The Aged and Community Care Providers Association’s (ACCPA) inaugural ‘State of the Sector’ survey shows seven out of ten aged care providers are worried about Australia’s readiness for an ageing population.
Australia is on a reform journey, and the ACCPA report highlights the opportunities and the challenges facing the aged care sector in Australia – including funding, workforce, reform, and what the priorities are for a better future.
“This is a report about our sector at a critical juncture in its transformation journey, based on feedback from those that deliver care to older Australians every day. It provides evidence based insights about what’s happening on the ground. It is honest, and it is earnest,” said ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson.
“It comes amidst a backdrop of financial, workforce and reform challenges – all of significant magnitude. The demand for aged care is also growing, highlighting the urgent need to create a system that delivers high quality care now and into the future.”
Aged care providers are motivated to provide quality care, and the best ageing experience possible, but 70% were concerned about Australia’s readiness to support a growing ageing population.
In the survey, 97% were concerned about increasing costs. This almost universal concern is not unsubstantiated, given 50% of residential providers continue to lose money and the margins of Home Care providers continue to decline – crashing to $1.80 per client per day in the first half of 2023-24, from approximately $3.20 in 2022-23.
When asked about challenges facing the aged care sector, 92% of providers nominated government funding (under current policy settings, before implementation of the new Aged Care Bill currently before the parliament) as a concern. The problems are worse in regional and rural areas or ‘thin’ markets. Worryingly, 20% of smaller providers were not confident in their ability to provide aged care services in the next 12 months.
“Australia’s population is ageing and we need to be ready. It’s critical that funding is sufficient to deliver care and to attract investment so we can build for the future.”
“These responses from providers show even more clearly that the Australian Government’s response to the Aged Care Taskforce as part of the new Aged Care Bill is essential to making the aged care sector more sustainable,” Mr Symondson said.
51% believed aged care reforms were pointing the sector in the right direction. However, the pace of change is worrying providers, with 64% saying transition timeframes were too fast, and 84% believing new requirements will put a greater strain on the sector.
“Providers fully support well designed reform, but that reform must be at a manageable pace and not exacerbate already existing problems,” Mr Symondson said.
Workforce shortages and ability to meet care minutes requirements were also major concerns.
“Providers are feeling the brunt of worker shortages, with just 36% confident they would be able to recruit enough staff to meet their increased care minutes. Current migration settings aren’t the answer, with 64% unable to access the workers required under current arrangements.”
