Social Futures and Community Industry Group are supporting services to get ready for aged care reform. We have worked together to produce the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) Reform Ready Checklist to guide reform ready consultations with CHSP providers. We step managers, management teams and board members through a conversation about governance, older people’s voice, workforce, finance, information technology, and quality and safety to reflect on your reform preparations and plan where to focus next as we head towards the new Aged Care Act, quality standards and Support At Home program.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is driving wide-ranging changes to aged care in Australia. The commissioners expressed concern about the extent of substandard care reflecting poor quality on the part of some aged care providers. They highlighted fundamental systemic flaws in the design and governance of the Australian aged care system. New legislation will shift our focus from the funding requirements of providers to the care needs of older people.
The purpose of the new aged care system is “to deliver an entitlement to high quality care and support for older people, and to ensure that they receive it. The care and support must be safe and timely and must assist older people to live an active, self-determined and meaningful life in a safe and caring environment that allows for dignified living in old age”*.
The Aged Care Act 2024 moves the sector to a rights-based and person-centred approach that incentivises continuous quality improvement, which is fundamental to high quality care. It includes a Statement of Rights recognising an individual’s need for funded aged care services to be assessed, reassessed, and delivered in a manner that is culturally safe, culturally appropriate, trauma aware and healing informed, and accessible and suitable for individuals living with dementia or other cognitive impairment.
This Reform Ready Checklist gives Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) providers a broad, high-level overview of how they are going preparing for the new in-home aged care system, and to identify where to focus ongoing reform preparation. It can be used in conjunction with the Act Ready Checklist to consider compliance requirements of the new Aged Care Act that will affect CHSP services from July 2025. Download the CHSP Reform Ready checklist.
The Act Ready Checklist was developed by CHSP sector support teams in Central Coat NSW and Inner West Sydney, with Paul Sadler. It is a self-reflection tool design to help CHSP providers consider of all aspects of compliance with the new Aged Care Act 2024. It can be used by the organisation’s leadership alone, or by a CHSP sector support provider (or other consultant) assisting key personnel to reflect on reform preparation. Access the Act Ready Checklist at the Inner West Aged Care Services website.
CHSP providers from across Australia can contact [email protected] to arrange a 60 to 90 minute reform ready consultation on MS Teams.
Download the CHSP Reform Ready checklist: 20241128 CHSP reform ready checklist V7
*https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/news-and-media/final-report-calls-fundamental-and-systemic-aged-care-reform accessed 2023.
