Changes to our aged care services
1 May 2024 update:
At this time, we are waiting on information from the Australian Government about which specialist aged care providers will be available to our clients.
As soon as we have this list of providers, you will be given all the information you need to make an informed decision on the provider of your choice. Our team will be available throughout the entire process to answer questions you may have, and work with you to help you navigate services and other support you may require.
For the time being, your services will continue to be delivered by City of Port Phillip as normal.
When the time comes for your move to a new provider to take place, you will remain eligible for all the services you currently receive, and you will not need to be reassessed by My Aged Care.
Following the Australian Governments aged care reforms, Council recently made the difficult decision to start exiting from providing several in-home services for older residents.
City of Port Phillip will continue to deliver community-based services such as:
- Delivered meals
- Transport
- Social connection programs
- Hop-on-hop-off bus program.
The following services will be delivered by another provider under the Australian Government’s Support at Home Program:
- Cleaning assistance in the home
- Assistance with personal care and showering
- Assistance with one-on-one shopping
- In-home respite care
- Property maintenance and home modifications.
The 650 residents currently receiving in-home services will not experience any gap during this transition. Our staff will continue to visit them until arrangements with not-for-profit providers of their choice to take up these services have commenced.
We believe this, and our unique new Community Connector role, will ensure the smoothest possible transition as well as establishing our Council as the first port of call for older people wanting trusted advice on how to navigate the entire, often complex, aged care system.
Under our new Village Model, we will continue to deliver meals and social support programs, provide a free hop-on hop-off community bus to help people get around and stay socially connected and run activities including our annual Seniors Festival and valued Linking Neighbours program. This is not a cost-cutting measure – our Community Service funding will receive an extra $65,000 each year.
Council have not made this decision lightly as we understand change can be challenging for everyone and many clients have provided wonderful feedback about their Council staff.
However, the Australian Government aged care reforms require significant extra resources and make it incredibly hard for us to compete with other providers. We have already lost staff and clients and the new federal funding model will put us on the backfoot by not providing block funding in advance.
Moving forward, the Australian Government will take the time to assemble a panel of not-for profit providers for residents to choose from.
We will then start transitioning clients in stages over three to four months. We will have a team of staff, as well as our Community Connector service, who will be there every step of the way to assist clients seeking advice about how to arrange a new provider. We expect everyone will have a new provider by the end of August 2024.
We have already sent out letters to all our clients, and we are working through contacting all clients via phone by the end of April 2024 to discuss these changes in detail.
We have included some frequently asked questions below. If you would like to speak to a member of our team about these changes, you can contact them directly on 03 9209 6882 or email positiveageinginportphillip@portphillip.vic.gov.au