The Aged Care Transition Taskforce met for the third time on 20 January, with Sonja Stewart, Deputy Secretary Ageing and Aged Care with the Department of Health and Aged Care, replacing Michael Lye as Deputy Chair.
New member Liz Hefren-Webb, Commissioner with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, also joined the Taskforce.
Nineteen were in attendance, including Chair Anne Burgess AM, Natalie Molloy, Head of Operations and Clinical Governance with HammondCare, and Simon Miller, Anglicare Sydney CEO, as well as two observers.
Members considered:
- the "criticality" of the timing for the release of the Aged Care Rules,
- the sector's ‘digital readiness’,
- a potential pilot to understand digital and operational readiness,
- the consultation process and key engagement dates for the Rules, and
- useful approaches to collect and summarise feedback from the consultation phase.
The Taskforce was established last November by the Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells to help providers manage implementation of the new Aged Care Act by 1 July 2025. Submissions and hearings at the Senate Inquiry into the new Aged Care Act revealed stakeholders are concerned about the tight timeframe for the rollout, with the legislation only passed in September and some finer details of the reforms still to be released.
Read the full summary, including the complete list of who was in attendance, here.
