond or through the chat. I'm seeing that we've got a, oh no, that was yours, Helen. So
Are there any people on the call that want to share their reflections to that question about how you're operating through those thin markets?
If not, Helen, if we don't get any responses here, we can certainly make that a focus to think about through the sessions as we continue and come back to you.
Helen Morley 38:39
Sure. Yeah, definitely. We definitely, we've had certain feedback of people feeling they're not ready or we don't have the staff to do it or we don't know what we need to do. And yeah, it's just very frustrating for families. We've had families hiring equipment and just doing everything, you know, and palliative care SA are involved. So it's just, it's just tricky. Thank you for considering that.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 39:03
No, thank you for your reflections and we'll take that back to our team to have a think about and provide some additional information. But again, we can work through some of our other channels to give you feedback as well.
Helen Morley 39:11
Mhm. Sure. Amazing. Thank you.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 39:19
Penny, are you seeing any questions that you wanted to touch on? I'm just doing my best to get through some.
WARD, Penelope 39:26
We've got some questions that we're responding to in the background. So we're just gathering that so that will come through. There was one question around through what mechanism will the provider receive the SPR reminder at 20 weeks. So we're just working on. that one and just looking through the chat and the Q&A.
ORTON, Arianne 39:50
And so on that one, and I will be a little bit vague on it, currently in the existing Pathway at the moment, the 12 to 16 weeks length that people enter into care for End-of-Life, there is already a mechanism that sends or sets up a SPR reminder thing at the towards the end of that Pathway. I've forgotten which week at the moment that it does it. It's the same mechanism for this extended 24 week. It's it will be at that 20 week or so it is in the same manner that it is. We will respond outside of session exactly how that works in there, based on the existing implementation for it.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 40:35
We have a question from Joanne. Now, my amazing team behind the scenes say we can bring you to the floor, but you need to unmute yourself, Joanne, to be able to talk. Think you should be good.
Joanne Felton 40:50
Okay, is that good? Okay, sorry, I don't have a camera. Look, I put my question in the chat, but just because you were talking about that, we've had an End-of-Life client that went on. He survived the End-of-Life funding. Prior to that, he was on a HCP level 4. It finished in May. We put in an SPR about three, four weeks before, because we got a prompt from My Aged Care to submit an SPR. The assessment team told us that it automatically goes back. They don't have to do an SPR. We've actually submitted 3 SPRs since May. All of them have been knocked backed by the assessment team. We have a ticket raised with My Aged Care that apparently is sitting with the department at the moment. We haven't been funded for this client since his End-of-Life finished. We haven't stopped his services. We don't think that's ethical, considering it's not his fault. Yeah, is there any guidance or have you got any suggestions in how we can actually get this rectified quickly because it's been quite a while now. And we're only a small provider. We're not a big provider that can absorb three months of a level 4 funding, yeah.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 42:12
Thanks, Joanne. That must be incredibly challenging. I'm trying to support some other colleagues to join the call, but Arianne, in the first instance, do you have any advice on this one?
ORTON, Arianne 42:26
No, sorry, not on. I don't. Sorry.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 42:33
Joanne, we might take that on notice and we might, I'll try to return to your question before the end of the session. So I'll just, oh, it looks like we might have Sarah from our policy team here actually. So beautiful timing, Sarah.
Joanne Felton 42:34
Yeah.
MARTIN, Sarah 42:49
Apologies for not joining earlier. I just couldn't seem to get access. Look, I think probably what we should best do is take Joanne's details and then we can work out a solution offline. I think it's probably a bit too complex to work out right now. So if we could just get her details and we'll get in touch and work out a solution. Is that okay?
Joanne Felton 43:12
Thank you so much.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 43:12
Cin. Could my team either through the chat or behind the scenes reach out to Joanne just to give her a contact box to work through? It might potentially be in the slides too. Uh, Elaine.
Elaine Watkins 43:39
Hello, hello, thank you. So just to back Joanne's comment there, we're very similar in the fact that every End-of-Life client we've had that has gone back onto their ongoing package or a new ongoing package.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 43:59
We just lost Elaine, but we'll... Oh, here we go.
Elaine Watkins 44:02
Oh, hello. Can you hear me?
LANCASHIRE, Claire 44:04
We can, might be best to start. We got that you're in a similar situation to Joanne and then it failed.
Elaine Watkins 44:05
Yes, sorry, cut out, right? So, yeah, so any client that we've had from end of life that's going on to back onto their ongoing package or had a new package assigned. We've not been able to claim any funds. We've got clients similarly. We've been a few months out and we've not made any claims at all. Our accounts department just can't do it. I have contacted my Aged Care, I've put in escalations and we've just got nothing back. So I don't know if there's something. I thought there might be a glitch in the system of what I was doing, but it's interesting that somebody else has got the same issue. But the other question that I wanted to ask was, I'm getting some conflicting advice from the different assessors, but if somebody completes the 12 week, sorry, the End-of-Life Pathway prior to the 12 week time frame and they had an ongoing package, Do they, if the funding's expired, do they flip back onto the ongoing package at that point or do we have to wait the full 12 weeks to allow them to go back onto the ongoing package?
MARTIN, Sarah 45:14
I believe they need to wait the full 12 weeks to go back onto the package.
Elaine Watkins 45:20
Because we've had some that have been able to do that. And I had one during the week and I phoned my aged care and they, you know, verified to me that he has gone back onto his normal package. So we're continuing to give the services to be able to keep him at home. So it's just, yeah, it's just not clear between the assessors and my aged care. So it's, Yeah.
MARTIN, Sarah 45:39
Yes, the policy setting is that you cannot go back onto your package, but I think there may be something in the system that allows that.
Elaine Watkins 45:47
Allows it, okay, so it's kind of, is that just a variance between assessors if they can override it or?
MARTIN, Sarah 45:48
Yeah. Taryn.
ORTON, Arianne 45:56
It is an unintended implementation which is being rectified in this extension pathway that's being implemented. So for the 24 weeks, the participant will not be able to return or leave to go to an ongoing package until that full 20-week 24-week time frame has completed. That is the intention underneath the current one, as Sarah mentioned. But yes, the system in place does allow that at this point to, yeah.
Elaine Watkins 46:17
So I can continue. Yeah, OK. Thank you. That's good to know. Thanks.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 46:35
I believe we had another raise of hands. I think we first with Amos, if we can bring Amos back to screen.
Amos Sharan 46:44
Yeah, thanks, Claire. A bit of a technical one, but if we have a new participant enter the Eol Pathway, let's say mid-November, and they see out their 16th weeks and their 16th week, let's say, is the day before, so March 7th they will not be applicable to get the extension. However, if you have another participant who reaches their 16th week because funds are remaining on March 8th onwards, will they get the extension?
ORTON, Arianne 47:35
So, could you could you clarify what they left the Pathway for?
Amos Sharan 47:40
They haven't left the pathway. So reaching March 8th when the extension kicks off, if they're still in the pathway, will they get an extension as well?
ORTON, Arianne 47:55
Yes, if they are still active in the Pathway, so within they have commenced the end of life episode within 111 days from the 8th of March, their episode length will be increased to 24 weeks from their original commencement. And at the point that they hit the 12-week, 13-week, you know, where you get the second lot of funding, they will then get that second lot of funding. If that date was before the 8th of March, they will get it on the 8th of March. Does that make sense? So if they commenced exactly 111 days before the 8th of March, then they will get their second allocation of 25k added to their account on the 8th of March when this extension comes into play and their Pathway will be extended.
Amos Sharan 48:47
Okay, so essentially they will get like have a total of 28 weeks as opposed to the 24.
ORTON, Arianne 48:55
No, they will have a total of 24 weeks. It's based off the date they commence. So they don't get an extension, they don't go, as of the 8th of March, you now get 12 extra weeks. It is as of the 8th of March, their episode length will be recalculated based on when they entered care. If that person entered 111 days, prior to the 8th of March, their episode length will get updated to 168 days from that original date that they started.
Amos Sharan 49:24
Right, okay. Yep, that makes sense because, yeah, the total time is what threw us is the 24 weeks, but if someone's already done their 16, they essentially just going to get another 8 weeks extra with that full 25k funding.
ORTON, Arianne 49:30
Yes. Yes, correct. Yes, they just get the remainder of the extended period, but with the full 25k coming into play for their second part of it.
Amos Sharan 49:47
Thank you.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 49:49
Thanks, Amos. I think they're really great questions. And I suppose my reflection so far in this is that we're getting a real spread of questions about the kind of principles and operation of the Pathway versus the Extension. And I just want to assure participants that the way that we're designing these sessions is quite deliberate to stage in the information. So there will be opportunity to really step through these scenarios with you. We deliberately decided not to do that today because it's a lot of information to take in. So please be assured that these conversations aren't your only opportunity to kind of tease out the different client journeys and scenarios. We do have different transitioning cohorts. That will be a feature of our next session. So I just want to reassure people that if, you know, there's a lot of detail in these examples that we're talking through, we will unpack them in more detail over the coming weeks and we can pick these apart with some visual assistance as well. So don't feel if some of that is, if it's going over your head or you've got questions as well, there'll be more, today is not the only opportunity I suppose I want to give assurance to and we will give you more materials to help take that away and digest. I did see some, another show of hands and apologies, it just takes me a few toggles to see who we've got now, so Anat.
Anat Drory 51:23
Hi, thank you. More of a technical question. I understand from your slides that if someone previously had home support ongoing and they finished the extension, they will go automatically back to their level, to their home support ongoing, and we do not need to submit an SPR. First of all, is my understanding correct? And also, would we need as providers to enter ACER for them going back to the home support ongoing?
ORTON, Arianne 52:03
So, can I catch again what they left it for?
Anat Drory 52:08
So if they outlived the extension and they need and then and they're going back to their previous home support ongoing level, first of all, am I correct to understand that we do not need to submit an SPR for that and it will they will automatically go back to their previous level.
ORTON, Arianne 52:12
They outlive the extension, yep.
Anat Drory 52:30
And do we as providers need to enter an ACER for that?
ORTON, Arianne 52:34
OK, so if they, if the level of care that they were receiving prior to the end of life coming in, the start of commencing and going through that full 24 weeks and they outlive it, if they, if it's the level of care that they were having before is already at the highest already would meet their needs when they come off it at the end, then they wouldn't need to go through an SPR process to reinstate the ongoing funding that they were previously receiving. If the client would need a higher level of care or other supports in there, then they would need an SPR to go to get access to a higher level of funding and that should be considered the same as it is now when you're coming to the end of an end of life episode. If so in the second sense where you don't, where you're returning to the end of life at the end, I'll have to take on notice the part about whether you need to submit an ACER form at the end because it is an automatic action that they return to the end of life, sorry, return to their previous ongoing if they had some in place, if they were allocated and had an allocation in place at that time.
Anat Drory 53:46
No. So, what did you say about that, that?
ORTON, Arianne 53:51
I'll have to come back to you on that one, just double check about whether there needs to be another form submitted for them entering into, like returning to it in that particular circumstance. I just can't remember at the moment, so we will come back about the ACER form part of it.
Anat Drory 53:53
To find out, I can. Ohh. That's OK. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 54:15
I think we had a question next from Nikki.
Nicky Boersma 54:20
Thanks, Claire. I am just following on from Amos's earlier question, actually, but a slightly different scenario. So just say somebody has their current funding, it expires in January, they're too early for the extension, but they've still got that window where they do need support, and they're still end of life. What are we doing in that situation? Are we going back to their package and then saying, how do we then communicate that they do still need that extension when it kicks in?
MARTIN, Sarah 54:53
So this is around ongoing support. So you would need to apply for a SPR for an urgent assessment for ongoing services. It's how it works currently. This will be part of the current practices that you're doing at the moment. So once they reach around 12 weeks, we recommend applying for an urgent support plan review to access ongoing services so that that can commence at the end of the 16 weeks if they're not part of the transitioning kind of group who can access the extension.
Nicky Boersma 55:27
Okay. Right, so they won't be able to access that extension regardless.
MARTIN, Sarah 55:38
No, they would be on the current Pathway as it is now. Yes.
Nicky Boersma 55:44
Thank you.
LANCASHIRE, Claire 55:47
Thanks, Nikki. We have a question from Lauren. And Lauren, I think if you unmute yourself, then you should be right to ask. Uh...Give you another moment and see if it works for you to to click unmute. While we do that, I might just say...
I think we've had a few people reach out through the chat that probably we're not able to talk about the specifics for the individual or to provide you that level of support. We've given our team's e-mail for today to reach them, to reach back with us and we'll be in touch. I probably caution about sending us a wave of individual cases to that e-mail. If we're finding that these sessions are bringing forth. We'll have a think about providing some additional information about escalation, etc. as we, and just the process. I'm just, I don't want to be creating work for people or directing you to the wrong areas to seek resolution on these matters. So we'll have a think about that. Lauren, are you having any luck coming off mute? It doesn't appear to be, so I'll see if you've been able to post a question in the chat. Apologies if you're having any tech difficulties. I suppose it's especially difficult of people are joining from different places, not in front of necessarily a screen. It doesn't look like it's appearing to work. And I am cautious that we're running up to time. Lauren, if you have a chance to pop your question in the chat, we'll try our best to get back to you with a response in the materials. Really big thank you to everyone joining for today. I think we got over 200 people in the call at the time. Again, my takeaway from this is that there is a lot to unpack, but we're going to be with you along this journey. There'll be a range of resources, lots of opportunities to ask questions and unpack that, those particular transitioning cohorts and think about the supports and scenarios and the communication that goes with this incredibly. We understand that this is a really sensitive time in an older person and their family's lives as well. So we are really thinking about the messaging to support older people through that.
Thank you a lot to everyone for their participation. Materials will be published in a fortnight. I won't be here with you for the next session. You'll have one of my colleagues joining Penny, but I'll be back with you in the fortnight after that. Stay well. I encourage you to reach out if there's additional questions and we'll do our best to target the session based on the questions that we're receiving as well. Thanks a lot and we'll see you over the coming weeks as we work through this change.
WARD, Penelope 59:02
Thank you, everybody.