Recording and transcript
[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]
Cathy Milfull:
Hi everyone. Thanks to those who’ve already joined in. We’ll just wait a minute or two in case we have any last minute people joining and then we’ll get started.
All right. Thanks everyone. The numbers of people joining seem to have almost stabilised so we might just kick off formally now. So good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for this next webinar in our Multi-Purpose Service Program Reform Series. As most of you know my name is Cathy Milfull. I’m currently Acting Assistant Secretary of Thin Markets Branch and so I have responsibility for the Multi-Purpose Service Program or MPSP. I’ll be hosting today’s session which is excitingly the last webinar before the new Aged Care Act commences on Saturday. And today I am pleased to be joined by Paul Hutchinson who you can see on the screen who’s the Director of our Digital Strategy and Assurance Branch who’s going to really take the lead on most of the discussion today. Also got Kate on the screen today who you know, and the rest of my team here as well so that we can get together at the end of session to answer any questions that you might have.
So as usual you can send through questions at any time. You can use the Q&A function. You can use the chat function. Whatever’s easiest for you. And no need to wait to the end. As soon as you have an idea just post the question and then we’ll go through them at the end of the formal presentation.
So I think that’s really it for the housekeeping. My team will bring up the slides now so we can get started. But in the meantime I’d just like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we are meeting today all across Australia where we live, learn and work. I’d like to pay my respects to Elders past and present and recognise their resilience and strength and their rich contribution to society. I’d also like to extend special respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here with us today.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Multi-Purpose Service Program (MPSP)’, ‘Webinar #12’, ‘Aged care reforms: Impacts on the MPSP & providers’, ‘28 October 2025’, ‘Thin Markets Branch’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘www.health.gov.au’]
So to start with just what do we intend to cover today? So as usual you’ve got me to introduce the presentation and to run through some MPS reforms updates. Today I’m hoping to keep those reasonably short though as I really want to get onto Paul’s presentation for you where the aim of today is really to walk through the system changes that are coming in for 1 November and how you engage with them basically from Monday. And then as I said we’ll have a panel discussion so get those questions ready.
As usual we’ve just included the slide of our future webinar topics just to give you an idea of what’s coming next but also in case you want to make any suggestions to the team for additional topics. So at the moment we’ve got a webinar scheduled for November and February. At the moment we’re giving you a break in December/January noting a lot of people on leave. But certainly if there are particularly big issues or things come up after 1 November we can revisit that.
So November we’d really focus on any hints or tips to navigate changes with the new Aged Care Act. So if we’re hearing any particular concerns and we want to report back that will be in November. But beyond that we’re hoping from November we can really start to move forward beyond discussing the new Act and hoping that we can start off by actually outlining our revised reform schedule at that webinar which we’ve had signed off by your state and territory Health representatives and also our Minister. Minister Rae has now approved in principle.
After the holiday break in February then we really want to kick into high gear with our MPS Funding Model review. So we’ll come back and talk to you about that as we’re hoping to do some extra consultations in January, and we want to report back to you on the deep dives that some of you have been participating.
So that’s really it on the webinar schedule for now but as I said if you’ve got other suggestions please let the team know and we can try and incorporate that.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘MPSP reforms update’, ‘Cathy Milfull, Thin Markets Branch’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘www.health.gov.au’]
So moving on to the usual MPS reforms update. This will hopefully be our last legislative change update for a while. But the good news is that the Transitional Rules are now finalised. So there’s a link in our presentation but I’ll get the team to put it in the chat for you as well. But just wanted to confirm that those are published. Look these are mainly technical provisions and they really reflect what we’ve communicated to you over many months through these webinars. So probably no need to go and read them in detail. And just over the next couple of slides I’ll just highlight the key things from the Rules to help you.
So firstly the main topic relevant to MPSP in these Rules is transitional arrangements for the places that are allocated to MPSP providers. So won’t go into too much detail today but just as per this slide just flagging that the rules have been drafted to transition across existing allocated places in the new world. So that’s all 3,814 places. There will also be a determination then published which we’ll send around a link to state and territory Health agencies when ready, which basically then makes sure that those places roll over against the providers that they’re already allocated to. So all this is basically just to preserve the status quo for everyone. It’s nothing to worry about.
I did just want to flag two things though. One is that we’ve rolled over all places that are either currently provisionally allocated or that are in effect. There were some older places that were allocated as provisional but had since expired because nobody had operationalised them. Those ones have not been rolled over. The other thing I wanted to note was that the conditions on these transitioned allocated places are a bit different. So realistically the legislation looks pretty complicated but I just wanted to clarify for everyone that really the only requirements on those places are to use them in the location specified in your new MPSP Agreement for 1 November. So realistically in practice if you’re using the place to deliver residential care that’s at your relevant MPS. If you’re using it to deliver home care that will be the specified place that’s in the Agreement. So it’s usually the town in which the MPS is located.
All right. So that’s really transitionals and places. There are other things about MPSP in the Transitional Rules but they’re really fairly minimal so I’m not going to go through those in detail, though you can see a summary on this slide. But I did just want to call out specifically to reassure everyone that the Rules do confirm that providers have six months to get Service Agreements and care and service plans in place where they do not already exist for older people in care. So this is really just to give you a bit more time to the shorter time periods that are in the legislation for new clients. We’ve basically given you six months to get all those Agreements in place for existing clients.
All right. So that’s transitionals. In terms of – really we’re on a countdown. So no pressure but we’ve only got four days to go. Look we are in a pretty good position I think and that’s really thanks to everybody across the MPSP whether it’s providers, state and territory officials and also my fabulous team. So the good news is all those final communication materials are scheduled to go live on 1 November. So really all that’s left on our side is to make sure that we sign and execute all those new MPSP Agreements on Saturday. I had two left to come in but I’m pleased to say we just got one of them so only one left to go. And yeah, just really important that that happens on Saturday so that there’s no disruption in terms of payments or regulation.
All right. So more on the provider side. Just a reminder that we need those final data workbooks on Friday. My team will then arrange for me to sign off on individuals to be included in our transitional cohorts from next week. All MPSP providers will then be provided with a notification of the status of each of their transitional clients under the new Act in the weeks to follow. A copy of that notification will then also be subsequently attached to the client’s My Aged Care record and will be accessible by our Contact Centre staff.
I did just want to flag – if you can see the last dot point here, we might talk about this a bit more as we go along today. But just flagging that where you have a transitional client who you know is intending to leave your MPS, so they might for example be moving to a metro area to be close to their family which means they might need to enter for example a mainstream residential care home, please I just ask that you reach out to my team at the address on the screen and notify us as soon as possible. Just with the relevant system changes etcetera going on we just want to make sure that we can facilitate the move during this period and we don’t want any disruption to arrangements for the older person involved.
All right. So that’s pretty much it from me. Just lastly obviously still some important tasks for everyone to be ready for 1 November. You all should have the provider checklist on the website if you want a more detailed list of things just to check that your MPS has done and is ready for next week. But this slide really just calls out I guess some key things to remember to be aware of. I think from the older person’s perspective obviously we’re very keen for you to make sure that the people in your care really understand and are aware of their rights and protections under the new Act and obviously that you’ve had those discussions if you need to get a new Service Agreement and/or care and services plan in place. So as I just mentioned you do have some time to do that.
And I guess just lastly for your organisation just to be thinking about have you adjusted your operations, do your fees and charges align. And Paul will talk about this more as we go as well but it’s important that your MPS’s details are correct in the Aged Care Gateway Service and Support Portal. So we’ll talk about that shortly.
So I think that’s pretty much it from me. Just wanted to say obviously there’s a lot to take in in this reform process so please don’t forget we’ve got lots of useful resources for you on our website. But if you are struggling there’s the email address. My team are happy to respond next week so please reach out. Don’t suffer in silence. If you don’t know the answer to something the likelihood there is another MPS or other people who don’t, so the more we can understand where any gaps are we can reach out and provide frequently asked questions and answers to all jurisdictions and providers. We’ve worked really closely together I think to get to 1 November so I think it’s important we don’t stop now that we’re at the final hurdle and we want to work together to make sure there’s as less disruption to people and services next week as possible.
So I will stop talking now and we’ll hand over to Paul who’s going to take you through some of the I guess system functionality for next week. Over to you Paul.
Paul Hutchinson:
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘Service and Support Portal Overview’]
Thanks very much Cathy and greetings everyone. I’ve been around aged care reform since 2009 but haven’t directly spoken to this group before so quite excited to be here today just before the reforms come in. As Cathy mentioned, I’m a Director in Digital Strategy and Assurance Branch and my team’s role plays a pretty vital role in trying to coordinate with our IT area changes into the My Aged Care Portal systems to try to make it as easy as possible for users to do the key tasks they need to do.
So the presentation today – once we get my mouse working.
What we’ll cover. The main part is we’ve actually got, and I’m quite excited to take you guys – first time we’ve really done this – take you through a pre-recorded flow of the system to focus on the Service and Support Portal. We’ll really be focusing in on showing you firstly the key bits of the pathway around referrals starting with what the assessor is looking at, so a view into the Assessor Portal searching for providers. And then more from your perspective logging into the Service and Support Portal and navigating through the system specifically looking at the actual referrals, looking at the support plan etcetera. And as we do that we’ll be providing QR codes in the screen flow that you can reference to our User Guides. So we’re repeating that all the way through.
Once we’ve done that there’s a 12 minute video that kind of goes through that. I’ll give you a quick overview again of the overall Service and Support Portal. I’m sure you’re familiar with some parts of it but we’ll just refresh on some of the key functions in that Portal which will be the main one you use for referrals into the My Aged Care system. Just re-emphasise some of the key information about the importance around outlet configuration to make sure that your information is displaying accurately to be found for referrals. And then go through some of the key differences for some of the transitional cohort of clients. That will be in place in the system for a period of time until we can make some further changes to smooth out some of those transitional arrangements.
And then lastly before we get to Q&A we’ll touch on again re-emphasising the ongoing resources and support you’ve got for the online system use.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘01’, ‘Instructional Video’]
So we’ll take it away with the video.
[START VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘MPS Service and Support Portal Instructional video’]
Paul Hutchinson:
Hello and welcome to this short walkthrough video for the Multi-Purpose Service Providers. If you’re new to the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal this video will help you understand the client journey from the point of assessment to adding service delivery information. We will take you step by step through what you’ll see to do in the system.
In this video we’ll cover the full process starting from the My Aged Care Assessment. You’ll see what the assessor sees including how client support plan is developed and when a client is referred to a service. We’ll then move onto the Service and Support Portal to show you how to login and locate a referral, view the referral detail, access the client record and support plan, and add service delivery information for the client.
Throughout the video there will be QR codes on the screen linking you to the system User Guides. These User Guides include detailed step by step instructions for each task shown in this demonstration. By the end of the video you’ll understand how referrals flow from assessment to service delivery and how to manage your client’s records confidently in the Service and Support Portal. Let’s get started.
So moving into assessment referral. Let’s start looking at the process for the assessor’s perspective. This section will show you how an assessor refers a client for a Multi-Purpose Service using the My Aged Care Assessor Portal. Understanding these steps helps MPS providers see what information is shared during a referral, what details an assessor includes and how that referral appears once it reaches your list in the Service and Support Portal.
As we move through this section you’ll see the support plan including the MPS service recommendation and the moment the referral is submitted to your organisation. So to get started we’ll look at the demo client and go to their client summary page.
From here we go to the ‘Plans’ tab then select ‘Support Plan’ under the current episode label.
Now we’ll show the service recommendations added to the client’s support plan including the MPS service recommendation. Go to the ‘Manage Services and Referrals’ tab then navigate to the Multi-Purpose Service residential service recommendation and select ‘Find Provider’. While we’re doing this you’ll note that assessors can also issue referral codes for clients instead of making a referral in the system. And if they do that they’ll print a letter out for the client with a referral code and this can be used to manually connect the service providers. This information is covered within the User Guides.
But back to where we are now. From the service finder view we select the applicable option for how to locate service providers. This is based off the client address, suburb, postcodes and also search for service provider name or location. For this demonstration we’ll use the suburb/postcode option and specify the postcode 6302, suburb of York. We’ll populate the other search criteria if required and then select ‘Search’.
From the list of retrieved service provider outlets select one or more service provider outlets to issue the referral, so including the preferences ranking. Then we select ‘Save and Consent’.
Again from the ‘Manage Services and Referrals’ tab navigate to the Multi-Purpose Service residential service recommendations, select ‘Send referrals’, verify that the service provider outlets that you want to issue referrals to is correct, and adjust the preference order. And add comments if required. Then select ‘Send Referrals’. View the Multi-Purpose Service residential service recommendations again. You can see that the system confirms referrals have been issued to the service providers. And that’s how a referral for a Multi-Purpose Service is created and submitted in the Assessor Portal. Remember an assessor will only be able to refer to your organisation if you have set up the outlets correctly.
Next we’ll switch to the Service and Support Portal to see what happens once the referral reaches your organisation. Logging in to the Service and Support Portal and navigating the home page. Now that you’ve seen how the assessor creates the referral let’s move over to the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal to see what happens next. Login to the Service and Support Portal.
When you first login you’ll arrive at your organisation’s home page which may be slightly different to this screen. The layout and available options will look a little different depending on your role, whether you’re an organisation administrator, outlet administrator or team leader or staff member.
In this demonstration we’re logged in as a team leader. So you’ll see the screens and functions available for that role. You’ll see we’ve also added a QR code for the relevant user guides to help you login to the portal and understand the different functions and tasks for your activated role. Now that you’ve seen how to access the Service and Support Portal and navigate the home page let’s return to our client journey scenario. We’ll show you how you can locate the referral that’s just been sent from the assessor and how to accept it.
Viewing and accepting a referral. Each referral includes key details about the client and the service being requested. You can open a referral to review this information including the client’s assessment summary, support needs and the recommended service type. You’ll see we have added a QR code for the relevant User Guide for managing referrals for services and the Administrator Guide which also covers this functionality.
From the home page select the ‘Service Referrals’ card, view the list of client service referrals sent to your outlet. Sort and filter the list of client service referrals as required. There are a number of different options.
Expand a client service referral card to view options for that referral.
Click the ‘View referral summary and client record’ to view details of the client and the services they require.
Information that you can review includes client summary, client details, referrals for my organisation, plans, attachments, approvals, services, interactions, notes, tasks and notifications. Go back to the referrals for my organisation and click ‘Accept referral’. Or you may click ‘Reject referral’. A modal will pop up showing the service item that matches the service the client is being referred for. In this example Multi-Purpose Service referrals. Select ‘Accept’.
The referral will be accepted and the client’s referral will move to the ‘Accepted services pending’ tab. Once a referral has been accepted the client becomes part of the organisation’s active work records. Next we will look at how to access a client’s record and support plan so you can understand the services and supports in place.
Viewing a client record and support plan. Now the referral has been accepted let’s look at the client’s record. The client record brings together all the key information you need including assessment details, contact information and the support plan created by the assessor. Reviewing these details helps you understand the client’s needs and the services that have been approved. You will see we have also added the QR code for a relevant User Guide that helps you navigate the client record.
We’ll start by viewing the client record and opening the support plan.
Select a client record card from the ‘Accepted services pending’, ‘Services in place’ or ‘Referral history’ tabs.
Select ‘View referral summary and client record’. Information that you can view includes the client summary, client details, referrals for my organisation, plans, attachments, approvals, services, interactions, notes, tasks and notifications. Select the ‘Plans’ tab to view the client’s current assessment and support plan information. Expand sub-sections to reveal the information.
You will now have access to the full client record and support plan giving you the context you need to plan and deliver person centred services appropriately. Next we’ll look at how to record service delivery information for this client within the Service and Support Portal.
Adding service delivery information. Once you’ve reviewed the client’s support plan the next step is to record the services your organisation delivers. In this section we’ll show you how to add service delivery information in the portal. This includes entering the type of services provided, the date, other key details required for reporting and maintaining client records.
You’ll see we have added a QR code for the relevant User Guide on recording and updating client service delivery information. Let’s walk through how to add new service information.
Select the client referral card from the ‘Accepted services pending’ tab and expand the card. Select ‘Add service information’.
Populate the required details in the popup modal including the service start date, service delivery frequency, and then select ‘Save changes’.
The client service referral will move to the ‘Services in place’ tab. The client service information will be updated including that you are actively providing the services to the client.
That’s how you record service delivery information in the Service and Support Portal. By following these steps you can ensure client records are accurate, up to date and reflect the services your organisation provides.
You’ve now seen the full client journey from assessment and referral through to accepting a referral, viewing the client record and support plan, and recording service delivery information in the Service and Support Portal. We hope this walkthrough has helped you understand how the system supports your work as a Multi-Purpose Service Provider and how each step connects to the broader aged care client journey.
If you need more detailed step by step instructions you can scan any of the QR codes shown throughout this video or visit the Department’s website for the full range of User Guides and support materials. Thank you for watching and for the important role you play in delivering aged care services in your community.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
Paul Hutchinson:
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘02’, ‘Overview of the Service and Support Portal’]
So we hope that video – because that will be attached to this presentation – even though we’ve referenced the User Guides that are available, and we’ll go over a bit more of that in a minute, hopefully it’s a useful tool to quickly kind of get a feel for the key bits in the system that might be things that you or your teams haven’t used much up until now.
So just a recap at a high level the Service and Support Portal which we talked through the main examples there. But really that portal is used for managing your service information which is key for being searched for by assessors and obviously how referrals will be issued to you. Update the client record and accessing that information. So if you provide that service update information that just gives a truer representation of what services you’re delivering and obviously is a way to help track when clients leave your care as well, as you can update it to say you’ve finished services. In the future you’ll be able to as clients come through with assessors be able to also request through the system a support plan review. And there’s some other broader features in the system such as lodging a Serious Incident Response Scheme reporting, generating some of the reports. So again if for your referrals you manage that intake in that way you can start generating some reports that will help you manage your workload. And then there’s information around particularly residential care classifications for clients that go through that process as well as if your organisation participates in the specialised verification process for particular specialist needs. So there’s quite a number of features in that Portal.
We’ve talked about the User Guides. Just generally at a high level again there’s basically four roles in the Service and Support Portal. The org administrator and outlet administrators, so they really manage the service information and the setup of the user access for your teams within the Portal. So very important roles for making sure that people that need access are set up and have access and of course people that don’t need access because they move on or change jobs don’t continue to have access. And then more about that referral management sort of process particularly your team leaders and your staff members. And there’s some flexibility about how you arrange those things given not all organisations operate in the same way. So they’re pretty broad about how they can be set up and used and they have specific User Guides which are referenced there that can help work through the detail of those.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘03’, ‘Outlet Configuration’]
As we’ve touched on, outlet configuration in the video when we were showing you at the beginning what it would look like for an assessor making a referral. How your outlet is configured is really important so that when they’re searching for someone to refer to they can actually find appropriately based on location or whatever the search criteria is those options. And that information also feeds through to the My Aged Care website and the Find a Provider tool as well. So having that updated and maintained is really important. And the outlet administrators as I said and the key people that kind of can set up and manage that function and that information to make sure it’s up to date.
Again specifically because there’s a number of steps, and I understand most of your organisations appear to be set up correctly, so confident that you have people that have done this. But just in case anyone changes roles or isn’t across this we’ve got the detailed User Guides to go through exactly how to setup and to check it’s maintained.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘04’, ‘System features for manually transitioned clients Vs new & existing Clients’]
A couple of the key steps we wanted to highlight for you around particularly some of the transition group of clients. So as you would have talked through with Cathy and the team we’re actually uploading some of the clients that haven’t been in the system. We’ve obviously got all the details through from the teams about the clients that are actually being serviced by you. We have found a number of those clients did appear in the system so some of what we’re doing is making sure they’re attached to the correct providers. But there might be some limitations where we’ve had to create manually the client record from scratch. So we really wanted to highlight at a high level here some of the differences for now for when we go live next week until probably June 30 when we’re planning to improve this functionality and smooth out some of these issues.
But basically the key bits there will be some of the information that we showed in the support plan for example may not exist for a client record where we’ve had to create it manually. Some of the transition arrangements we’ll need to look at where people are having to move to mainstream resi, looking through what are the specific manual workarounds. So we’ll provide some more advice about exactly how to manage that. But we’re hoping we’re actually going to run through validation of how an existing client might have those approvals to really narrow down on how we might need to support that process. If the client hasn’t had an approval and we wanted to send a new service referral that might be tricky if they don’t have an existing record. So again that’s where we might need to make sure we’ve got some workaround for that. But there are options to deal with all those things through the Call Centre or the Department if need be.
And again what we’re doing specifically for the transitioned client cohort for where that approval information isn’t going to be there because they weren’t in the system, we’ll be specifically attaching to the client record a letter that identifies that they’ve been input through the deeming process. So we can provide some specifics outside the session about where in the system they’ll be found, but it will be basically attached to one of those notes tabs. And that’s what we’ll be using. That will be pretty important in June next year to use that information to help complete the data so that that doesn’t become a problem in the future. So hopefully not a large number of people with that issue but there will be a few we have to help manage those records for. But any new and existing clients where we do have all that information you should be able to proceed with all those functional elements as articulated there.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘05’, ‘Additional Support & Resources’]
Finally just to re-emphasise additional support. So we’ve obviously talked a lot about the User Guides. You can find a lot of this information about the Portals on the website. We’ve gone through the process of updating all the User Guides. They will be released for publication in a couple of days when a lot of the information for the commencement of the new Act comes out. And specifically the Service and Service Portal as we’ve talked about is a key one to look at.
When you’re in operations, if people aren’t aware, through the My Aged Care Contact Centre there’s a specific line for providers and assessors. It’s a helpline. So it’s not the same number as the client enquiry line. And they’ve been operating since 2015 supporting assessors and providers work through using the Portals but they also have a direct connection that if there are technical issues that people are experiencing they are directly connected into our service desk and incident process. That will then feed straight into our IT team. So if you feel like you need support or you feel like your teams are having some technical problems they are really the best way to kind of get those issues kind of worked through and identified if there is a technical problem or there might be something they can support you just to work around and figure out what the challenge is. And they’ve got the operating hours as published on screen there.
Kate Harkins:
Paul could I just jump in? There’s two questions there. Sorry. Just on that section. I think they both boil down to:
Q: How can a user see who their relevant administrator is?
So is there anywhere in the system that they can go and see who they need to talk to?
Paul Hutchinson:
Well they won’t be able to get access to the system unless their administrator has given them access. So if the organisation is not sure who the organisation administrator is I’m sure we can help get their details through to you so they can find that. But basically once an organisation nominates who their single organisation administrator is that person’s responsible for setting up access to all other people in the organisation.
Kate Harkins:
Thanks.
Paul Hutchinson:
So that’s all we had? Not a lot of questions.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘06’, ‘Q&A’]
Cathy Milfull:
Thanks very much Paul and thanks for the video. Love it. So thanks everyone. Look I hope that’s a good overview from the system’s perspective for next week. Look I do appreciate that for some people this will be quite new particularly if your organisation is only delivering services under the MPSP and you haven’t had much interaction with the system. So please sing out if you need extra assistance but we’re hoping – as Paul said the videos, the Guides are there for you. We do know often with IT related matters you really have to be in and using it to see and understand some of the advice so please use the materials that we have available and then use those helplines where needed.
I guess for me just summarise I think as Paul mentioned two key things. Obviously making sure your outlets are set up correctly to get those referrals through. But my team have been checking that in the background and almost everybody is in a good position in that space and we have been reaching out to MPS that have issues. So hopefully that should be largely resolved but please let us know if there’s any issues. And just then to reiterate because of some delays in the upload of the transitional data as I mentioned and Paul mentioned there will need to be some workarounds if clients are moving from MPS to mainstream in the early days. But again if you reach out we’ll help guide you through that process and provide additional information hopefully next week on that.
So I might just leave it there. In terms of questions I think Kate has been busy being very efficient and I think jumping in and answering some of the questions coming through. So I think we had some questions from Janet around delivery of home care services. So just confirming Kate’s dropped the answers in the chat but just confirming for everyone that realistically home care services just need to be provided consistent with the location in the MPSP Agreement. So if that’s not exactly what you want and you want to deliver to potentially more MMM5 areas for example in your local health district please reach out to my team and we can work on adjusting that for you. And also I think Janet had asked about brokering arrangements. So just flagging that definitely subcontracting is still possible under the new Act if you like. It’s just been given added transparency and there is this term referred to as associated provider under the new Act. So the main registered provider is required to keep the Aged Care Commission up to date on who those associated providers are. But otherwise no problems with those arrangements continuing.
I think any other questions Paul in the chat were largely about outlets and it sounds like they’re more to do with particular cases where there might have been some technical difficulties. So we’ll certainly ensure that we get in touch with those providers to sort out any remaining issues. But I might just see if we’ve got any other questions. I think something has just come in from Win in WA.
Q: WA may still have a small number of older people who have not consented to sharing their details to support the transitional arrangements. How will this be addressed?
So Win I think as previously discussed realistically the answer to this is Commonwealth aged care funding really can’t be used for people who haven’t been approved so to speak. So that’s either people who come through the front door again in the new world, get approved, or they go through the alternative entry processes which delays that a little bit. So really in terms of the transitional cohort really our arrangements are their chance to have a more streamlined approach to getting an approval. If they’re not prepared to do that way realistically they probably either need to reapply after 1 November and go through that process and/or nothing’s stopping the MPS continuing to deliver services but they shouldn’t be using Commonwealth funding to do that. So I think Win to your question and any other providers that are in this spot, realistically I wouldn’t worry immediately. We want to get those transitional arrangements sorted. We want to get those notifications out so we know all the people who are if you like sorted and have their status clear. But it would be really great if you could flag with us – obviously you can’t tell us necessarily who those people are if they haven’t given us consent but it would be great to get some advice from everyone as to the size of that cohort so that we can then work with you on any further arrangements and make sure obviously that people are getting the care that they need but also that we’re complying with our requirements under the new Aged Care Act.
A question from Emma I think.
Q: What happens if existing clients refuse to sign the new Agreements.
That is a good question Emma. Look I think there is actually the requirement that they are signed. Kate I don’t know if you’ve had any discussions on your side otherwise we might just take that on notice because I want to make sure we give Emma a consistent answer across the programs for aged care.
Kate Harkins:
Yes. So from my previous conversations with our legal team I understand that if they are an existing/transitional older person then they don’t technically have to sign but they do need to signal that they agree with the service offering and any fees that they’re contributing. However for anybody who’s coming in to the service, entering the service after the 1st of November, that flexibility is a bit less available. So I think for an existing person as long as they agree and if nothing is changing I think you can kind of interpret that however is appropriate. But you will need to formalise it for new people entering the service after Saturday.
Cathy Milfull:
Thanks Kate. So Emma hopefully that answers your question but I’ll just sing out to the MPS Working Group members who might be on the phone if you want anything more in writing around that please let us know and we can put something out to the group.
What have we got next Kate? Maryanne.
Q: Will the same arrangements be used for older people seeking respite in MPS settings in terms of accepting the referral and starting services?
Maryanne that might be sort of a mix of I think a policy and ICT question. I guess just from my perspective – Paul feel free to add – obviously if someone’s approved for what will in the new world be residential care services short term, which is effectively code for respite, from my perspective it would come through the same process. As you note the difference with respite in MPS to mainstream is that we don’t have the same restrictions on time. So the sort of 63 – correct me if I’m wrong – day limit does not apply in MPS so you would be able to continue to deliver services. But Paul I don’t believe there’s any difference from a kind of systems perspective or referral perspective to my knowledge.
Paul Hutchinson:
No. No. The new clients either have MPS residential or residential respite approval basically.
Cathy Milfull:
Thanks Paul. All right. We’ve got Aaron. Okay. Thanks. So we’ll send something through your state and territory Health reps around I guess those sort of refusals to provide Service Agreements and consents. So that will come. A question from Katherine.
Q: When will we be able to view the new MPSP Manual?
So Katherine the team I believe have sent around the close to final version to everybody so that you had it in advance. If anyone hasn’t got that please sing out but otherwise the actual official version will go live on the 1st of November. So that will be available when you login after that.
And Emma.
Q: Appreciate some guidance.
Yes. No problems.
All right. That’s everything in the chat. I’m just checking the QA. But it looks like – unless anyone has any last minute questions – that that’s covered off for today. So look thank you for your time and attention today. I really do wish everyone the best with the transition over to the new arrangements next week. I really can’t personally thank you enough for your engagement over the last 12 months through these webinars and through conversations with my team. Your commitment to supporting older Australians in rural and remote communities through this process is actually really inspiring and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your partnership as we continue this reform journey and continue to improve the Multi-Purpose Service Program and hopefully expand it.
So if you have any questions that come to you later please send them through. Otherwise we really look forward to seeing you at the next webinar, in the last webinar for the year, which I understand is the 27th of November. But you’ve got all our contact details now in terms of if you need further help. So as I said don’t sit in silence. Please reach out if you need us. Otherwise we’ll talk to you in November. Thanks everyone. Take care.
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