Last-minute transition funding for community aged care

All current home care package providers will receive $274 per package to support the transition to consumer directed care (CDC) while those providers transitioning to the new Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) will be offered between $12,000 and $20,000, the government has confirmed.

Less than a week out from the start of both programs, Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield announced on Wednesday that up to $20 million would be allocated to home care package providers to assist with the costs they have incurred in their transition to the CDC model.

A further $20 million would go to more than 1,200 providers from four separate Commonwealth-funded community care programs as they transition into the single, streamlined CHSP, he said.

The $40 million is being allocated from the existing aged care appropriation.

“All 504 current home care package providers are eligible for this one-off funding, which will be allocated at a flat rate of $274 per home care package place,” Senator Fifield told Community Care Review.

The department has already written to home care package providers to notify them of the funding and will forward an offer from July, he said. Those offers will have a grant agreement attached that need to be accepted by the provider.

All current providers of services under the CHSP, the National Respite for Carers Program, the Day Therapy Centres Program and the Assistance with Care and Housing for the Aged Program transitioning into the new CHSP will also be offered transition support funding.

“Depending on their size, providers will be offered between $12,000 and $20,000,” Senator Fifield said.

The department will contact CHSP providers shortly with funding offers, he confirmed.

After the announcement, Leading Age Services Australia CEO Patrick Reid welcomed the funding but said it was too late to rectify known problems for many Australians relying on vital care during the first weeks of the transition to CDC.

“We are now six days out from one of the most significant changes to aged care funding in recent decades. For nearly two years Leading Age Services has been advocating for additional support for both consumers and providers, realising there are people who will fall between the cracks,” Mr Reid said on Wednesday.

He said Minister Fifield publicly lambasted providers recently for not being ready while now there was a “mea culpa that support has been absent.”

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