Aged Care reforms are too important to be rushed

Last week the Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler MP and the new Aged Care Minister Sam Rae MP announced that the commencement date of the new Aged Care Act will be delayed to 1 November 2025. This announcement comes after months of advocacy by CHA and its members raising concerns about the significant challenges being faced by both older Australians and providers in transitioning to the new Act, including the new Support at Home program.

CHA and our members, as providers of mission-driven, person-centred care, have been committed to ensuring that older people and their families are informed, supported, and transitioned to Support at Home as smoothly as possible. However, we had remained concerned about the ability of providers to get new service agreements in place for existing clients of home care and for older people and their families to make informed decisions about their services under the new Support at Home program. Much of the detail surrounding the new Act also remains draft or incomplete, leaving significant challenges for our members to navigate implementation.

Reform of this magnitude and importance should not be rushed and we welcomed the announcement made. Delaying the transition will allow older Australians to seek advice and make informed decisions before signing a new agreement and support providers to continue delivering high quality care throughout this process.

CHA put out a media release in support for the announcement and will be working closely with Government and the Department on understanding detail surrounding the change. We also understand the Commission will be making public statements regarding its regulatory posture in the coming week to confirm it will take a proportionate approach during the transition period, understanding that not all providers will be ready from the start date including having service agreements in place for all existing clients.

This is a significant win and we hope is welcome news for many of you. However we do recognise this announcement has come extremely close to planned start dates and there may be additional questions or challenges that need to be worked through between now and 1 November 2025. CHA will continue to support members during this period and welcome any discussions on issues that may need to be raised and discussed between now and then.

Laura Haylen is Director of Aged Care Policy at Catholic Health Australia