What do providers want? Commission shares workshop insights

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission shared insights from its recent 2024 National Aged Care Provider Conference pre-conference workshops. Commissioner Janet Anderson said the workshops offered an invaluable opportunity to share experiences of delivering aged care.

“The workshops were also a chance for us to share our expectations of what safe, compassionate care looks like. This included understanding what support we can offer as you strive toward this goal,” she explained.

“The discussions that took place at the workshops were insightful, and I thank all participants for sharing their experiences, concerns and ideas. The popularity of the workshops shows there is an appetite for more forums, and we are already anticipating that next year’s program will be bigger and even better.”

Key points

• Nine workshops covered a range of topics, including ‘open disclosure’, ‘turning data into insights’ and ‘shifting the regulatory gaze from services to providers’
• Key themes were identified across the board, such as keeping older people at the centre of care, continuous improvement and strengthening work with the Commission
• Several recommendations also came out of the workshops, with the Commission called on to provide more resources when supporting providers, conduct culturally safe audits and consider how they communicate with providers and the sector

Person-centred care

All nine of the workshops, each one capped at 25 people, touched on key themes spanning the entire sector. One was keeping older people at the centre of care with participants stating that open disclosure is an effective approach to complaints management. 

This fits within the wider acknowledgement of the Empathy, Attention and Respect (EAR) model being best suited when listening to older people affected by adverse events. Open communication, connecting with residents and working together to resolve issues are critical points made by participants.

Culturally safe care was also highlighted, with the Pre-conference workshop report stating, ‘Treating each person as an individual with a unique background and circumstances is crucial to providing care that is sensitive to a person’s cultural needs and life experience”. 

Encouraging yarning/storytelling can help people share insights about their needs rather than asking direct clinical questions. 

Elsewhere, participants said the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) is set up to provide inconsistent impact assessments as the detailed description of an incident does not encourage person-centred care. Bringing in an emotional connection with the resident can overcome the fact SIRS reporting has become a task-oriented chore. 

Upskilling and continuous improvement

Although there was plenty of acknowledgement that open disclosure is essential to providing person-centred care, participants mentioned many staff are hesitant to admit fault when something goes wrong. Therefore, they shy away from the practice because they don’t fully understand its importance. 

Participants called for all staff, including managers and executives, to undergo open disclosure training. Additionally, requests were made for more training to help all staff feel comfortable providing dementia care or when reporting a serious incident.

Continuous improvement was another focal point as participants identified that:

• Collecting data should be purposeful and drive continuous improvement
• More time should be spent on interpreting data and understanding what it means for people receiving care
• Complaints offer an opportunity for learning and feedback from older people to drive improvement activities
• Financial and operational strategies could be better aligned by building a balanced scorecard that links the information, rather than isolates

Working with the Commission

With the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission on deck at each workshop, providers had one of the best opportunities to directly share feedback about how they can work together. 

Among the key themes raised is the need to collectively challenge the punitive perception of complaints and SIRS and reframe them as an opportunity for learning.

Participants also want to see a more provider-centric approach to regulation, which the Commission is working on. The focus is on intervening in the right way, and at the right time, to build trust with the sector. Providers can expect to see more preventative and responsive activities as the Commission shies away from being too reactive. 

As far as recommendations go, providers want more support to promote the use of open disclosure, and to educate older people on financial and governance changes linked to their services. 

“There’s an appetite for a co-designed principles-based guide that helps providers to understand and apply financial disciplines to the management of quality. We will explore this as an opportunity to work with the sector,” the report added. 

Providers are also keen to have a greater insight into what the Commission learns from surveillance activities so they can apply the learnings in their own services.

To read the full breakdown of workshop themes, click here.