Recording and transcript
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Multi-Purpose Service Program (MPSP)
Aged Care Reforms: Impacts on the MPSP & Providers
Thursday, 27 November 2025
Presented by:
Moderator:
Cathy Milfull
Acting Assistant Secretary, Thin Markets Branch
Speaker:
Kate Harkins
Director, Thin Markets Branch
[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘INTERNAL INVITE: Aged Care Reforms – Impacts on the MPS Program’]
[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 all. Thanks for joining. We’ll just give everyone a minute or two and then we’ll get started.
All right. Looks like we’ve got kind of usual numbers. A few people might still join but I think we’ll kick off. So thanks everyone for joining us again for our next webinar in our Multi-Purpose Service Program Reform Series. And this will also be the final webinar for the year as well. So as most of you probably know by now my name is Cathy Milfull. I’m currently Acting Assistant Secretary for Thin Markets Branch which has responsibility for the Multi-Purpose Service Program. And it’s great to be here. And also pleased to introduce again Kate Harkins who you probably know as well who’s the Director of the MPS team and she’ll be presenting with me on the panel today.
So as usual we’ll do a bit of a formal presentation and there will be a Q&A session at the end. So make sure you put your comments in the Q&A function or the chat function as we go. That’s fine. And we’ll circle back to those at the end. So really keen for you guys to put your questions in. It will make it as interactive as possible.
But before we get started today I’ll get my team to bring up the slides but I also just wanted 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, present and emerging and recognise their resilience and strengths and their rich contribution to society. Of course I’d also like to extend special respect to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people here with us today.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Multi-Purpose Service Program (MPSP)’, ‘Webinar #13’, ‘Aged care reforms: Impacts on the MPSP & providers’, ‘27 November 2025’, ‘Thin Markets Branch’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘www.health.gov.au’]
All right. So we’ll get started. The team will bring up the first slide to just show you what we’re going to cover today. So we do think it will be probably a reasonably short session today unless you have questions for us. But as you can see really today we just wanted to touch base with you all in person following the implementation of the new Aged Care Act on the 1st of November. We are just keen to walk through some of the issues that have been flagged with providers to my team just to make sure we’re all on the same page and gives the chance to share that information and for you to ask questions. Kate’s then going to take over and she’ll just give you some final information around the client transitional arrangements that we’ve been working on and anything that’s outstanding that we might still need your assistance with. And of course finally then we’ll just wrap up with the Q&A session.
All right. As usual we’ve just put up a future webinar topics slide. I just wanted to firstly flag that these are going to be less regular now that the Aged Care Act has been implemented. You might be a bit sick of hearing from us but we are still keen to keep these webinars going. We’re just going to do it less regularly. We do though feel we’ve had positive feedback from the webinars and it’s a good way for us all to keep in touch. Sure the Act is in but we’ve also got continuing MPS reforms. So we hope you appreciate this as an easy way for us to keep communicating with you rather than through emails etcetera.
But as per our discussions with your state and territory Health representatives recently at the moment we’re just going to flag for a webinar every quarter and we’re going to try and keep them to 30 minutes where possible, noting we can certainly revisit this if there’s particular issues we feel we need to discuss and in that case we’ll provide you with some notice and send out a revised invitation. So on the screen here you can see that based on all that at the moment we’re planning for a February webinar once people are past the holiday period, and then another one in May. And look this might change by then but at the moment the intention is that those webinars would really focus on the MPSP funding model review because that’s the main significant reform that we really need to push forward with in the new year. And also Kate and team will continue to use the webinars to update you on where we’re at with the 24/7 registered nursing trial which we need to proceed to formal implementation next year, and of course the direct care targets trial which is a little bit further behind, but we’re keen to move to a full trial later next year. So they’ll be important messages to communicate to you along the way.
[Visual of slide with text saying ‘New Act and systems update’, ‘Cathy Milfull, Thin Markets Branch’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘www.health.gov.au’]
All right. So just moving on with the main part of my presentation today. As I said this is pretty informal and really we just wanted to touch base with you around the issues coming into the MPS team. So Kate and team have been responding to quite a wide range of provider queries because obviously it’s a big reform and they’ve raised a lot of questions. But I’ve asked the team to kind of keep track of the common ones that are coming through and you can see that on the screen here. So basically quite a few questions around Service Agreements, responsible persons, fees and also leave entitlements and rent assistance. So we really appreciate you sending these through the questions. It helps us identify areas where we might need to do some further investigation or even improve for example the Policy Manual. But we hope to talk through some of these today just in case you have also any other queries.
All right. So first up we just wanted to touch base on Service Agreements. As you’d be aware Service Agreements are now required for all individuals accessing aged care services under the new Act. For new clients you’ve basically got 28 days from commencing service to enter into that Service Agreement. But just a reminder that for existing or transitional clients, so those clients that were already accessing care through MPS before the new Act commenced, basically you’ve got a six month window to get those Agreements in place if you didn’t have anything at all in place, or where they already exist effectively can continue to use that Agreement and they can remain in place until the next regular review. As per the slide here all Agreements will need to be reviewed at least once every 12 months. And just flagging that there’s no actual legislative need that it be like a standalone document. So if you have some existing paperwork for your MPS no problems if our kind of Service Agreement forms part of that package as well.
All right. So next slide is who is a responsible person. I understand the team have been fielding some questions from providers about this. Basically some confusion around who actually is a responsible person for a provider, with this term defined in section 12 of the new Act and effectively replacing the old concept of key personnel. So I think probably the main thing we wanted to emphasise here is that the scope of the responsible person definition is different for Government and non-Government entities. So obviously in MPS most of our providers are Government providers and so in that context who is a responsible person is limited as you can see on this screen, basically to people who are responsible for managing nursing services as a registered nurse and day to day operations. If you happen to be not a Government entity – so it’s a very small number of MPS providers – just be aware the definition for you is wider. So I’ve just included that on the screen for you. And so you just need to be aware that you may have more responsible people in your organisation.
Other things we just wanted to point out which has been causing some confusion, that it is correct that there may be multiple individuals who are responsible people for your organisation at the one time and this can also include subcontractors. So it’s really important to understand who holds these responsibilities in your organisation as they will have specific responsibilities under the Act and the Rules. So just make sure you’re clear on that and reach out if you’ve got any questions about your particular scenario.
All right. Next up we wanted to talk to you just briefly about regulatory decisions. Look the main thing here, you had I think a great presentation in an earlier webinar from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission about their risk proportionate approach and the action that they might take if a provider is found to be not meeting their obligations under the Act. So hopefully you’re really comfortable about that and that you understand that the Commission will really look at what’s the risk to older people and also what’s the willingness of the provider to actually work with them to quickly address any risks to older people in their care. But when we do get to a point where a regulatory decision is made we just wanted to give you the heads up that there are some new arrangements in place in terms of where that information is stored and published.
So any regulatory decisions are stored internally on our GPMS system. Also the Commission will be publishing them on their website through the provider register. And I guess the main change that I wanted to advise is that the Department would also be publishing these decisions on your provider page on the My Aged Care website. And the reason for that was really transparency but also just to ensure there’s a consistency of information across the Department and Commission’s website so everyone’s sort of seeing the same information about any regulatory action. It also means that there’s information available to those who need it to support risk based monitoring and management across the sector.
All right. Next reminder was just about the fabulous topic of fees. So just a reminder that there are limited fees that can be charged where you’re delivering aged care services under the Multi‑Purpose Service Program under the Act. We’ve got really those on the screen. So it’s your specialist aged care program fee which also has a cap on it and can be no more than 85% of the base rate of the pension. Plus if you happen to be charging accommodation fees at your MPS then you can only charge an accommodation payment and only if a means assessment shows the client is not eligible for Government assistance. Importantly providers must also have a hardship policy in place so that you have arrangements so that you can support residents if they’re experiencing financial difficulty.
We did just want to flag though that we’ve recently had quite a few questions around what’s known as the Higher Everyday Living Fee or the HELF if you’ve heard it spoken about that way. We just wanted to clarify that that was never intended to apply in the context of our program, the MPSP, and that’s because of our block funding. Whereas HELF is really designed as additional fees that can be charged to particular individuals sort of above their normal fees where they’re getting extra services. And so it’s really designed for mainstream residential aged care only.
But we just wanted to flag for everyone that a provider has raised some concerns with us about what the impact might be then where they’re providing additional services for a cost for something else that’s not an aged care service like for example hairdressing services for a resident. So I just wanted to flag we’re just looking into this matter further and we’ll discuss it with your state and territory Health agencies as well. But in the meantime if you’re currently offering additional services that are not something that’s on the aged care service list and/or specifically excluded we’re comfortable for you to continue doing that while we get some further advice. Please just make sure you have an agreement to the costs and that’s documented in advance with the client. But we would ask that at this stage you don’t start charging any additional service fees and that you certainly do not suggest you are charging a HELF fee because that is not available to you as an MPS provider.
So anyway if you do think this impacts you – as I said we’re not too sure of how many people might be affected by this given only one provider has reached out to us at this stage but Kate and the team would very much welcome feedback if you do think this impacts you if you do charge for other services. For example you might organise additional beauty services for a resident or access to Netflix, anything like that. If you could let us know. Or even feel free to pop it in the chat now and it might prompt some further discussion about this in the panel session. But I guess we’re keen to identify how big an issue this might be whilst we seek further advice on the issue as well.
All right. Next up just quickly is leave entitlements and rent assistance. We have had a few questions about how leave works for residents accessing services under the MPSP. Just flagging that all the leave requirements in the Act actually link to mainstream residential care and AN-ACC funding. So I guess what I’m saying is you don’t need to worry about complying with any of those requirements where you operate under the MPSP. Leave requirements are not legislated in the same way given our block funding.
Also for rent assistance just flagging that Services Australia’s approach to this hasn’t changed. So that’s still available. But I think we just wanted to flag as well that as you know you can charge a specialist aged care program fee. If that has had to change from 1 November due to the cap on those fees that could actually impact the client’s financial circumstances so if that occurs I guess we’re just saying can you please also make sure that the person notifies Services Australia about that change.
All right. I think next up is just before I probably finish off for my part of this presentation we just also wanted to touch base on the system changes that have been in place since 1 November. So just a couple of reminders and of course we’re happy to answer any questions. So if you’re still having trouble getting referrals for new clients, if enough time has passed for you to get a new one, please let us know. It might be because your MPS is not set up properly as an outlet in the system. So if this is an issue you can just let the Department’s GPMS team know. And I understand all the contact details and tips around that are available on the MPSP website if you just have a look at the resources available from the last webinar.
Also probably an important reminder that for the existing clients who are being transitioned over effectively they will be retrospectively referred to you as part of the client deeming process that Kate and team are working on but that as a result won’t have happened yet. So I just wanted to clarify again in case there’s any confusion that those clients you might not be able to see in My Aged Care unless they already have been referred to you before 1 November. This situation will stay like that basically until July 2026 at this stage when as we’ve previously flagged the aim is then to fully update their records in aged care. So from that date you should be able to see all the older people accessing care at your MPS in the system but even then be aware the transition clients might have less data in there. So if they haven’t done an ACAT or an IAT obviously that won’t appear at least until they do a new assessment which might not be likely if they’re in residential care already with an MPS.
But really here the important message is none of this impacts you continuing to provide services to your existing residents. So you can provide services both to new clients with an approval but also those transitional clients who you’ve put forward to us as part of your data workbooks. Really the only difficulties at the moment can occur for a client if they move from their MPS to a mainstream provider. So that’s why I think Kate and the team have been reminding you all to contact us if you do think there are people in that category. And the reason for that is we’re just keen to make that as smooth as possible. So we’ll try and work with our IT colleagues in the background to fix their records if needed so that they can transition over to their new residential care home without causing any extra stress for anyone if at all possible. That’s the aim.
All right. So I think that’s it from me. So Kate I will hand over to you again to talk about transitional arrangements. Thanks Kate.
Kate Harkins:
[Visual of slide with text saying Final client transitional arrangements’, ‘Kate Harkins, Multi‑Purpose Service Program’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘www.health.gov.au’]
Thanks Cathy and hello everyone. First of all I just want to say a huge thank you. We have made huge progress on the client deeming process so far with a workbook received from every single site. So we do have 183 workbooks that we are reviewing so thank you so much. To date we have only seven providers with something still outstanding and most of these is just a field or two missing here or there. So the team has been in contact with all of those seven providers. And so we really, really appreciate all the other people that have gotten back to us about questions and being so responsive.
The team has been busy processing the workbooks and as a result outcome letters have been sent to I think it’s about 20 providers already. And obviously each provider can have numerous sites underneath that. So they are flowing out. Now I just want to clarify just two things. The first is that not everyone that’s in your consolidated workbook has been deemed automatically and we are getting a couple of questions about this. That’s because we need to be able to confirm that the person was receiving MPS funded services on the 31st of October or that they have an agreement to receive those services before the 28th of February 2026. So there are some people where they might have gotten respite quite a long time ago. If there’s no evidence to suggest that they’re still receiving respite then that’s not an automatic deeming evidence pack. So really encourage you to carefully review the deeming sheets that we do send out to you and really strongly encourage you to get in contact with the team if you think that anyone is missing and if you can provide us with a bit more evidence that they were receiving care or they planned to receive care then of course we can go back and we can amend that.
I’ve also had a provider ask me about anybody who’s been deceased. If someone has sadly passed away since you sent in your workbook just flick us an email with their MPS ID number and we can make sure that those records are updated for you. If you have noticed that someone is missed off your original workbook or you want to provide extra evidence to us the easiest thing to do is just to update the workbook. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already received the deeming letter from us. But update the workbook, resubmit it in the Health Data Portal and just send us an email explaining why you’ve resubmitted. And then from there we can definitely move it forward.
Wyn I can see that your hand’s up but I’ll just keep going and we’ll do questions at the end if that’s okay. So moving on.
The other big question that we’re getting is about managing clients who haven’t provided consent. So I understand it’s really, really tricky and that this needs to be managed really carefully. Unfortunately we don’t have too much flexibility here as Commonwealth funding must be used for lawful purposes. So this means that aged care funding must be used consistent with the new Act which means it has to be used for services on the service list delivered to approved people. Now this can include people who we have transitioned under the arrangements through client deeming, however for this to occur the Department needs to confirm who these people are and we must be confident, or Cathy must be confident as the decision maker that the people in the MPS are sick and require ongoing services. So unfortunately it follows that if these people can’t be identified and the provider is unable to give the Department evidence to confirm those two aspects then we are unable to deem them. And this means that they cannot continue to access services under the new Act unless they have an existing approval or they have provided their consent to share their information with the Department.
Now when I’m talking about consent here I know we asked for two parts of consent. So we only really need one. So if they give consent for you to share the information with the Department that means that I can do the deeming letter and I can send you the deeming letter to give to them. The second consent is for that information to be uploaded into MAC which just makes things easier.
Now if after explaining this to somebody they still don’t want to give consent it’s really important to explain to them that they need to reapply for aged care and go through the front door. Or the only other option is that state or private funding is used to support that person receiving care. Now we hope that you can explain this to any remaining clients and/or their representatives and supporters and assure them that there are arrangements in place to protect their privacy as part of this process as much as possible. And the real aim is to reduce administrative burden and to make sure that they can continue receiving care.
If you are successful in explaining this to people it’s not too late. We can definitely still progress them. So if they do change their mind just pop those consent details back into a workbook and then upload it into the Health Data Portal and we can process it. Practically we will need to cease this work before Christmas so realistically it will probably be about the middle of December when we stop processing this. And because as I’ve explained before we’re uploading all of the ICT processes at once so it would be really good to have these conversations sooner so that when we do get to that mid-December point and we do do the ICT upload we can make sure that they get brought through as part of that process.
That’s it for me. Questions. I think we do have a couple in there Cathy.
Cathy Milfull:
Yeah. Thanks Kate and thanks everyone. So questions so far. I think we’ve got a question from Sharon around responsible persons. So I think Sharon you’re asking:
Q: We’re a Government entity. We’ve got 25 MPS.
So should you have a local facility manager as the senior – I guess saying you’ve kind of got lots of people in that category. So I think probably the short answer is in each of your homes, so each MPS, the people who fall into those categories in the legislation, so responsible for the day to day management or the head nurse effectively, they will be responsible people under the legislation so they do need to comply with any responsibilities as the responsible person. But you can also talk to the Commission obviously about just having a key contact at the provider level to engage with them. So I hope that answers your question Sharon but I think there’s kind of two things. You can’t change who is a responsible person under the Act effectively. That’s according to the definition. But certainly the Commission understand particularly with Government that you might want to effectively nominate someone that they deal with regularly. That should be fine as well. So hope that answers your question. If not let us know and we can get some further advice from the Commission on that for you.
I think Kate the other one was a bit about Service Agreements. So I think Sean is it kind of pointing out that there’s sort of different requirements from mainstream residential care and multi‑purpose services with the Service Agreements. So Kate you can jump in if I get this wrong. But I think effectively residential care is a bit different, you’re correct Sean, in that they need to have that Agreement in place before commencing services, whereas for MPS we do have a 28 day window if you like. We’re a bit more flexible because we’re trying to recognise some of the challenges in rural and remote Australia. So I guess certainly no issues if you want to align but if you want to align you’d need to I guess align with the mainstream requirement so that you’re not breaching your obligations. I think that’s right Kate. Is there anything you wanted to add there?
Kate Harkins:
Right. And I think the reasoning for the distinction as I understood it is because the MPSP can access alternative entry arrangements. So acknowledging that there will be occasions where people need care before they can get an assessment and that we really want to make sure that those people are looked after in that window, we’ve built in that 28 days so that hopefully most people can get their assessment done before they have to enter into that care agreement. I think that’s the slight distinction and the rationale there for the difference.
Cathy Milfull:
Thanks Kate. That’s right. And with MPS we sort of just tried to make it easy so you had one timeframe no matter what way people came in the front door. But obviously that doesn’t necessarily apply with our mainstream colleagues. So hopefully that answers your question Sean but if you need anything more of course let us know.
Wyn did you have a question? I think you’ve got your hand up. I don’t know if you can actually come off mute in this webinar context.
Kate Harkins:
I’m being told the system does not allow it. Poor Wyn.
Cathy Milfull:
You might have to type for us Wyn if you want to ask a question I’m afraid.
Kate Harkins:
I’ve never felt so powerful Cathy.
He might be busily typing.
Cathy Milfull:
Well we need some mood music in case Wyn is typing. But we might just give everyone a couple of minutes. But otherwise we will finish up shortly. But again I probably just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone. It has been an epic year. We really thank you for listening to us, providing feedback, asking questions. I think it’s made the implementation of the Act for MPSP reasonably smooth which is really nice to see. And obviously we really appreciate you continuing to work with Kate and the team on the deeming, and we realise that’s still going but we’ll get there. And it will be great to have all that resolved so that your existing clients have comfort they can just continue services and no need for them to undergo new assessments or anything.
Have we got some typing?
Kate Harkins:
Yes. I’ve just suggested Wyn give me a call.
Cathy Milfull:
I think it’s come through Kate. Having multiple issues with the – okay – reconciliation process. So it’s that deeming I’m assuming.
Kate Harkins:
Yes. I think so. And I suspect it’s about that, just showing evidence that someone was receiving care on the 31st of October. The other thing just to give everyone a very brief heads up is of course we are only the first stage. So my team have a look at it. We do the deeming. We send it up to Cathy. But after that it goes to a data remediation team. And so that data team is then looking at the package slightly differently. So there might be occasions where we do come back to ask questions just to make sure that we’re doing the right thing in the ICT space. So the person is still absolutely deemed but we want to avoid setting up duplicate records and things like that. So if you do hear from me again it will be that second aspect.
And I think we’ve got one final question come in.
Q: Can you please clarify if able around the review of Service Agreements and how this can be demonstrated?
I’m happy to take that one Cathy or you.
Cathy Milfull:
Go for it.
Kate Harkins:
So Laura basically you need to redate them essentially. So it needs to be a new Agreement. You need to go through it and then you need to have them sign the Agreement again I understand. So you don’t need to rewrite the entire thing but you definitely need to show that you’ve gone through it with the person and that they’re still comfortable with it.
Cathy Milfull:
Yeah. I think that’s right. And obviously the most important thing Laura I think is just to be able to show you’ve had that conversation with the person, they’ve been able to inform you if they need anything new or they’re uncomfortable so that you have that I guess meeting of the minds and you can move forward. I don’t think there’s any kind of specific – there’s no legal definition of what that means. So let us know if that’s enough. Certainly if that’s worrying people in any way we could clarify in our Policy Manual but really I think that’s up for providers to determine what works best for them in their context. We just want that conversation to be had and the document to be as Kate says up to date so we know it hasn’t just been sitting there untouched, sort of set and forget when the person commences services.
All right. We’ve got one more possibly.
Kate an outlet question.
Q: We currently have an outlet set up for our CHSP and HCP. Is it best to create a separate outlet for our MPS residential care facility?
I think probably my quick answer would be yes but I will get Kate to give you the proper answer. Kate.
Kate Harkins:
Yes. That’s right. The answer is yes and the reason is quite technical. But essentially the Find a Provider website on the My Aged Care public facing website, they will only be able to find you if you actually accurately have all the services that you offer set up in the system. So that back end of GPMS does link through to that front end consumer facing information. And this is important not only for people in local communities wondering about what services they can get but also assessors use this information to make sure that they’ve got the right referral codes and that they’re telling people about all the services that they can access. So really, really highly recommend that there are separate outlets set up for each of the services you offer.
Cathy Milfull:
Thanks Kate. And Kim I’d probably add as well that if someone is coming to you in an MPS context they’ll get a separate referral code. So you can’t mix and match if you like. So you wouldn’t be able to access them in the system with for example, I’m going to call it your CHSP referral code. It’s not quite that but we actually need the MPS referral to have happened for you to access them in the system. So if you can set it up separately that’s really the best approach. And you can use the tips and things Kate’s put on the website if you need it otherwise just contact – I think we’ve also got the contact details there Kate on the website if any help is needed to set up the outlet.
Kate Harkins:
That’s right. But you can also just super quickly Google GPMS Helpline and the first result is a 1800 provider only helpline.
Cathy Milfull:
Awesome. Thanks Kate. Great tip.
All right.
Kate Harkins:
There’s just a comment. Kim’s saying thank you. That’s nice.
Cathy Milfull:
We like thank you.
All right. Well if nothing else I think going, going, gone. So we will sign off shortly. But again thank you very much and I hope you have a fabulous holiday period. It’s been a big year. Pass on our best wishes to you and your staff and of course your MPS residents. And we hope to see you all in the new year. Thanks everyone. Take care.
Kate Harkins:
Bye everyone.
[End of Transcript]
Presentation slides
