14 months after David Tune handed the Government his Capability Review of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), the Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells has announced all 32 recommendations will be accepted.
“Delivering safe, high-quality care to older Australians is non-negotiable. We need a well-equipped, high-performing, regulator if we’re going to meet the challenges facing aged care," said the Minister in a statement.
The Review commenced in October 2022, and was completed and handed to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care in March 2023, before being made public three months later in July 2023.
The Review found the Commission faced significant challenges, including attracting and retaining staff (the staff vacancy rate was 20%). It also recommended the complaints system be “urgently reviewed” to ensure complaints are triaged appropriately and acted on in a timely way. The Review recommended that the ACQSC's leadership be more visible, transparent and collaborative, and found the legislative framework was "too complicated”.
Some recommendations, such as the establishment of a senior-level Implementation Steering Committee, have been implemented.
It is expected that by the end of 2024, the majority of the recommendations will have been delivered with the Inspector-General of Aged Care set to review implementation of the recommendations in 2025.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said the ACQSC is responsible for delivering 21 of the recommendations, and expects to implement 11 recommendations this month.
The Minister announced the following Government funding to implement responses to the Capability Review:
- $25.3 million to help the ACQSC undertake its core regulatory functions and respond to two recommendations from the Review’s preliminary report (recommendations 4.11 and 4.13)
- $69.4 million for critical ICT and cyber security uplift (recommendations 4.9 and 4.10)
- $4.1 million to implement a new organisational structure (recommendations 4.3 and 4.8)
- $7.1 million to continue funding for the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner and associated complaints resolution staff (recommendation 5.7)
- $10.2 million for additional corporate capability to implement the Government Response.
The $1.2 billion information technology investment in the May 2024 Federal Budget will also support the ACQSC's regulatory activity, the Minister said in a statement.
“The independent review led by Mr David Tune AO PSM charts a course for service improvement by lifting the capability of the ACQSC and we’ve accepted all 32 of his recommendations," said Minister Wells.
You can read the Government's response to the ACQSC Capability Review here.