CHSP Provider Community of Practice Hub

You would have seen some big announcements in recent weeks regarding the upcoming Aged Care Reforms.

Please continue to remain on top of these reforms, as they will impact every CHSP Provider. I've attempted to provide a summary of the past few weeks.

On the 12^th of September, the Australian Government:

• Introduced the Aged Care Bill 2024 to Parliament
• Released its response to the Aged Care Taskforce
• Announced details of the Support at Home program

The full ACT and the tabled documents are available here. A plain English fact sheet is available here, and Minister Well's Media release is available here.

The Aged Care Bill 2024 is for a new Aged Care Act – the main law that sets out how the aged care system operates. This new law aims to improve the quality, regulation and transparency of aged care services:

• Quality Standards: Emphasis on person-centred care, tailoring services to individual needs and rights.
• Regulatory Measures: Stricter reporting and assessments, through criminal penalties for providers have now been excluded.
• Transparency: Greater access to provider performance information to support consumers to make informed choices.

CHSP Providers will come under the Aged Care ACT for the first time, come 1 July 2025 (expected date of commencement). Once the Bill is passed, the Sub-Ordinate Legislation will be developed and distributed. This is also known as the Rules. The ACT sets out legally how the aged care system operates. The Rules is where you will see reference to CHSP, and it will set out in more detail what the program looks like. Fellow Sector Support and Development Provider Yourside has provided a good summary of information on the Aged Care Bill.

Organisations and individuals have the opportunity to provide feedback on the Aged Care Bill 2024 by 30 September 2024. Responses will be published on the Senate Committee website, and will inform parliamentary debate and the Committee's response on the Aged care Bill. See details here.

Support at Home aims to provide:

• more tailored support, with 8 ongoing classifications up to $78,000 per year
• support for home modifications
• fast access to assistive technology, including a new equipment loan scheme
• a no worse off principle for people already in the aged care system.
• Government-covered clinical care for older Australians.
• Means-tested contributions for non-clinical care.
• New funding arrangements including a higher maximum annual payment for clients and a new 8-level classification system for care delivery.

Support at Home is expected to commence 1 July 2025. Home Care Packages will move to Support at Home 1 July 2025. CHSP will move into Support at Home no earlier than 1 July 2027. While the move is now a few years away, 1 July 2025 will be the first time CHSP will come under the Act, and the Department is undertaking activity for CHSP's move to Support at Home now. To maintain compliance under the Aged Care ACT, and to transition across to Support at Home Program, you will need to remain engaged in the process - there are a lot of changes coming, so stay informed and act.

Note that new Quality Standards will commence at the same time as the ACT and Support at Home - 1 July 2025 (expected date). CHSP providers will be deemed across into Registration Categories, based on what services you are currently funded for. Please note that the proposed Registration Categories have been modified from previous versions- view information here. You will need to understand which Categories your services are within, as the new Quality Standards will be applied dependent on those Categories.

The proposed registration categories have recently been updated:

• Social Support and Community Engagement has moved back to Category 3.
• Meals and Nutrition have been separated into two distinct items, with meals set to Category 1 and Nutrition set to Category 4.
• Care Management (Basic) previously Category 3, is now Care Management Category 4.
• Care Management (Complex) previously Category 5, is now Care Management Category 4.

Department Webinars

Please view the webinar recordings listed below, and register for the upcoming webinars. These Webinars and Recordings are critical to your understanding of what is happening.

• Ensuring the future of quality aged care - Webinar - 13 September. The recording and slides are available here.
• Support at Home program update - Webinar - 19 September. The recording and slides are available here.
• 24 September - Support at Home Questions and Answers Session - In-home Aged Care Providers - register here
• 22 October - CHSP 2025-27 Extension Webinar - register here.

COTA Queensland will continue to keep you informed by promoting webinars and resources relevant to CHSP Providers via our CHSP Provider Hub and news emails. We are currently digesting the information recently released and will provide updates where we can.