Home and Community Care (HACC) in transition in Victoria
Background Management of the Home and Community Care program will be split from 1 July 2016. Services for older Victorians (people aged 65 and over and aged 50 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) will be directly funded and managed through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) by the Commonwealth Department of Health (DoH). Services for younger Victorians (people aged under 65 and under 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) will continue to be funded and managed by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Some HACC clients aged less than 65 will transfer to the National Disability Insurance Scheme as it rolls out in Victoria. The Commonwealth and Victorian Governments have committed to a three-year period of stability for funds allocated to services for older people under the CHSP, and have agreed to retain the benefits of the current Victorian HACC system as follows: DHHS will continue to manage the assessment function until 30 June 2019 and will integrate these services into the My Aged Care system; Victoria and the Commonwealth will develop a Service Development and Change Management Framework that will ensure that service development, planning and change management continue to be coordinated and supported; The significant role of local government in Victoria as service planners and developers, funders and service providers for older people will be recognised through a trilateral Statement of Intent with local government represented by the Municipal Association of Victoria and the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments; and A connected approach to service delivery will continue. DoH and DHHS are working together to minimise the impact of transition on service providers and the 300,000 clients, carers and families who rely on these services. Status quo until 1 July It is important to remember that business-as-usual arrangements continue until 1 July 2016. The Victorian Government remains responsible for administering the HACC program and current DHHS service agreements. This means that you must continue to ensure that access to your services is based on need and not on age. Home and Community Care in transition – April 2016 2 What has happened so far? In November and December 2015, DoH and DHHS conducted regional forums with all HACC service providers in Victoria. These forums provided an overview of the following: National Aged Care Reform and the introduction of the Commonwealth Home Support Programme; Challenges and opportunities in response to the aged care and disability services reforms; The September 2015 Bilateral Agreement between the Commonwealth and Victoria and its implications for tasks and timeframes; and The My Aged Care system. Following these consultations, all 422 HACC providers and specialist episodic disability providers received written advice: detailing the methodology of splitting the HACC program; indicating the proposed split of their funding as agreed between DoH and DHHS for services to older people and younger people (Workbook A); and mapping the Victorian HACC service types to the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (Workbook B and/or Workbook B part 2). All organisations were asked to review the indicative funding split in the workbooks and either indicate their agreement with the indicative split or propose a different split of funding and/or its mapping to the CHSP. Next Steps All workbooks have now been reviewed by both DoH and DHHS. All organisations will soon be provided with advice regarding the outcome of this process. The split of HACC funding will inform the development of grant agreements with the Commonwealth and variations to your Victorian DHHS service agreement. It is anticipated that DoH will begin distributing CHSP grant agreements from May 2016 to take effect from 1 July 2016. DHHS will begin the process of varying your current DHHS service agreement to take effect from 1 July 2016. This means that if you only provide HACC services to older people, all of your HACC funding will be removed from your DHHS service agreement, and you will be offered a new service agreement from the Commonwealth DoH to continue to deliver these services under the CHSP. If you provide HACC services to both older and younger people: The proportion of HACC funding for younger people will remain in your DHHS service agreement. This amount of funding will begin to reduce in step with the transition of any of your younger clients to the NDIS. In the north-east Melbourne area, the transition of younger HACC clients to the NDIS will begin from 1 July 2016. Across Victoria, the transition to the NDIS will finish on 30 June 2019. The proportion of HACC funding for older people will be removed from your DHHS service agreement from 1 July 2016, and you will be offered a new grant agreement by the Commonwealth DoH to continue to deliver these services under the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. The next series of consultations is planned for May 2016. These will provide an update on the process of issuing CHSP grant agreements, and other matters. Details will be announced shortly. Home and Community Care in transition – April 2016 3 Work in progress The two governments are continuing to deal with a range of matters relevant to the transition, including fees policies, quality frameworks and reporting requirements. As noted, from 1 July 2016 services for younger Victorians will continue to be funded and managed by DHHS. Some HACC services and clients will progressively transfer to the NDIS as it rolls out in Victoria. We know that not all people aged 0-64 currently in receipt of HACC services will be eligible for the NDIS. A framework for home and community support services is therefore being developed to support their care needs during the phased implementation of the NDIS in Victoria. Quality forums in April In April 2016 a quality improvement strategy is being rolled out across Victoria, comprising up to sixteen half-day workshops and the release of a Quality Improvement Resource Kit. The purpose is to: Maintain the momentum for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and innovation during the transition to the Commonwealth (including continuing to focus on the Active Service Model [ASM], care planning, service coordination, diversity planning, consumer centred practice and workforce development); Highlight the links between the Victorian HACC sector’s CQI initiatives and the national Home Care Standards; Support CQI at a regional level, based on issues identified for improvement through the CCCS review and other stakeholder consultations; Showcase Victorian initiatives and highlight innovative practice for the benefit of the sector
and the Commonwealth government; Provide updated information about transition in relation to quality requirements, linking with the Aged Care Quality Accreditation Agency (ACQAA), sector and industry experts in quality performance. The workshops are open to all HACC funded agencies. Invitations will be forwarded soon via regional DHHS offices to managers, coordinators, team leaders and those responsible for quality improvement. Each organisation will be able to register 2 participants. Workshops will include a mix of presentations and facilitated discussion. Transition to My Aged Care for HACC service providers – 1 July 2016 We are aiming to have all HACC Assessment Services and all HACC providers fully utilising the My Aged Care system by 1 July 2016. See the My Aged Care HACC provider bulletin, March 2016. Once transition has occurred, people seeking access to aged care services for the first time, or people whose needs have changed, will need to contact the My Aged Care contact centre on 1800 200 422 to discuss their aged care needs and to have a client record created. DoH and DHHS are working hard to finalise these arrangements. You will receive more specific information, instructions and timeframes as these become available. Additional information, including quick reference guides, videos and webinars for My Aged Care providers and assessors, can be found at: https://www.dss.gov.au/myagedcare.