By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Greater Dandenong Council is weighing up the future of its in-home aged care services.
The council is set to assess the impact of major federal reforms, which will combine all home support services into one program from 1 July 2024.
“Many other councils throughout Victoria have already exited the service,” mayor Eden Foster said in a statement.
“We will continue to monitor these developments closely.
“Council is not taking any action to alter our service at this point, so our home care service will not change before June 2024, nor without a council resolution.”
Currently, City of Greater Dandenong is contracted to deliver in-house support to eligible residents over 65 as part of the Commonwealth Home Support Program.
Under the changes, CHSP will be combined with Home Care Packages for residents with more complex needs as part of the one program.
Commonwealth funding will be provided to the client rather than directly to the service provider – similar to the NDIS model.
The reforms will simplify a “complex” and “confusing” aged care system, Cr Foster said.
“Council must now determine what impact the implementation of these reforms will have on our Greater Dandenong community and Council’s provision of Commonwealth-funded aged care services.”
The council will look at the impact of staffing costs, a changing regulatory environment and whether it can create a “sustainable” business model for in-home care.
It will also examine whether other providers would be “interested” in Greater Dandenong due to its high levels of disadvantage and cultural diversity.
In 2022, neighbouring council City of Casey outsourced its in-home services and family day care services in response to the federal aged and disability funding reforms.
Its ten-year forecasts found the costs were unsustainable.
As of June 2022, Casey paid almost $5.3 million in redundancy payouts to 168 aged and disability care staff as part of the transition.
The almost $8 million total bill to transition out of family day care, aged and disability services would be offset by savings within three years, the council stated.
Greater Dandenong is developing an options paper outlining all possible service options post-June 2024.
It will be compiled using “extensive” community and stakeholder consultation, Cr Foster said.
The paper will be presented to the council at the end of August.
