Commonwealth Home Support Program providers will be required to submit an annual wellness report under new funding conditions detailed by the Department of Health this week.
As flagged in last year’s budget, the new CHSP funding conditions to embed a wellness approach will be implemented from 1 July.
The government will use the reports to track the progress of the sector in embedding wellness into their services, with the first report due by 31 October.
Services will be required to outline their organisation’s implementation of a wellness approach. The department said the reports will also be used to identify gaps and the need for industry support.
A reporting template is currently being developed and will be available to providers by the end of August.
The new funding conditions were developed in consultation with the CHSP National Aged Care Alliance working group, a departmental spokesperson told Community Care Review.
The government’s review of wellness and reablement completed by the Nous Group in June also informed the development of the grant conditions, the department said.
According to the department’s updated CHSP manual, services will be required to offer choice to clients, accept referrals to deliver short-term as well as ongoing services, and review all clients’ services at least every year.
Data audit
From 1 July, the department will introduce a new data audit of up to 10 per cent of CHSP providers each year.
The audit will include a review of My Aged Care service information, client support plans and service provider data in the DSS Data Exchange.
“Depending on outcomes of the internal audit, the department may contact individual service providers to discuss their service delivery patterns,” the updated CHSP manual said.
A new funding condition attached to the contracts also requires organisations to provide data to the department on all existing CHSP clients who are not currently registered with My Aged Care.
The department has started offering the extended two-year CHSP grant agreements to existing services from this month.
The department confirmed to CCR it has no plans for a growth funding round for the CHSP.
Download the new CHSP manual, guidelines and departmental advice here.
At least the Department is being consistent. Yet again we see another new requirement – unfunded of course – being introduced wherein the templates will not be available until late August for the first report to be done in October. How on earth are providers supposed to streamline their operations and align to these new reporting requirements in such a ridiculous and unrealistic time frame when DEX continues to be a disaster and unstable to use? Undoubtedly the Department will be critical of the industry because it has been advised of the change and failed to take steps to prepare for it. Here we go again……..
This is a welcome development. However, there are serious doubts about the capacity of providers and the frontline staff (care workers and scheduling/ rostering staff).