CHSP’s future in focus
Commonwealth Home Support Program services are too important to lose, Paul Sadler tells Community Care Review.
A mature mixed funding model can keep Commonwealth Home Support Services alive, aged care consultant Paul Sadler tells Community Care Review.
The CHSP provides entry-level support for older people who need some help to stay at home and critical services for those waiting for higher level support.
Providers receive government grants to offer subsidised services to older people, who are also asked to pay a contribution towards services.
The Support at Home program – which has an individualised funding approach – will replace the Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care programs on 1 July 2025. But the CSHP has been extended until 30 June 2027, and will transition no earlier than 1 July 2027.
Mr Sadler is among dozens of home care experts who will gather in Melbourne in two weeks’ time for Invox’s National CHSP Conference 2024.
The two-day in-person and online event aims to help CHSP leaders across service types and roles understand and respond to current and future challenges – such as falling sustainability for providers and a reform program that means business is not usual.
Mr Sadler – a co-host of the conference – said the aged care royal commissioners’ view was to fund providers based on the volume of activity they performed supplemented with block funding to ensure area coverage, continuity of service, and viability.
“For CHSP-type services specifically, the royal commission said the government should fund social supports such as meals and transport, respite, assistive technologies and home modifications in a combination of block funding and activity-based funding,” he said.
“Implementing an individualised funding model for each of the 830,000 older people currently in CHSP would add extra costs for administering that number of individual budgets and the risks of getting it wrong are significant,” Mr Sadler told CCR.
It doesn’t matter whether the CHSP remains separate or joins the new aged care program, but it must continue, said Mr Sadler.
“The services provided via CHSP are far too important to let them fall by the wayside in our zeal to establish the Support at Home Program. There is an alternative. Let’s keep the services alive via a mature mixed funding model,” Mr Sadler said.
In addition to hearing more on this topic, conference delegates can expect detailed information on:
- the new Aged Care Act
- changes to compliance, provider obligations and standards
- insights from Sector Support & Development teams
- practical tools and techniques for CHSP services to survive, transition and thrive.
The event features over 20 presentations and panel discussions with sector experts representing government, consultancy organisations, universities and providers.
The board’s role in the transition
Among those appearing on a panel is Australian Strategic Services senior consultant Aaron Goldsworthy, who will join a discussion on the board briefing toolkit developed to assist CHSP providers prepare for reform and the board’s role in the change journey.
He said boards must understand the reforms are part of the paradigm shift from a government-funded welfare approach to a customer-driven competitive market with changes to the standards and a new Act just the first steps for CHSP.
“This reform is not business as usual, either working in the business or on the business,” Mr Goldsworthy told CCR.
“It requires CHSP organisations especially to do additional work to begin transforming their business and boards should be leading and resourcing this.”
If board members are unclear on what this means practically, the first step is to engage and educate them, he said.
“Being a strategic leader as part of the board means responsibility for the strategic direction of the organisation. This includes addressing via the strategy process key external drivers – such as a new Act, new standards and a new registration.”
It’s also important that boards involve staff and consumers in the transition, Mr Goldsworthy said.
“Boards needs to recognise the need for change and therefore engagement and any response should include staff and consumers,” he said. “Staff are on the ground and understand the business and consumers. They can offer a lot of valuable input but will also need engagement and education on what the changes mean for their work.”
National CHSP Conference 2024 takes place on 4-5 December at Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Community Care Review is a media partner for the event
Follow Community Care Review on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and sign up to our newsletter.
