Ahead of the Senate Inquiry report into the Aged Care Bill 2024 being tabled later today (31 October 2024), the Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA) is calling for realistic timelines to implement a raft of reforms as part of the new Aged Care Act.

“We fully support the passage of the New Aged Care Act, but reforms of such magnitude will take time to implement. The success of the new Act hinges on successful execution and that will take time,” ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson said.

“Depending on the reform, new requirements for providers should commence six to 12 months from the time all information is available.”

“We can’t have a situation where parts of the new Act are implemented, with mandated requirements that simply can’t be achieved due to a lack of lead time. That would have a devastating impact on confidence in our system.”

As we have reported, many operators have raised concerns about the lack of detail around the reforms and the timeline leading up to 1 July 2025, in particular the changes to Support at Home.

“This scale of change is always incredibly hard. For example, entire computer systems will need to be upgraded or even replaced to respond to the reforms, but we can’t do that until all the information is available,” added Tom.

“We’ve spoken to providers who are eager to get on with the changes, but their IT contractors are saying they need the final details of the legislation and rules before they can even begin updating systems. That could take six months or more from when they get it.”

“We need certainty, and we need time. Everyone wants this reform to succeed, but that means a staged approach to implementation should be adopted. We only get one chance to get this right.”

With Parliament returning next Monday (4 November) and only 12 sitting days left in the year, time is running out.

Check out our latest issue of SATURDAY, with ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson on the cover – subscribe here.