Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) 2025–27 extension webinar

[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health and Aged Care’, ‘Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) 2025-27 webinar’, ‘22 October 2024’]

[The visuals during this webinar are of each speaker presenting in turn via video, with reference to the content of a PowerPoint presentation being played on screen]

Thea Connolly:

Yuma. I’ll begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which we are virtually meeting today. The speakers and I are based in Canberra on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. I acknowledge and pay respects to their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of the city and this region. I’ll also extend that acknowledgment and respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are here with us today. 

Thank you for attending today’s webinar. My name is Thea Connolly. I’m the First Assistant Secretary, Home and Residential Division in the Department of Health and Aged Care and I’ll be hosting this event today to talk with you about the Commonwealth Home Support Programme and our plans for the program going forward across 2025 to 2027. I’m joined today by Rob Day, Assistant Secretary, Harmonisation and Regulation Strategy Branch, Felicity Benedetti, Director of the Commonwealth Home Support Programme Service Reform Section, and also Martin Dempsey, Director, CHSP Operations, both in the Home Support Operations Branch. I’m also pleased to welcome Rowena Sierant who is Director, Support at Home Reform Branch to assist with any questions that we might have at the conclusion of the webinar in relation to Support at Home, as well as Russell Herald who is known to many of you.

You can lodge your questions during the webinar in the Slido box on the right hand side of your screen. We will attempt to respond to as many questions as possible at the end of the webinar but I will note that this is our first really substantive engagement since the announcement of the reforms by Minister Wells on the 12th of September in the CHSP space and so we are prioritising a fair bit of content in our presentation for you today. We will have follow up sessions, fact sheets and other material lodged in our website and we will also answer all the questions and answers including those that we don’t quite get to today after the webinar and we’ll email those through to you.

Noting that there are more than 2,000 of you registered, close to 3,000, there is no option for attendees to turn on their video or microphone. I’m sure you understand. The session will be recorded and uploaded onto our website along with the slides which will be available as soon as possible after this webinar.

Today my colleagues and I will be covering an overview of the aged care reforms including a quick overview of CHSP outcomes in 23-24, the introduction of the new Aged Care Act and Support at Home and what this means for the CHSP immediately following the commencement of the new Aged Care Act planned for 1 July 2025. I’ll also touch on the new single assessment system which you may have heard something about already, and the new regulatory aged care model will be covered by Rob Day including the new deeming process for CHSP providers. Following that section of the webinar we’ll also cover a range of proposed changes and new requirements for CHSP providers including our approach to the new service list, interim changes to CHSP services, flexibility provisions, the upcoming 2025-2027 grant extension process, new DEX reporting obligations and transition arrangements and potential upcoming CHSP grant funding opportunities. So as I said there’s a lot to cover today.

Just a reminder first though one of the key principles that we are operating under here and as you may have heard us speaking in the Senate Inquiry in relation to the new Aged Care Act that’s underway at the moment, we are really focused on the fact that we’re working to have clients currently accessing CHSP continuing to receive CHSP services until we transition to the Support at Home Program with minimal disruption. That transition will not happen before the 1st of July 2027. There’s been no change to that status.

Importantly any new clients assessed for CHSP services from 1 July 2025 will also be able to receive CHSP services as they are now however if their needs are assessed as more complex they will be eligible for Support at Home services not CHSP from 1 July 2025.

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Overview of 2023-24’, ‘Service delivery insights’]

So first of all let’s move into our presentation proper. I’d like to take you through some high level outcomes under the CHSP from the 2023-24 financial year. This is of course of great interest to us as program managers and we assume it’s of some interest to you as well. So we’ll just hit some of the highlights. You can read for yourself here investment in CHSP was increased by 7.7% in 23-24 supported by a one off indexation boost which also covered funding for increased wage costs arising from Fair Work Commission changes to aged care awards and an increase in client contributions. As you would have experienced referrals to CHSP also increased by 8.2% in the same period although this growth was mainly from existing CHSP clients indicating that demand pressure is less about population growth but mainly about increased needs of clients already in the system.

The Department’s effort to work across a number of providers to rebase their contracts helped us drive an increase in overall contract performance from 73% previously to 83% and a reduction in recorded underspends. Having contracts that better align to activity on the ground strengthens the integrity of CHSP and maintains or minimises ineffective expenditure. The underspend that we saw in 2022-23 was way above what we would expect. So we were pleased to see that come back. Overall the number of people supported in CHSP during 23-24 increased by 2.3% to 835,000 people. 

So a couple of other points of interest before we delve into looking forward. Referrals for domestic assistance grew by 28%, about 40,000. This led to an increase in the number of people obviously receiving this service. Of each of the service types meals delivery funding saw the largest growth at 10.3%. We continue to see contractual challenges in terms of respite services with a reasonably low uptake at just 41.6% although we are seeing some signs of that ticking up. One of the things we’re monitoring is whether respite services don’t fit neatly as entry level services and it’s potentially more aligned to home care packages or support at home services. Allied health was a strong performer overachieving against contracted outputs. And we also continue to see a moderation in the use of nursing services in CHSP. Referrals are falling although we aren’t yet seeing this flow on to reduced service levels. Again we think this is more about potentially whether entry level services for nursing are really the right target or it’s more a Commonwealth Home Care Packages or Support at Home Program type service.

Finally 19% of CHSP referrals in 23-24 were for people on the Home Care Package waitlist, the national priority system. Around a quarter of those are for people who are already accessing a home care package. Of interest to us is that a substantial proportion of CHSP referrals for respite and personal care are for people on the waitlist and this is something that we’ll continue to look at as we work through the CHSP and Support at Home interface. Obviously both programs will be running for at least two years.

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘What’s changing?’, ‘Preparing for 1 July 2025’]

What I’ll do now is just take you through the aged care reforms at a very, very high level as they’re most relevant to CHSP to set the scene going forward. So first of all the introduction of the new Aged Care Act and announcements on the 12th of September outline a key and main pillar of our reforms to in-home aged care. In practice the new Aged Care Act will enable obviously support at home, a new regulatory system, a standardised service list with some exceptions all to be deployed from 1 July ’25. And we also have a single assessment system that’s being rolled out. We’ve already started that. 1 July ’24 we commenced with the integrated assessment tool and from 1 January ’25 we’ll have our single assessment workforce utilising that tool rolling out assessments from simple through to complex.

All of that is underway but there is more work to do and we’ll give you a bit of a sense of that today, trying not to overwhelm you but we don’t want to understate that this is a big transition. We are going to prioritise what’s most important for 1 July ’25 but also today just signal for you that there is more work to do. We do in particular need to find the right balance of grants and individualised budgets. Obviously CHSP is a grant program. Home Care Packages Program subsidies and Support at Home will have individualised budgets as well. We do have an ambition of developing a single pricing and consumer contribution process and program consistent with the idea that both CHSP and Home Care Packages will be rolled up into Support at Home in due course.

We do know that people want the detail on how CHSP will change and so today we’re commencing that process. We’ll be covering changes on what we know now and signalling as I said where we still had some thinking and some consultation to do and where Government still needs to importantly consider and make decisions. So we’ll talk to you about the assessment system, the regulation of CHSP providers and the new service list today and we’ll also provide some information around future considerations in relation to pricing, consumer contributions and funding models for CHSP.

As I said one of today’s key messages is that we do not have all of the answers for what CHSP will look like come in particular 2027 and beyond but we will use the next two years to work with you and other stakeholders and with Government to finalise those details in sensible timeframes.

One last thing before we move on. There is a lot of change happening over the next nine months. We know not everything will go to plan and smoothly. That is the nature of change. If it was easy and straightforward it would have been done by now. The Department, our state network, funding arrangement managers, the FAMs, will support all of you to understand and implement this reform as we progress through the journey. Underpinning all the detail is a simple objective of harmonising the in-home aged care system to make it more efficient and effective and provide a consistent journey for older people as their needs increase as they age. Another key message is this. Change and the way that they’re being implemented are designed to minimise service disruptions as I’ve said. Our primary objective remains the health and wellbeing of older people in Australia.

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Single Assessment System’, ‘What it means for the Commonwealth Home Support Programme?’]

So with that said let’s move onto a couple of the key highlights. I’ll just give them a very, very brief treatment. So in relation to the single assessment system as you may well know there are several different assessment pathways into home support. As a result we’ve heard the feedback and the Royal Commission noted that assessments are not consistent and that older people are frustrated by needing to move across assessment organisations as their needs change. And so we’ve looked to bring together a regional assessment service, aged care assessment teams and also the independent AN-ACC or Australian National Aged Care Classification assessors used for residential aged care funding into one single workforce where that workforce can do certainly two and possibly three of those assessments.

As the first stage of implementing the system we have already rolled out the integrated assessment tool from 1 July. So our RASs are already using the IAT and that replaced the national screening and assessment form. In our view the tool collects better information and that’s certainly the feedback that we’ve heard from older people, is that they feel more heard having had an assessment through the IAT and that was absolutely one of our objectives.

From 1 July ’25 the information collected in this tool will be used to classify a person into a funding class. This is a uniform process for Support at Home and CHSP and you can see on the screen there the Support at Home classes that you may have heard talked about previously. The eight classes there ranging from I think $11,000 up to approximately $78,000 indicative numbers and also CHSP grouping.

So the outcome of aged care assessments will be based on the information collected during the assessment through the IAT using a series of verified tools to ask very specific questions about a person’s function and aged care needs that cover physical, functional, medical, cognitive, psychological, social, frailty and other factors. It’s very comprehensive. Social factors such as whether the person lives alone for example. The answers to these questions are tallied up in the IAT and the result is used to recommend a participant to either CHSP or to Support at Home. There is a formula or algorithm that the IAT utilises that does this but ultimately the recommendation is made by the assessor. Within Support at Home this formula is used to recommend a participant to a particular classification. Not the case at this time for CHSP.

So key message here for CHSP. An assessment for CHSP will not result in the assignment of an individualised budget. We are continuing the grant program. Rather it will enable the process to trigger CHSP referrals in line with how the system currently operates. So providers will not have to budget or track a CHSP client’s support level. Other than retaining the current setting that support level should not exceed the lowest level of Support at Home classification one, previously Home Care Packages.

So that’s enough from me for now I think. Let’s move to the new regulatory model. And I would like to introduce Rob Day to you. Many of you will already know Rob. He is Assistant Secretary of Harmonisation and Regulation Strategy Branch and he’ll talk to you about our new regulatory model. Over to you Rob.

Rob Day:

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘New Aged Care Regulatory Model’, ‘What it means for Commonwealth Home Support Programme providers?’]

Thanks Thea and hi everyone. Great to be with you this afternoon. I’m going to take you through today fairly quickly an overview of the new regulatory model for aged care and how we will be supporting all current providers including CHSP providers to move to the new model when the new Act commences.

So this first slide I’ve got outlines some of the key features of the new regulatory model. There is a lot there but I think the key one to really call out today is that the new regulatory model will introduce universal provider registration. And that means a single registration for each aged care provider across all of the aged care programs in which they operate. And this means that a provider who’s delivering multiple services, so a combination of CHSP and Home Care for example, will have just a single registration and will only need to complete ongoing renewal of registration once across all of those programs rather than needing to do it individually for each of the programs.

The new regulatory model will also be the first time that the Commonwealth Home Support Programme and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Care Programme will fall under the Act and providers of those two programs will become registered providers.

Another big shift particularly for those of you operating in the CHSP Programme at the moment is that the new Act will be the first time that registration will be open to non-constitutional corporations. So partnerships and sole traders for example will be able to become registered providers under the Act as well.

Provider registration and renewal will also move to be at that provider level rather than at the level of individual services or aged care homes. There will be six registration categories with grouped together types of services that have similar complexity and risk. And that means that both the entry requirements that we put in place in terms of registration and renewal of registration and also the obligations that are applied to providers will be proportionate and risk based to the types of services that have been offered. A good example of that is the way that the Aged Care Quality Standards will apply under the new Act. And so for providers operating only in categories 1, 2 or 3 which are your basic entry level type services, there will be no requirement for an audit against the Quality Standards.

And similarly where a provider is operating in categories 1, 2, 3 and 4 there will only be an audit against the Quality Standards in category 4 because that’s the only category for which the Quality Standards will apply. This doesn’t mean that there are no obligations on providers in categories 1, 2 and 3. There will be some obligations that apply such as the Aged Care Code of Conduct but they will be applied in a way that is proportionate to the context and the risk that’s reflected in services in those categories and we’ll be continuing to provide you with more information over the coming months about exactly how those obligations look as the rules to support the new Act are developed.

The next thing to talk to you about is deeming. And one of the things that we’ll be doing over the coming months to get ready for the new Act and on day one of the new Act is transitioning current providers from their current state either as an approved provider under the Act or a CHSP provider to a registered provider under the new Act. And that’s a process called deeming. And what it means is we will be doing that movement from the current Act to the new Act automatically for you rather than needing to be an application process that providers need to make to make that change. And we’re doing that to maximise the efficiency of the change, to reduce the administrative burden for you and to increase the confidence in continuity of service for the people that are accessing your services.

The process involves looking at what are the current service types that you offer, making sure that we understand your entity details such as your ABN and your company structure and that we’re linking up records that we have for you as a provider across multiple programs. And it means that once the new Act starts you will be able to operate as a registered provider from day one and you’ll have the obligations that are associated with the types of services and the registration categories that you’ll be operating in.

The Department as system governor – is what we’re called under the new Act – we’ll be undertaking that deeming process but once we get to day one of the Act the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will then begin to oversee the obligations of providers and also the registration and renewal process for providers.

So this next slide talks about the way that different programs will be reflected as we deem them into the new regulatory model. And you’ll see that there is then mapping from current programs into new ones. It’s important to note that there are a couple of groups of providers or organisations that won’t be deemed. So any providers remaining in the innovative care program will not be deemed across because that program is being gradually wound down. Additionally organisations that are operating in the sector as subcontractors won’t be deemed across as registered providers under the new Bill. They will be able to continue to deliver services in a subcontracting way to a registered provider. That will be given a new name of associated provider under the new Act. But the deeming process isn’t about changing the status of organisations. It’s purely about reflecting the current world into the new language and system that the new Aged Care Act sets up on day one. There will be plenty of opportunity for those of you that are operating in that purely subcontracted way to apply to become registered providers in your own right if that’s where you and your business want to go.

A couple of other things that are worth noting in terms of how the current program structure maps to the new regulatory model. Residential aged care will remain its own distinct cohort in the sense of it’s got its own registration category in the new system. Current Home Care Package and Short Term Restorative Care Programme providers will be brought into the Support at Home Programme when the new Act commences. And as you’re all aware and as we’re talking about today CHSP will transition to the Support at Home Programme no earlier than the 1st of July 2027 but in that intervening period between the new Act commencing and CHSP moving into Support at Home current CHSP providers will be what’s called a specialist aged care program provider. So they’ll be both regulated under the Act and have a Grant Agreement that’s your funding source for the program in that intervening period.

This next slide gives us a bit of an indicative look at the registration categories that current CHSP providers will be deemed into when we get to the new Act. That’s based on a snapshot of Funding Agreements at a point in time and so it will change a little bit when we get to day one of the new Act. We do know that nearly half of CHSP providers operate in other service types beyond CHSP and that’s why you’ll see there’s a proportion of CHSP providers that will also be deemed into category 6 because they’re part of a larger entity that also operates residential aged care.

About 4% of CHSP providers will be deemed into category 4 or 5 only. 30% will be in a combination of categories 1, 2 and 3 and the vast majority, about two thirds, will be registered in a combination of all of those categories. And I guess just to elaborate on my point earlier about the proportional application of the regulatory model, this means that for about 30% of CHSP providers currently when we get into the new Act there won’t be a requirement to meet the Quality Standards or an audit against them as part of the registration renewal process.

So in terms of the process for deeming the first step and one that we’re just beginning to embark on now is validating the information that we hold about you as a provider entity, making sure that that’s correct and making sure that both we and you have a common understanding about what that means for the way that information will be reflected when it’s deemed into the new Act. So we’ve commenced contacting providers in the first instance to confirm who is the right contact in your organisation to have that conversation with. Some of you will have already been contacted but if you haven’t don’t worry. We’re doing this process in stages and at the moment we’ve only reached out to about 2.5% of providers. If you haven’t heard from us with that first contact yet you can expect to get it in the next couple of weeks or the first week of November.

Once we’ve confirmed who the appropriate contact is in your organisation we will then take the next step which is to ask that contact to review the information that we hold about you as an organisation, make sure that’s correct, make sure the information we hold about the service types that you offer is correct, and then give you a picture about what we think that means for your registration categories under the new Act, and again to confirm for us that that looks right to you. There will be plenty of opportunities to provide feedback to tell us if we’ve got things wrong or that the mapping to the future registration categories doesn’t look right, and there’s a chance for us to then work through that. Hopefully by the end of this calendar year we’ll have gone through that with all providers across the aged care sector.

And then that data validation process will let us build the IT systems on our end that we can run over all of the current provider data at midnight on day one of the new Act and do that automated change in our IT systems to set you up ready for the Bill to commence.

I guess the other thing that we’ll then continue to do with you next year is keep talking to you, keep showing you previews of what that registration looks like, but also give you more and more detail about the obligations that we’ll attach to your registration under the new Act. One of the things that we’re doing because we know it’s really important is a simple obligations visualisation tool that will let you see really clearly what are your obligations as a provider operating in one or more of the new registration categories. That work is close but it’s pending the final details of the rules and so we’ll keep talking with you about that over the coming months as that information becomes more and more clear.

The other thing to let you know about deeming is that as well as the Department mapping you into registration categories for day one of the new Act there will also be a process of applying a registration period, an initial registration period for that deemed status and that will indicate the date at which your organisation will come up for renewal of registration for the first time. Those dates are going to need to be staggered so that we can and the Commission can manage the work of renewal applications for all of the more than 2,000 providers currently operating in the aged care system. It’s not going to be effective for anyone if that renewal date falls on the same day for everyone. So we’ll work with the Commission who will advise us what that initial renewal date should be for each provider and that will take into account factors such as risk, regulatory intelligence, the Commission’s need to manage their workforce and also how recently the Quality and Safety Commission has undertaken an audit or a review for home care and residential care providers.

Once that initial registration period is coming to an end the Commission will reach out and invite your organisation to apply for renewal. The exact timeframe for that invitation could be as much as 18 months before the end of registration but it will depend on the size of your organisation, the types of services that you offer and in particular whether audits are required against the Quality Standards. So that 18 month period is really the outside. It would only be I imagine for large providers that are operating multiple aged care homes. Smaller providers offering a smaller set of low risk services could expect that be a much shorter period involved in renewing their registration.

So I hope you found this information useful. Like a lot of the stuff we’re talking about today really conscious that there is an awful lot of information to share. And so I’d invite you to join a further webinar if this is a topic of interest to you on the 14th of November when my team and I will take you into some more detail about exactly what the new regulatory model means and what it will look like for you. If we don’t get to your questions today please also feel free to email that address on the screen and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can. Thanks again everyone for your time and back to you Thea.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Rob. So terrific to see the questions coming in. Keep them coming and as I said we’ll answer at the end time permitting. So our next speaker is Felicity Benedetti who is the Director of Commonwealth Home Support Programme Service Reform in our Home Support Operations Branch. And Felicity is going to take us through some of the key changes to the CHSP from 1 July 2025.

Felicity Benedetti:

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Service List changes’, ‘Aligning to Support at Home, legislation and regulatory model’]

Great. Thanks Thea. So as Thea mentioned I’m now just going to be taking you through some of the changes to the CHSP service list and this is a result of some of those changes that will occur with the introduction of the new Aged Care Act. So the key message here is that most of the CHSP services that you provide won’t actually change however there are slight changes to the service naming conventions. And it’s important to note that these changes are still subject to the consultation process and those relevant Government approvals.

So as I mentioned the Aged Care Rules form part of the new Aged Care Act and these rules will actually detail what services can be delivered in the aged care system. And CHSP is going to move across and align with what’s actually listed in the rules at the moment. So having a standardised service list across the aged care programs will create consistency and it will make it easier for all providers and aged care participants to understand what can be accessed and how funding can be used. And overall this alignment will prepare the CHSP sector for the expected transition from July 2027.

So what this means is that from 1 July 2025 with the commencement of the new Aged Care Act there will be three key changes to the CHSP service list and this is so we can align it to the legislation. So firstly the structure of the service catalogue will change and rather than referring to the service types and service sub-types they will now be referred to as service groups. So that’s going to be the program, the home support. And then we’ll have the service types, and that’s your domestic assistance, your allied health. And then underneath that will be the actual services that are delivered under the service types. So that’s your general house cleaning, podiatry, those sorts of services. Secondly the names of many of the service types of the services will change. And lastly we are looking to include inclusions and exclusions and to actually define this in the CHSP manual.

So the Support at Home service list is now available on the Department’s website and I’ve got a QR code here that will actually take you to a PDF of that. And we will be looking at publishing a draft CHSP service catalogue this afternoon which will give you a bit more detail about the services that I’ve got on the page here and what those services underneath will look like.

So again as I mentioned most of the CHSP services won’t actually change. It’s just going to be the naming conventions. And of course it is all subject to that consultation process. There are several changes that we wanted to note today and some of these changes will help with clearer reporting. So for meals services there is going to be a differentiation between meals delivery and meals preparation. So currently with meal services it’s either delivered at home or at the centre but we’ve consolidated this into just meals delivery. And we’ve currently got other food services which will be delivered underneath meals preparation and allied health and therapy where nutritional advice is required. Home maintenance will be listed as home maintenance and repairs and the services that sit underneath this currently is your major and minor but this will be replaced with home maintenance and repairs and gardening will stay the same. 

And I’ll take it as the opportunity now to say that there’s not going to be any hourly caps for CHSP under domestic assistance and home maintenance and repairs.

There will be a couple of other changes to respite. So with flexible respite and centre-based respite we’ll look to merge these and it will just be referred to as respite. And we’re hoping this will assist with improving that user experience and outcomes for carers at the point of assessment. And cottage respite will remain as its own service type but there will be a slight name change.

There are a few other minor changes with some select services. So nursing care has been renamed and the services that sit underneath this will be based on the professionals eligible to deliver the services. So that’s like your registered nurses, enrolled nurses and nursing assistants. For goods, equipment and assistive technology, this will be renamed to equipment and products and the services that sit underneath this will align to the assistive tech and home modifications scheme.

For home modifications this will be renamed to home adjustments and we’ve also created a new service type called social support and community engagement and this service type will capture the previous supports provided underneath social support individual, social support group and those client advocacy services currently delivered under specialised support services.

So it is proposed that there are some more material changes to allied health, specialised services and sector support and development which I’ll go into a bit more detail later on. But for the purposes of the 25-27 grant for meals and those social support services providers will actually be contracted at the service level and this is so that the contract can reflect unit prices that are relative to the current arrangements. As I mentioned the Department is currently consulting on the service list rules and I do encourage you to provide feedback and you can do this through the Department’s website. I’ve got the link on the screen here. Submissions close on the 31st of October and there is a form that you can complete to provide that feedback.

So as I mentioned earlier there are a few other changes to CHSP that we are looking to implement from 1 July 2025. And you may have seen in the Support at Home service list that cottage respite and hoarding and squalor are not listed however they will continue to be available through CHSP from 2025 to 2027. And Support at Home participants will also be able to access these services through CHSP from 1 July 2025. They’ll just need to go through that assessment process and be referred for those services.

The flexibility provisions, we’ll also look to change these. So from 1 July 2025 we are looking to narrow the flexibility provisions so that funding for home adjustments, equipment and products and specialised support services can’t be moved in or out of the service type without written approval from the Department. And we’re doing this because it will allow us to have a steady baseline of funding and service delivery and it will reduce the risk of data being skewed by funding moving in or out. And this is particularly important while we work to understand how the services will interact with the assistive tech and home modifications scheme from July 2027.

These are the same conditions that we’ve already got for hoarding and squalor assistance and sector support and development. So those flexibility restrictions will continue to apply to those services. There will also be some restrictions on the specialised support services and I’ll go into a bit more detail shortly.

For allied health and therapy there are some changes to this service. So allied health services have been split into allied health and therapy services and therapeutic services for independent living. The decision to allocate services to either allied health or to therapeutic services was based on a determination of which services were most aligned with clinical needs versus support for independence. So with your allied health and therapy services traditionally these cover a wide range of health disciplines that help to maintain or improve general health, physical function and wellbeing. And these services typically focus on rehabilitation, prevention, chronic disease management, whereas therapeutic services for independent living focus more on the therapy that enhances functional independence.

There will be a few additional services listed under these activities and as I mentioned earlier we will be posting online the catalogue of CHSP, the proposed catalogue, so you’ll be able to see some of those differences there.

So again these changes are to ensure that CHSP services align to the legislation and give Government a better understanding of how funding is being spent. We did recently undertake a survey with allied health and therapy service providers so thank you everyone for responding to that. And this survey has provided us with clarification around specific services being delivered and these results will help to inform how the funding will be split between the services in this space. So it is really important that when providers receive their indicative offers you really need to have a look at them and review them and ensure that you agree with how the funding is split.

So over the last few years we have been working with the sector support and development and specialised support service providers to better understand service delivery and we are continuing to look at reforming these services. And we’ll be engaging in further consultations over the next month to provide a bit more information and seek feedback from these providers.

So with SSD over the past few years we have been really trying to work to improve the focus and intent of SSD services and we’ve done this by introducing focus areas and establishing a community of practice and we’ve also expanded the service delivery to a more national footprint. So SSD activities will likely be retained for one year under the CHSP and then from 1 July 2026 we are looking at introducing a grant funded in-home sector support program which will support all in-home aged care services and not just CHSP. So during 2025 we will undertake consultation with SSD providers to inform the design of that program.

For specialised support services you would have noticed that this is not currently part of the service list out for consultation and this is because the services currently delivered lack that regulatory protection under the new Aged Care Act. So as a result we are looking to transition SSS services to other CHSP service types to streamline service delivery and promote a more effective and efficient approach to funding these services. So what this means is that SSS providers will be asked to realign their services where possible to more appropriate services such as allied health, nursing, social support and community engagement or personal care.

So when providers receive their indicative agreements we will work with you to move your existing SSS services into other service types for 1 July 2025 but where a SSS provider is unable to realign their services they will continue to receive funding for one year through SSS and this will be under a separate schedule under their CHSP Grant Agreement. And during this time the Department will work with these providers to determine a more appropriate funding source.

So because of these reforms to SSS it will no longer be possible to use the flexibility provisions to move funding in or out and the reasoning again behind this is to ensure that we’ve got a good understanding of the baseline funding amounts without it being skewed by funding moving in or out.

To support access to SSD and SSS from 2025 older people will not require an assessment to access these services and this is because services are often delivered to clients who haven’t been assessed for aged care but are supported to access entry level supports delivered by the My Aged Care Contact Centre, aged care specialist officers and peak bodies.

So subject to the relevant approvals of everything I’ve spoken about the Department will be updating guidance material and will detail the system changes to make the transition as seamless as possible. And if and when we get the green light on these changes we’ll need to work with providers to map current client service referrals to the new service list. We are working through the technical changes now and we’re looking to develop some client and provider blueprints which outline that implementation journey.

There is going to be some interaction between Support at Home and CHSP and in some circumstances Support at Home participants can access additional services through CHSP as a short term or time limited arrangement. So there will be four circumstances when a Support at Home participant can access CHSP services and this aligns with the current arrangements with Home Care Packages where there’s six exceptions.

So for social support group if a client transitions from CHSP to Support at Home but was previously receiving those group services through CHSP they will still be able to continue to access those group services and that’s really important from a client perspective to make sure that they’ve still got those connections. For hoarding and squalor and cottage respite Support at Home participants will be able to access these services. They will just need to receive that referral from an assessor.

For goods, equipment and assistive technology and home modifications so from 1 July 2025 the assistive technology and home modifications scheme and the CHSP equipment and products and home adjustment services will operate in parallel. So what this means is that when undergoing an aged care assessment an older person will be assessed for Support at Home services, assistive technology and home modifications. So if a person requires Support at Home services and assistive tech or home modifications they will be directed into the assistive tech and home modifications scheme. However if there’s a client who only needs access to assistive tech or home modifications or a combination of both they will be directed into the CHSP program. So clients who only need the GEAT or home modifications or a combination of both will receive a subsidy of $1,000 per year for GEAT and the cap for home modifications will increase from $10,000 to $15,000 which will be consistent with the assistive tech and home modifications scheme. We do have more information about the assistive tech and home modifications scheme on our website.

And the Department will be consulting with GEAT and home modifications providers from July next year on how these services will interact with the ATHM scheme from 1 July 2027.

The Department’s also been doing some work on understanding the social capital within CHSP. Social capital shapes the quality and quantity of community interactions particularly in the aged care setting. And we all know that social interaction plays a crucial role in the wellbeing and quality of life of older people in Australia and research has consistently shown that meaningful social engagement positively impacts their physical, mental and emotional health.

The central issue for CHSP is that neither of the policy nor funding settings recognise the intrinsic benefits of activities that provide social benefit and what this does is it incentivises simpler delivery models which may not actually align with the purpose of the aged care system nor maximise the benefits of Commonwealth investment in aged care services. We’ve also heard concerns that the social benefits of CHSP might be lost if and when we move to individualised budgets.

We also know that there are some CHSP services which prioritise that regular social engagement as part of service delivery and this is often found in our meals and transport services which build that social connectedness through regular engagement with workers and volunteers. And these workers or volunteers play a really important role in identifying changes in client circumstances.

To inform future policy we are planning to consult with providers on novel ways to retain these benefits. We’ll also look to capture additional data and develop alternative pricing methods and policy settings which incorporate that social engagement and client need. So what we’ll be doing in November is we’ll be holding a separate webinar to provide more details and providers will have an opportunity to provide feedback on some of this work.

So after everything I’ve spoken about I’m sure you can guess that if all these changes go ahead there will be changes to DEX reporting for 25-27. So this will include updates to all the service types and services to make sure that it aligns with the legislation. We are also looking at implementing a new reporting framework which will provide details on services delivered to clients and specifically we are looking at additional reporting fields for transport and meal services to support some of that policy work that we’re doing.

We are also introducing a new field to capture the aged care ID of clients against the services delivered. We know that there are providers delivering services to clients who are not in My Aged Care and over the next two years we will be clamping down on this practice. And in early 2025 we will provide some advice to providers on how to ensure that clients are appropriately registered. But we do recognise that there are some circumstances where a person may not be registered and there’s legitimate reasons for that so we’ll happily work closely with providers on that as well.

The Department will also be looking to regularly publish data on CHSP service delivery and we’re hoping this will help to improve transparency and also support that future policy work. We do recognise that providers will also need to update their systems to align to these new reporting requirements and we’re looking at options to support smaller organisations to achieve this. So as soon as we have the relevant approvals we’ll work to get the specs published as soon as possible. And the new reporting requirements will also be provided as part of the CHSP manual for 2025-27 and we’re hoping to publish this by the end of the year.

To support providers through these changes we are looking at whether there is a case for transitional support arrangements such as a transition grant and pending further consideration our primary interest is in the capacity of smaller providers to make these changes and the Department hopes to provide more information and advice by the end of the year on this.

So over the next month we are going to be taking an opportunity to engage quite closely with the sector as I mentioned earlier. So while these exact dates aren’t finalised just yet we hope to finalise this shortly. We will be taking that first step next week. We’re going to be publishing a survey which ties to the CHSP Grant Agreements for 2025-27 and we’re hoping to get some feedback from providers.

So my colleague Martin Dempsey will also share more details about the processes including options for pricing for CHSP services in the next two financial years.

So I know that was a lot to take in so just to summarise most of the services that you provide won’t be changing, although the service name might change. There will be updates to DEX reporting that will require ICT changes and this is to ensure that it all aligns with the legislation. And there will be some changes to how flexibility provisions can be used in certain service types and we’ll be engaging with providers more over the next month.

So I’ll throw that back to you Thea.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Felicity. Now I’d like to introduce Martin Dempsey, Director, Commonwealth Home Support Programme Operations in the Home Support Operations Branch. Marty’s going to talk with us about the 25-27 Grant Agreement extension process and proposed changes to pricing and a range of other things. Thanks Marty. Over to you.

Martin Dempsey:

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘2025-27 Contracting process’, ‘The agreements’]

Thanks Thea. So how do we put a lot of that into practice? The extension of the CHSP for the 25‑27 period will be based on a grant opportunity and then would lead into offer of a Funding Agreement. Subject to authority approval the process will follow the same as previous years however it will be a new contract, not a variation to the existing contract. This is to incorporate a lot of the changes that Felicity just ran through. The structure of the agreements will look very similar with an activity work plan which will outline the service provision. We do and will continue to work closely with the Community Grants Hub through this process to manage the contracts and reflecting what has been discussed with you as the service providers for the contracts for next year. We’ll be aiming to publish the guidelines for the CHSP contracting process during December. Please make sure that you are registered on Grant Connect so that you receive a notice of this when these guidelines are going to be released allowing you to then actually respond to the grant opportunity.

As has been the process previously once the relative approvals have been obtained we’re inviting current and existing CHSP providers to apply for this particular grant opportunity for 25‑27. This will also include any of the recent funded growth funding service providers.

We will also continue to take a staged approach with this with some providers being contracted and contacted before other ones as they come back and actually accept any of the grant opportunity. Organisations will receive correspondence from the Department outlining the grant value for your organisation for funded services and targeted outputs. It will also show your organisation’s current suite of services mapped to the new proposed CHSP service list that Felicity just ran through. This mapping is based on your current contracts and any surveys the Department’s undertaken to then map it against the new proposed CHSP service list. Providers will not receive any less funding. It is simply a process of mapping the current to the new proposed service list. If there is any mapping data issues we will engage with service providers and of course correct this. However there is limited negotiation relating to any new services being provided or any new aged care planning regions unless it is related to a mapping data issue. This extension is not an opportunity for providers to seek additional funding above their current funding envelope.

Once the grant opportunity has been released and providers have responded to the invitation to apply the preparation of new Funding Agreements and documents will then happen in the new calendar year.

As with invitations to apply this process again will be staged so that some providers will be receiving their agreements earlier than others as they come back and actually accept any of the invitations to apply.

So this is a more detailed look at the process. As mentioned earlier the Department will map your organisation’s current suite of services to the new proposed CHSP list. There will be an opportunity though for providers to request a loading for MMM regions if they have got 50% of the service delivery evidenced in DEX reporting last year. This is though an opportunity for MMM 5 loading to also be applied building upon the current MMM 6 and MMM arrangements. The Department will publish more information in a fact sheet that will give you more information about how this can be applied during the extension process.

We will arrange the offer of Funding Agreements after we receive your organisation’s application for the grant funding for later this calendar year.

If your organisation plans to discontinue services though by 30 June next year we would really appreciate it that you would give written notice to the Department as soon as humanly possible and to your funding arrangement manager. The notification must also include a transition out plan. We need a minimum of at least five months from receiving this plan to be able to consider alternative service provisions to ensure a client’s services and no disruption to their service provision. If we do receive any information post end of January next year it will be very difficult for us to not have any service disruptions for any of the clients. So please if your organisation is planning not to take on a new offer from 1 July next year please be in contact with the Department and your funding arrangement manager.

Until the CHSP transitions to the Support at Home Program there will be no change to the current client contribution arrangements. It still remains a principle for the 25-27 period that the clients are required to contribute to the cost of service delivery. CHSP providers will continue to set their own provider policies within the national client contribution framework settings. This includes charging for services where a client can afford to do so and ensuring that there is hardship provision in place for those who cannot. So whilst there is no immediate change CHSP providers should start to consider what this looks like into the future and how this would affect them.

So the tricky issue for CHSP is the pricing in the lead up to the Support at Home Program both from 2025 and from 2027.

Putting it into context in the design of Support at Home clinical services attract no consumer contributions whereas current policy settings for CHSP would see contributions where practical. In addition there are no signals in CHSP contracts of the Support at Home design where everyday living services should see higher consumer contributions. When considering the programs will have a constant service list going forward there is a case for a consistent pricing regime for most service types. There is also a case for making changes towards a consistent pricing regime during the 25-27 contract process where revenue is 100% block funded.

The Department is considering three pricing options for services funded by the hour none of which should change contracting funding levels. As Felicity mentioned earlier we will shortly be sending out a quick survey to all CHSP providers to obtain your input into the unit pricing options. On the screen in front of you you’ve got three options that are going to be presented. One is to have exactly the same arrangements we’ve got now which is just indexed at the current unit price ranges. This is essentially your current arrangements mapped to the new service list but will have the same unit prices with indexation for the 25-27 period. Another option is move towards the same CHSP unit price without reference to Support at Home prices. This essentially is moving all providers for services they are funded for to the top or near the top of the CHSP unit prices with indexation. MMM loading is also going to be taken into account.

The other option is once known move all CHSP providers to the same CHSP unit price with reference to assumed client contributions under the Support at Home contribution. That is a method underpinned by the Support at Home prices. All three of these options do have merit. We will use the survey to gauge views from all of the CHSP providers and input to advise the Government.

The services of home modifications, GEAT, meals and transport would not be part of this process. They will continue to be contracted in the dollars and their current range for the 25-27 period whilst the other policy work that Felicity was talking about earlier informs the future discussions. In addition as I briefly mentioned earlier we will be extending the MMM loading for providers where they are in the MMM 6 and 7 and including up to 20% for providers that are doing more than 50% of their service delivery in MMM 5 regions. Information will be provided in the coming weeks related to how this can be applied into your 25-27 contract.

All of these options do not change the overall base funding for the CHSP 25-27 period. We’re adjusting the unit prices within the current envelope so that over time the contract outputs based will reflect the services delivered by service providers. We are not expecting providers whose outputs decrease as part of any potential contract unit price to reduce any service delivery to clients. It is a period of adjustment where future growth funding rounds and opportunities are benchmarked at the new unit prices going forward.

To support providers there are a number of proposed grant funding opportunities. The Fair Work Commission – we are continuing to support the Fair Work Commission’s decision on the aged care fair work value case. The Fair Work Commission has determined further award wage increases for many of the aged care workers ranging from between 2.3% and 13.5%. For CHSP providers a grant funding opportunity will soon be available as well. Further information will be available at the upcoming aged care wage increases stage 3 webinar which is going to be held on the 18th of November. Registration details are available on the Department’s website.

As we’ve just been speaking about the 25-27 grant opportunity will also be on Grant Connect. We’re expecting this to be in place in December 2024 for all of the existing service providers who will need to apply for funding to continue their service offering for the additional two years in preparation for the transition to the Support at Home Program no earlier than 1 July 2027. As mentioned earlier if some providers are not going to be actually continuing from 1 July next year please contact your FAM and the Department.

The Department is also considering further grant opportunities to provide ongoing support for organisations. You would have heard earlier financial support for IT changes being just one of them. These decisions are subject to further Government approvals. In addition we are planning to also make available another growth funding opportunity in 2025-27 which subject to Ministerial approval we hope to open in 2025. Further details about any growth funding will also be available in the coming months.

So there are some important key takeaways. The Department will work with all providers and clients to register all clients on My Aged Care during the 25-27 period. Whilst we need to consider changing prices in CHSP overall funding will not change during that period and we are going to be sending out a survey to be able to get your responses to the three options I put forward. SSD providers will be extended for a further one year and as a separate schedule to the new Grant Agreement SSD providers will be supported to also refocus their activities.

So that’s it for me right now. Back over to you Thea.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Martin. Thank you to all our speakers today. That’s it for our formal slides. And yes we will provide you with these slides as well as make the recording available. I think what we will do given the volume of questions and to be efficient with our 25 minutes of question time remaining, I might pose the number one ranking question to Martin just to kick us off and then we’ll go through each of the speakers in turn picking up the most popular questions, maybe the most popular two or three, and we’ll see how many times we can go through each of the speaker list. I’ll also bring to stage Rowena Sierant and Russell Herald at this point as well, Rowena in relation to Support at Home. I think we have one or two questions there. And Russell in relation in particular to the interface between Home Care Packages Program, CHSP and assessments.

So Marty can we start with you on that question that’s clocked over 100 likes please? 

Martin Dempsey:

Yeah. Sure. So the frustration of people trying to find domestic assistance or other service types at the moment, we do receive that feedback as well. So there’s a couple of things that we are doing. The first one is the growth funding round that we’ve advertised and closed and is now going to be in play from 1 November. One of those particular ones was domestic assistance but it was for $100 million of service provision across four different service types. It was targeted in particular areas, so the particular aged care planning regions. There was also a $10 million one for the First Nations which is a national grant to increase the service delivery but also for people to access services. So that’s one point.

The second thing is that you would have seen in one of my earlier slides where I was also proposing that we will be going back to Government to be able to put more growth funding rounds out as well to be able to target the most in demand service types across the country. So that’s more money. The second thing is though what can we do currently within our agreements. So we have been cracking down on compliance in regards to making sure that providers are delivering as maximally as possible with the funds that we provide. So we’re making sure we do that to increase the actual service delivery that’s going out there as well.

The other thing that we are doing is with the flexibility provisions you would have noted in Thea’s presentation right at the front that services – I think it was allied health that was mentioned there – providers are delivering more in those particular ones. So they’re using actually flexibility provisions. So where there’s less demand for services what we would really like to do is not to have any unspent funds come back at the end of the year but have those services actually redirected throughout the year as businesses practice into the more services in demand. So that’s using the flexibility provisions. And then very finally I think there is also a little bit of making sure when there is a My Aged Care Find a Provider aspect there’s two things about that. One is having providers really keep their information up to date about service availability as well as the service description in there. So some of the times the frustration is that actually the services appear available but they’re actually not available and that aspect is actually a service provider’s requirement to keep them open. So I think that there’s about three aspects in that. Funding, new funding as well as the flexibility provisions and finally just assistance from service providers as well in maintaining the availability.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Marty. So Rob I think I’ll throw to you for maybe the next two or three questions and happily the next most popular question I think is in your space in any case. So if you can toggle through and respond to two or three that are getting the most thumbs up that would be terrific.

Rob Day:

Yeah. Can do Thea. And look I think that second question is a really useful opportunity for me to clarify some of my earlier comments around the Quality Standards. I think the main message is don’t take away from me today that there are no obligations on providers in those categories 1 to 3. There absolutely will be and there absolutely will be protections for older people using those services. So the most significant of those are things like a statutory duty on all registered aged care providers regardless of which category they’re operating in, not to cause adverse effects to the health and safety of the individuals for whom they’re caring to. That duty also applies to the responsible people for that provider. There is an obligation that will apply to providers in every registration category to have practices in place to make sure that they are respecting and delivering on the rights of the people accessing their services and similarly there will be obligations around the Aged Care Code of Conduct, around worker screening, around use of personal information.

So the Quality Standards form just one arm of the set of obligations that we might apply to providers. They’re a very detailed set of obligations that make sense and are really valuable for supporting and protecting older people accessing things like personal care services, nursing services, but are potentially too detailed for something like community transport or meals delivery. And so that’s the point that we’re trying to make is there are absolutely protections at every level of service type, but that that is graded and proportionate to the risk that’s associated with that service type.

And I guess just to elaborate on that theme of protecting older people which is the fundamental job of the regulatory model, the idea of universal provider registration itself is fundamentally from the Royal Commission and its finding that we weren’t doing enough in the registration process that we have for aged care providers. The fact that we’ve got different ways of bringing providers into different parts of the system the Royal Commission said created a real risk for us and for older people. And so the idea that all aged care providers from the start of the new Act will need to be registered providers is precisely about that, making sure we protect older people.

In terms of other questions that I’ve seen pop up and common themes, one there about subcontracting and whether that’s still possible under the new Act, whether you need to be a registered provider to subcontract. So yes, absolutely subcontracting will continue to be a feature we expect under the new Act. The way the Act is set up similar to the way the current Act operates the registered provider, the provider that’s getting the direct Government funding, will be the entity that’s ultimately responsible for the quality of services. The workers for any subcontractors will be considered to be workers of that registered provider and so the registered provider will have obligations around those workers as well. There’s no requirement for a subcontractor to be a registered provider so you can subcontract to organisations that aren’t registered. But equally there is nothing to stop an organisation being both a registered provider in their own right and a subcontractor to other providers. So you can have both statuses under the new Act.

And I think also a series of questions around what it might look like for CHSP providers who are contemplating becoming Support at Home providers and when might be best to make that jump. I think that depends very much on your organisation, what types of services you’re offering now and what are the business decisions that you want to make. When we deem you across from the current Act to the new Act that will reflect the services that you’re currently offering. So if you’re a Home Care Package provider it will be categories 1 to 4 plus category 5 if you offer nursing services. If you’re a CHSP provider it will be specifically which combination of services do you have a Funding Agreement to offer. If you want to start to offer Support at Home services from the 1st of July next year you’ll need to be able to offer all the services that the people that have got Support at Home packages need. So you’ll need to be able to operate in categories at least 1 to 4.

You’ve got a choice. You can either apply to be an approved provider now as a home care provider but you’ll need to be able to demonstrate that you can meet all the obligations of a home care provider right now, or you can wait until the new Act starts and then you’ll have an opportunity to potentially register just in specific categories that meet your business need. So I think that’s a decision for you to make but there’s some options there for you. 

I think they’re the top three themes that I could see there so I might let someone else have a go for a minute. 

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Rob. All right. Felicity over to you for the top questions in relation to service lists, social supports etcetera.

Felicity Benedetti:

Yeah. Sure. So just scrolling through.

I think I saw a question around the social – sorry Thea.

Thea Connolly:

I’ve found one on social supports.

Q:        Social supports should be much easier to get assessed for if it takes too long to be assessed and the clients are socially isolated while they wait. It should be a quick verbal assessment over the phone.

Felicity Benedetti:

Yeah. So with this one, with the introduction of the new Aged Care Act for the services that are listed within the Aged Care Rules clients will need to go through that assessment process. And there are eligibility requirements listed within the legislation. So although I think I can see where this question has come from I think because these services are going to be legislated and it’s going to be that requirement for an assessment to take place for the client to access those services that quick verbal approval over the phone probably wouldn’t meet the threshold test for the eligibility requirements of the Aged Care Act.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Felicity. I’ve found another one and perhaps you covered this after it was posted 48 minutes ago. But let’s do a quick recap of the SSD role in CHSP. Will it be continuing past June ’25?

Felicity Benedetti:

Yeah. So with sector support and development we are looking to extend it for one year but during that one year extension we’re going to be undertaking consultations with providers to look at how we can design a new in-home sector support program. So we are envisaging that this program is going to support the whole in-home aged care sector not just CHSP as it currently is. And we’re looking that those services could continue with providing that capability uplift for providers still making sure that providers are meeting their obligations under the new regulatory model and also how we could potentially support local governments to continue to engage with the community. And also we’re looking at how it could support peak bodies as well. But just to reiterate SSD will be extended under CHSP for that one year period and we will be undertaking another workshop in November with those SSD providers to give a bit more information on what we’re thinking in that space.

Thea Connolly:

Terrific. Thanks Felicity. Given that we do only have 13 minutes left I might go to Marty because I can see a lot of questions in his space. So I’ll give you a little bit more time Marty to work through and then we’ll move to Russell and Rowena. 

Martin Dempsey:

Well earlier on there was a question about:

Q:        When will the new growth funding round providers be announced?

Currently at the moment the contracts are being executed so once all the providers are actually signed up we’ll be able to provide some information on that but not until that’s actually happened. So we’re expecting that in the coming weeks to be able to be provided. 

There was another question on:

Q:        When will income testing come in under CHSP?

We’re talking about the next two years here. There’s no – nothing’s going to happen in the next two years under the CHSP contract that we’re talking about today for the next two years. So I can confirm that amount.

There was also:

Q:        For clients currently accessing CHSP services above the level 1 supports, which is about $11,000, should CHSP providers be requesting reassessment so that clients can be assessed for new Support at Home Program?

I think that’s a little bit of me and probably a little bit of someone else here. But in terms of the client who’s accessing the services now that is above they will be grandfathered and there will be information that will be coming out about that. But as needs change post 1 July next year – as needs change the client should actually then be referred for any new services that they might be approved for underneath the Support at Home service types. So I don’t know if anyone else on the group wants to also add to that bit but there’s a combination there. Grandfathered now. So if someone’s accessing it above what we’ve got continues and then there will be from 1 July next year if the needs change for the client they will need to go through the assessment process.

I mean there’s lots there so if there’s anyone else that wants to throw to a question.

Thea Connolly:

I think Marty just go through, if you sort by most popular, that’s probably an indication of where people’s interest is focused.

Martin Dempsey:

Q:        Will CHSP unit pricing increase only by the normal annual indexation or will it be informed by IHACPA price funding?

Well one of the options that we did have in there which was the third one, we’re going out to service providers. But for the 25-27 period I’ll be very clear we’re not increasing the base funding amounts except by indexation. So even if we aligned it to a higher unit price for a provider that was funded for $5 for a unit price and it’s now $10 you’re not going to be doubling your base funding from 1 July next year.

So another question.

Q:        CHSP unit prices are based on historical data not reflecting current cost of service needs. How will the Department ensure that pricing is updated more frequently to align with actual cost of care preventing financial shortfalls?

So there’s a couple of things in that. What we have tried to do over the last couple of years is one narrow the unit price range. So we had a couple of years ago – it’s been a journey. We did inherit historical unit pricing. We have funded through the growth funding round since 2021 using a unit price range which we introduced I think in 21-22. We are trying to actually propose to get to a more consistent unit price range going forward where it’s based on historical arrangements that we’ve got. So there shouldn’t be any financial shortfalls for any service provider. That is where we want to be ending up.

I suppose one more question for me.

Q:        Will clients who have been on a CHSP provider’s waitlist for 18 months be able to be transferred to Support at Home July 2025 so they can access services?

If you’ve been approved for services now you’re still going to be able to access the services that you’ve got in the system going forward. That’s probably a little bit also about if they’re waiting for a Home Care Package as well. So I don’t know if someone else wants to touch that bit about the Home Care Package. But for CHSP where a client has been approved for a service underneath the existing arrangements of a RAS or an ACAT they will still be able to continue to access those services going forward. If their needs have changed they’ll need to have a reassessment obviously as mentioned before with the other example with grandfathering. But we also don’t encourage providers to be having long waitlists. This is one of the problems that sometimes we do see where providers do take on clients where there are other providers in the area that may have capacity. And by taking them off the system and having them on their own books and not delivering services can delay some services being provided.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Martin. I might take the next one because it’s about assessments. And just an observation that I agree with the questioner that over the phone assessments are not the preference. We certainly do ask that assessments be face to face for a whole range of very obvious reasons. Sometimes it’s not possible and so we do need to allow phone assessments but they are certainly not encouraged. And we have been clear about that also in our approach to market in relation to the recommissioning of the assessment workforce. So thank you for that observation.

I might throw to Russell Herald now. Russell you’re going to cover off on some of the interface questions and connections between CHSP, Home Care Packages, Support at Home. Thank you.

Russell Herald:

Yeah. I might try and keep some of this broad than specific questions. I think the gist of where we are at the moment is we know that with the implementation of Support at Home, with all of the complexities and implementation rolling all of that out there’s going to be some tension between the operation of CHSP and Support at Home in the short term. Whilst there are going to be underpinning policy, rules and processes around when people should be in A or B the simple reality is what will happen on the ground is most likely going to be variable and we would just ask providers to work through that with their clients in the context of best supporting older Australians where they are in the journey at that point in time.

But fundamentally speaking the Support at Home and CHSP system are meant to work as much as possible in a complementary and not overlapping way apart from the four examples that Felicity mentioned. And so we would like over time to see the support levels provided through CHSP really to focus in on that early phase of support needs and have Support at Home focus in on that middle tier before residential aged care. It’s going to be a complicated one. We’ll have to work through all of the details and no doubt with all the comments and issues being raised through both the Support at Home webinars, these webinars and other engagement channels there’s a few 1% issues that we’ll need to work through. And what I am trying to do with the team if we can is to try and get at least a draft program manual out to everyone by December so that we can work through all of those intricacies and make sure we get the settings right for the next two years. So it’s probably a broad overview from me. I’m just checking if there’s a specific question we can deal with.

Thea Connolly:

While you do that Russell I might just acknowledge the observation around:

Q:        An overwhelming amount of information and change coming at providers but also everyone in the sector concurrently. It’s too much. Can you better manager these rollouts to give us time to understand and implement?

We know it’s a lot and what we are trying to do in the CHSP space is stagger the implementation and hopefully you’ve got a better sense of that today. Certainly not transitioning to Support at Home before 1 July 2027 but yes there are changes that do need to be made now in relation to being able to have the program operate within the new Aged Care Act framework from 1 July ’25 and also be as ready as we can be in a measured way from 1 July ’27. So that concern is acknowledged and wherever we have an opportunity to stage and stagger we do because it’s just sensible change management. But the other imperative we have is obviously as I said at the start change is difficult and often times people will say we need more time, we need more time. We can give more time up to a point. Eventually the change needs to happen and we need to work together to do that.

Russell I’ll check whether you might have one more question otherwise I think we can throw to Rowena for certainly one question I can see on home modifications that I know she’s itching to answer. So anything from you Russell?

Russell Herald:

I was going to answer the home modifications one but I’m more than happy to hand that over to Rowena. Is that the one about what determines where you go?

Thea Connolly:

Yeah.

Russell Herald:

Actually maybe I will take that one. The home modifications, and if they’ve got a CHSP or the new program, the ATHM program, is determined through that integrated assessment tool and single assessment system. So it’s based on where the assessment process determines you fit best in the care continuum, be it at the entry level phase or the higher support needs. Once you trigger the higher support needs and Support at Home, so you hit that level 1 classification which is approximately $11,000 on the care costs, it would trigger a referral to the AT home mods program rather than the CHSP home mods program. So what we’re trying to sort through between CHSP and Support at Home in the short term is making sure that streaming between the architecture of Support at Home and CHSP is as distinct as possible by using that assessment system mechanism.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Russell. Rowena I might throw to you for any observations or any specific questions you’ve spotted in our list of most popular questions we haven’t covered.

I’ll just check Rowena. I can’t hear you.

What I might do while we’re checking your audio – okay. You’re on. Thanks.

Rowena Sierant:

I did not press unmute. I’m not sure that there’s anything particularly specific from a Support at Home perspective there but I would just make a comment in relation to one question that just relates to the wait times which is a really good question I think. And just make a note that the Support at Home Program is being introduced with a real growth rate that has actually been built into the program. And so we are looking at being able to utilise that to reduce the wait times from the point of introduction over that period of the introduction of the Support at Home Program and we are looking at targeting an average of three months from July 2027. So it will take a little bit of time to get to that point but the capacity when the Support at Home Program has actually been factored into the cost of the program over time and so that will give us that capacity to make that happen. 

I’d probably also just make a comment in relation to lots of information also coming out about Support at Home as a new program and there will be more information up on the website and opportunities for people to participate in that as we go forward.

Thea Connolly:

Thanks Rowena. We do need to wrap up now. I’d like to thank all of the people who attended today for our 90 minute hitting the highlights of CHSP over the next two years. Thank you for your active questioning and very insightful questioning and observation. Thank you equally to Martin, Rob, Felicity, Russell and Rowena. Thank you to our moderators behind the scenes who were deleting any swear words. I’m sure there were no swear words actually. But a lot goes on behind the scenes to host and organise webinars so thank you to the team that helped us to do that today. And as you’ve seen there will be plenty of material posted on our website, opportunities to comment and requests to comment please. And we will work through the balance of the questions. To the extent that we haven’t covered them off already we will do so. 

Once again thank you for your time. Before you log off a short survey as ever will pop up asking you how we can improve our webinars. We genuinely take your feedback on board. Thank you again for your time.

[End of Transcript]