In-home care provider fills gaps as councils exit aged care

In light of the in-home care exodus led by local councils across Australia, independent providers are finding themselves with growing waiting lists of new clients.

These gaps in the market have to be filled and some operators have already acted.

Giovanni Siano, owner of Home Instead Geelong, is expanding his services 30 minutes east at Clifton Springs.

Located on the Bellarine Peninsula, Clifton Springs is a small coastal community that attracts a large number of retirees. With a median age of 45 and high percentages of residents aged between 60-74, the demand for aged care services in the area is growing.

“We decided to open up an office within Clifton Springs so we can be seen in that local community and provide localised support where people feel more connected,” Mr Siano explained.

“We already have a wait list of clients wanting to come on board with us. Many of them want to switch providers, they’re not happy with their current provider and they wanna come to us. 

“So it’s a natural move to expand but we didn’t have to physically. We could have done it from an office based in Geelong but it’s an investment in the community.

“It’s an investment in the services we offer so our caregivers can feel more connected and have a better work experience.”

The need for localised services is arguably as important as ever, particularly when councils are exiting the home care industry at an alarming rate. 

For many, the reasons are justified. The Government’s incoming Support at Home Program will alter how funding is allocated from July 2024, with money going directly to the client rather than the provider.

It means councils will lose a significant amount of upfront funding for aged care services they’re not as adequately positioned to provide. Most have cited this as a reason for departing the industry and they have instead promoted the services of dedicated providers who are ready to meet all Government requirements.

Although this is a boon for Mr Siano, he said it’s still a challenging time for providers offering home care and aged care services due to demand and limited resources.

“We have pressure from councils leaving the home care sector, we have pressure from clients changing providers – not because those providers are going out of business but because the clients are just unhappy for one reason or another,” he said.

“The demand is just very high.”

He also acknowledged that the incoming 15% increase to aged care workers will hugely benefit the sector, but the uncertainty about how it will be funded and passed on by the Government has added pressure.

“The 15% wage increase for our aged care workers is incredibly welcome and we are very, very happy about it. We’ve pledged to pass that on,” Mr Siano said.

“But if you include the consumer price index (CPI), we’re talking about significant wage increases, potentially close to 20% including CPI.

“Yes, the Government promised to increase funding in accordance with that, but we still don’t know how or when and that could make viability a risk for many providers.

“Some providers are not going to be able to comply with the ever-increasing scrutiny from the Government as well as the increase in wages. 

“I’m feeling confident because we’re very well set up and we have very strong clinical governance, but for smaller providers or people that don’t have that expertise in-house, providing quality care can become a challenge and that can put the industry under even more pressure.”

But as pressure mounts in some areas, there’s good news in others. Mr Siano said there is a growing interest in careers for in-home care support services and roughly 30 new staff are being hired each month. 

He touted the appeal of an organisation that’s physically present in the community as workers also have somewhere to go when they need support.

There will be a caregiver coach based in Clifton Springs providing hands-on training in the office and on the job.

“We wanna provide convenience, we wanna provide more of a localised factor in that particular region with the hope to attract even more people, qualified people, just because the demand is incredible, it’s through the roof,” Mr Siano said.

“What we do is focus on our people. That’s the key message for us. 

“How can I continue to invest in providing a better experience to the workforce so we can continue to attract more people to the industry and they can stay in the industry? 

“There are thousands of workers leaving the industry and retention is critical.”

The City of Greater Geelong has not revealed whether it will or will not continue to provide in-home care services following the conclusion of Home Care Packages (HCP) and Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) services in 2024.