Aged care assessments for both home care and residential aged care will begin through the Single Assessment System workforce next Monday, but the Department of Health and Aged Care has not yet made public details about which organisations have been awarded tenders to deliver the assessments.
The Single Assessment System workforce brings together three workforces: the Regional Assessment Service, which assesses eligibility for the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP), Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs), and the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) workforces.
A single assessment process was a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and is aimed at simplifying and improving older people's experience entering the aged care system.
Training
All assessors will have to complete transition training on the MAClearning portal by 24 December 2024. Additional Single Assessment Scheme training will have to be completed by 31 March 2025.
Questions about tenders blocked: webinar
In a Department of Health and Aged Care webinar held during the week about Single Assessment workforce training, questions about the outcomes of Single Assessment tender contracts to provide assessments were not permitted as the decisions have not yet been made public.
A spokesperson for the Department told The SOURCE: "The Department will publish the results of the tender on 6 December 2024 on the Health.gov.au website, as new contracts commence.*
"The Department will also be releasing an interactive map where people can check who is covering their local area."
Questioners also asked about a scheduled MAClearning shutdown between 6 and 10 January 2025.
The spokesperson said the Department is "reconsidering the scheduling of this maintenance window, given some assessment organisations will be continuing to finalise training new staff over the January 2025 period".
All assessors have been using the Integrated Assessment Tool for aged care assessments since 1 July 2024.
* On Thursday 5 December, the Department issued a correction to The SOURCE stating outcomes of the tender will be published on AusTender, the Australian Government’s procurement website, and the interactive map will be available from 9 December 2024.