Ready or not? How leaders are embracing change ahead of 1 July

As the sector prepares for the implementation of the new Aged Care Act on 1 July, providers across the country are ramping up efforts to ensure they’re ready for operational transformation.

But just how much is expected to change? And how well prepared can you be when information is missing and key processes remain unclear?

The Act will change quite a lot in the sector, directly or indirectly. 

At the very top of the list of changes is how providers comply with a rights-based Act. Hot on its heels is culture change.

Michelle Church is the Chief Executive of South Australia’s St Basil’s Homes. She said a cultural change within aged care is not only what the sector wants, but it is a real opportunity for it to go beyond compliance.

“If we’re just focused on compliance, we really shouldn’t be in the room. But the culture shift is not going to happen overnight. The next six to 12 months is where that culture shift will really start to change,” Ms Church shared at last week’s Ageing Australia SA State Conference.

ACH Group Chief Executive Office (CEO) Linda Feldt backed Ms Church’s perspective as she highlighted the importance of deeply understanding and knowing customers.

“Understanding that every single person who we’re providing support to has a story. They have had an interesting life, they have things they love doing and they should be able to continue to do those things as they get older,” she said.

“This Act says that’s in legislation now, it’s not just a mindset that we’re trying to intrinsically make part of our culture. It is legislated and that is very powerful for people to have that clearly articulated.”

A sector already in motion

While there is plenty of talk around 1 July and the incoming changes, the sector is already in motion. Many of those changes have already been implemented, and there are many elements of the new Act and associated reform instruments that are already in place.

“This is not our first rodeo in terms of change. If you’ve been working in this sector for a while, and I’ve been in this sector for ten years, you would have seen an extensive amount of change. You have delivered those changes already,” Ms Feldt added.

Ms Feldt said ACH Group has been diligently led by its legal and quality teams to ensure it is ready for the new legislation, guided by a gap analysis that has helped develop new policies and procedures that it can share with staff and older people receiving care. 

Support at Home, in particular, is a fundamental business transformation, and Ms Feldt said this is where identifying key areas of change, assessing progress and identifying actions and continuous improvement will put providers in good stead. Outside of that, there is already a lot to feel confident about. 

“We will all be delivering care on the 1st of July like we delivered care on the 30th of June. The change in the Act is not going to change what you’re currently doing. For quite a lot of you, the customer is the centre of the universe in your residential care homes. You’re all doing amazing things already,” she said.

Challenges in governance and resourcing

Change won’t be easy for every provider. Smaller organisations with fewer resources are among those facing the greatest challenges. 

Michael Filsell, CEO at Boneham Aged Care Services in regional Millicent, faced early difficulties when the new Act was announced. His board, which is made up of voluntary members, were concerned about the penalties outlined in the Act for responsible persons like themselves if something went wrong.

Mr Filsell had to ensure that they understood their statutory duties, while implementing processes and systems that would maintain ‘business as usual’. Striking a balance between what the board needs to know, and doesn’t, was also useful.

He added that support from their compliance software provider meant they could update their policy suite and offer guidance on tailored procedures based on it. 

“Person-centred care is not something that we’ve all been lumped with in the last couple of months, we’ve been doing it for many years. When the new Standards come out, I’m looking at the new Act as a real opportunity for this industry,” he said. 

Backed by a stable team of executives — no one has left in the last five years — and external legal support, Mr Filsell’s team has conducted a gap analysis for the Standards and are introducing options for continuous improvement. It has also assessed the Act from a top-down perspective to ensure it aligns with new legislation. Cultural change has been ongoing for almost a decade, too.

The hardest part has been adapting to change without having all the details finalised, meaning residential service agreements are still being adjusted in case of any last-minute updates to the Rules. This is all hard work for a provider with relatively limited means.

“We go cap in hand to the government for grant funding for any further refurbishment or expansion. That’s how we exist and how we survive,” he added.

“I’m an advocate for the regions. I think we can ill afford to lose them. We can’t relocate people hundreds of kilometres to not remain in the communities.”

At St Basil’s Homes, Ms Church has also spearheaded the modernisation of its policies and procedures in a major overhaul. She supplemented support with a policy officer on a short-term contract alongside her regular team. 

The next step is embedding the changes in the organisation, plus staff training.

“Most of us have been working towards a better form of care for a long period of time. The Statement of Rights, don’t be scared of it, we’re already doing it. We just need to formalise it,” she said.

Rome wasn’t built in a day

So how exactly are industry leaders feeling about 1 July and their readiness for incoming changes?

Ms Feldt expressed greater confidence about residential care than home care, stating that ‘Support at Home is a challenge if you’re building the plane while flying it’. She knows there will be no service disruption to clients despite hurdles and uncertainties. 

“We have heavily invested in an end-to-end digital solution that will help us with Support at Home, but it’s not helpful when you don’t know in entirety what it is that you’re building. We’ve invested in that and we’re backing ourselves that we’ve got it right,” she said. 

As for the reforms in their entirety, Ms Feldt said ACH Group is ‘getting granular now’ in terms of preparation, although she doubts everything will be ready by 30 June. 

“We might have all of our policies and procedures in place, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and culture takes time to change,” Ms Feldt added. 

Confidence levels are varied for Ms Church, who knows that preparation for key elements such as legislative obligations are on track, but embedding other changes will take time. 

“We can’t expect that everything is going to happen on 1 July. That’s probably our next horizon of six to 12 months, really operationalising the changes the Act is trying to enforce,” she said.

Mr Filsell said Boneham’s small scale is positive in some ways as it can adapt relatively quickly to any last-minute changes. However, like Ms Church, it will still be a six to 12 month process to achieve reform certainty. 

“Reading 600 pages of legislation and actually making operational changes is often very difficult. I’m going to make mistakes. But we’ll listen to what others are doing, and what’s happening in the industry, and find an equilibrium.”