Catholic Health Australia recommends 2026 Support at Home implementation

Catholic Health Australia has expressed its support for the new Aged Care Act, stating that it delivers on the key recommendations of the Royal Commission while also enabling providers to achieve sustainability that results in better care for older Australians.

Policy Directors Laura Haylen and Alex Lynch, who appeared at a Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs last week, acknowledged there is still scope for meaningful amendments to the Act. 

Desired changes include updates to the Code of Conduct penalties, whistleblower protections and the scope of responsible persons associated with statutory duties.

As Australia’s largest non-government grouping of health, community, and aged care services, Catholic Health Australia’s concerns reflect feedback and concerns from roughly 12% of the residential care sector and 20% of the home care sector.

“The new Act is essential to address the recommendations of the Royal Commission and lays the foundation for a better quality and more sustainable aged care system that older Australians deserve,” Laura Haylen, Director of Aged Care Policy, said.

“We support the government’s reform agenda and strongly back the passage of this Bill – but we believe certain provisions could be enhanced to better protect aged care providers and the older Australians they serve.

“We recognise the significant work undertaken by the Government to address concerns raised by stakeholders on the Exposure Draft, and believe our additional proposed amendments will make this Bill even stronger.”

Catholic Health Australia made seven key recommendations to the Senate Committee for amendments to the Bill: 

Recommendation 1: Improve transparency of timeframes for system access for older people by including clear timeframes for complaints processes and decision making by the System Governor, Complaints Commissioner, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner. 

Recommendation 2: Government continue to monitor the impact of the funding reform on the aged care sector and adjust policy settings when required to ensure the sector remains financially sustainable and investable to support an ageing population. 

Recommendation 3: Remove the words ‘granted by the individual’ from clause 28(2)(c) in order to clearly recognise relevant state/ territory guardianship laws. 

Recommendation 4: Remove the direct civil penalty for an aged care worker not complying with the Aged Care Code of Conduct by removing the civil penalty under section 173. 

Recommendation 5: Remove aged care workers from the list of individuals that can receive disclosures under the whistleblower framework by removing section 547(a)(v) from the Bill and subsequently section 553(2)(a) or require providers to nominate personnel responsible for receiving disclosures. 

Recommendation 6: Exclude operational roles at a facility level from the definition of responsible persons that applies to the statutory duties. 

Recommendation 7: Clarify in the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum the relationship between protected information and relevant information so that information management requirements are clear.

Additionally, it provided 11 further recommendations relating to the legislation and implementation of the Bill. 

These recommendations included delaying Support at Home’s implementation until July 1 2026, urging the Government to run a “broad and sustained” education campaign on why co-contributions are important and implementing adequate transitional arrangements to support the sector to implement the new Act.

“The Support at Home program is a much-needed reform and will be transformational for the aged care system in supporting older Australians to age in place – but we are concerned that insufficient time has been allowed for the amount of work that will be needed to implement this once-in-a-generation reform,” Alex Lynch, Director of Public Health and In Home Support Policy, said.

In their official submission, Catholic Health Australia said the intent of the home care reform is welcome yet it’s cautious about the significant risks of unintended consequences that could arise from a rushed implementation.

Catholic Health Australia also warned that price caps on home care services could deter specialised providers focused on high-quality services from entering the market, while some providers could cherry-pick clients based on profitability. 

It would prefer for IHACPA’s recommendations to act as benchmarks, not fixed caps, with a shadow pricing method used as an alternative approach. Shadow pricing would involve maintaining the current pricing model for actual provider funding while collecting data to understand the potential impact of the new pricing approach. 

Similar concerns about timeframes were mentioned regarding decisions made by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner and System Governer. Catholic Health Australia said there is insufficient assurance that a decision and the notification for that decision will occur promptly. 

One recommendation was to include a requirement that a decision to allocate or not allocate an aged care place to an individual is made within 30 days or “at least in a reasonable period prescribed by the Rules”.