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Consultation on a redesigned Commonwealth Home Support Program will begin “within the next month or so,” says Minister for Aged Care and Seniors Sam Rae.
Appearing on day one of the Invox CHSP national conference on Monday morning, Mr Rae emphasised that the government wants “everyone” involved in the planning process of CHSP.
The government announced last Thursday that it no longer believed CHSP should be rolled into the Support at Home program, and that funding will be extended until mid-2029.
But Mr Rae reiterated that the government recognises that CHSP cannot be left as it currently exists, and that work needs to be done to close the gap between what it looks like now and what an ideal program of entry-level support should look like in the future.
“For me personally, I think we are talking about one of the fundamental pillars of the future of our aged care system,” he said. “Everybody in this room needs to be part of that conversation.”
Mr Rae urged providers that have been considering withdrawing from CHSP, or those who have already indicated they intend to, to talk to the government before finalising any decisions.
“The uncertainty that drove a lot of these decisions is now gone. Your contracts will continue without interruption until 2029,” he said.
“The door is open, and I would rather have that conversation and explore how we can support you in this evolving system than read about it in the newspaper later.”
He also asked providers to bring their data.
“Bring us the real numbers of what it costs you to deliver in each of your unique communities and with your workforce,” Mr Rae said. “Once we have that, we’ll be able to plot a system that works for decades to come.”
Consultation will be ‘genuine opportunity’ to give feedback
Mr Rae said the consultation period will be “open and transparent” to make sure stakeholders have a “genuine opportunity” to share the things that work and to identify the areas where reform is needed.
The consultation will also focus on delivering a holistic home support system, a system that older people find easy to navigate and a system that “doesn’t add pointless layers of cost and bureaucracy.”
“We’ll look at what a sustainable funding model looks like, about where in Australia there’s unmet demand and who is suffering as a result, and how we can support providers to deliver those services in the long run,” Mr Rae said.
“We also recognise that CHSP is not perfect, and we’ll work to understand what more is needed to help it achieve its promise, informed by the recent report of the Australian National Audit Office and, of course, the royal commission.
“While we’re not rolling CHSP into Support at Home, that is absolutely not to say that we don’t want older people to have a simpler, smoother experience when transitioning between the two programs.”
Mr Rae added that the government is “not blind to the issues” that the royal commission identified, particularly in its recommendation that the aged care system be delivered through a single program.
“The intent of that recommendation still has validity – and while, as I mentioned, we believe a standalone CHSP should be preserved, we also want to deliver on the spirit of the royal commission’s recommendation for a comprehensive program, one that delivers consistent access and availability, as well as choice and flexibility for older people,” he said.
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