Australia’s largest reforms to the aged care sector have been passed in Parliament. These changes put you as the customer at the centre of the change.
How this impacts you as a Suncare customer?
The New Aged Care Act has promised a $4.3 Billion dollar investment into the home care sector and will be delivered under a new program called Support at Home which will come into effect on 01 July 2025
The primary goal of the new Support at Home Program is to ensure Australia’s ageing population can remain living at home for as long as possible while receiving high quality care and services that meet their individual needs.
So what changes are the government making to home care packages?
One of the current concerns about the home care system has been the long waiting times. Current federal estimates suggest there is a 6-12 month wait for the higher level 3 and 4 home care packages.
The new system aims to shorten wait times to an average of three months from July 2027.
A key component of this strategy is to adopt a Single Integrated Assessment Tool for all older Australians to be assessed for aged care services.
Suncare are proud to be a part of this strategy and have been successful in a tender to provide Single Assessment Services to areas in Queensland.
The new system will also replace the current four levels of home care packages with eight classifications of funding for services. When participants are assessed, they will be assigned the most suitable category.
Under the new system, services will be categorised into clinical care (for example, physiotherapy or wound care), independence (such as help with bathing or cooking) and everyday living (for example, gardening or home maintenance).
The new reforms fully subsidise clinical services regardless of income, whereas independence and everyday living services will attract co-contributions based on means testing.
These reforms have the potential to significantly enhance the home care system.
Another key aspect of the aged care reforms which not for profits groups like ours have been advocating for is the introduction of strengthened aged care quality standards. These build on the existing quality standards set for aged care services.
The new strengthened standards will come into effect on July 1 next year and will ensure aged care providers across the country are held to a high standard, this will mean an increased accountability to ensure best quality care and services are provided to older Australians.
Suncare is well positioned to meet or exceed these standards. This is because we have undertaken a process of internal self-assessment to look at further improvements we can make in our current systems and processes.
We want to continue to be Queenslanders number one choice for in home care, and to do that we need to provide high quality care and services to our customers whilst complying with the strengthened standards.
Suncare is well advanced in preparing for the upcoming changes and we will keep you updated through emails, our website and this publication, the Suncare Times on what to expect.
