Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 1:37:24 to 1:43:22
The committee investigates the number of clients on waitlists and the importance of early intervention through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme.
Topics: Social services, Health
Speakers: Tim Hicks, Hon Anne Ruston, Maria McLaughlin-Rolfe, Marcela Carrasco, Wendy Askew, Penny Allman-Payne, Speaker 12
a final question? Yeah, no, I just just interested in you like you obviously provide both um CHSP and and supported home services. Um and in terms of the cost of administration of the two um programs as they currently sit. I mean, is there a difference in the cost of the provision of a a home care package or supported home as opposed to a CHSP CHSP service?
Well, if there wasn't under home care packages, there definitely is under supported home. The administrative requirements of supported home, the level of reporting that's involved is just astronomical. The level of detail we need to report on each individual service is crazy. And whilst it's useful for everyone to have more information, I don't think they need that much information nor do I think they're necessarily getting the best quality information because they're asking for more than people can reasonably provide.
Thanks. Um And I mean, the only other one is Do you have a lot of people that are currently receiving CHSP that are on that have been approved for a home care package or a supported home package, but haven't received it as yet?
Yes. About 18% of our clients are waiting. >> 18. 18% of your 23,000 of are on waiting for a supported home package. They've been assessed and waiting. Okay. We also have about 4% that are in receipt of a package, but also get CHSP. Yeah, across
Because uh like so they so for instance, somebody who's getting a 60% package who
may >> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh but also the cottage respite component, that's not part of supported home either. Mhm.
Uh-huh. So, across our network, we surveyed providers and yeah, varies anywhere between 5 and 10% of their CHSP clients are in fact also on the waitlist for supported at And so, um that means that CHSP is often having to step up and deliver a higher level of service um because they that's what they really need. But yes, anywhere between 5 and
10%. So, it's captured anywhere in statistics? Um >> where they are stepping up and CHSP providers are providing higher packages than actually they're allocated for?
Do you mean like the numbers of people that are waiting?
>> so where obviously if somebody is has a greater need than what they provide the the packages that have been approved is in the um the higher level, but CHSP is having to cover it. Is that actually captured anywhere in your statistics? Um well,
we've been capturing it ourselves internally um and but I don't know if it's captured anywhere else.
>> be being fed into to My Aged Care or
published how many people have a CHSP approval as part of the Home Care Package Data Report and that's the vast majority of people on the waitlist. Um but in terms of the volume of services that are being being delivered to those people, I'm not aware that that's centralized anywhere other than with each individual
provider. So, there could be a massive gap that just suddenly appears if if this was to transition straight in. Mhm.
Can I just ask, what is the average time that somebody accesses CHSP as a in your experience?
Well, we can actually respond within a few days.
>> no. How long are they on CHSP?
Oh, maybe years and years. They can
actually be very short term. So, they can be one intervention activities like eight on average. Um on average probably haven't got the exact average.
Oh, no, no, no. I wasn't asking for the exact, but I mean yeah, is is it is it something that people often are on for a reasonable length of time?
>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
And and I suppose sorry.
But those periods are extending with the waitlist for support at home services as well.
So, there's some data that suggests that people are often on CHSP for 15 years. You know, they they they can be quite people can need a bit of support with like sort of cleaning and and gardening and and just kind of stay at that level for a very, very long time. So, it's often very long. Equally, there's episodic supports like nursing which might only last for a month.
Yeah. And the luxury of CHSP is if you can get in early and maintain them at those low level, often that delays their actual need for any more complex services in the
Yeah, 100%.
There was a comment earlier that sometimes they transition straight from CHSP into palliative care which was an interesting that they don't need to go to the higher levels which would reflect what you've just made the comment you've
just made. And 30 to 40% of the clients that come into CHSP for us actually coming from GPs and hospitals. So, without that potentially you've got challenge with the hospital system.
That's right. Big blocks.
Thank you. I was just commenting on the cost of compliance. Um I think that it's been covered in the administrative um burden, but I think it's important to note that the the compliance requirements on the Support at Home in additional in addition to the data that's required have been quite extensive. The benefit for organization like Hammond Care is that that um enables CHSP to have the same level of governance. So, this is to the question earlier, what's the impact for smaller organizations? That burden is going to just increase over time and I think it's something that needs to be flagged as we think about the transition as well.
Thank you very much. We might leave it there. We're just on time. So, thanks everyone for getting us back on track. I think that was largely due to your short opening statements. So, thank you for that. Really appreciate your efforts today. Appreciate your submissions and your ongoing engagement with this committee. The committee will report to the Senate on Wednesday the 15th of April 2026. We agreed that responses to questions on notice should be provided by close of business on 20 February 2026, but I don't think we took any questions on notice in this panel. So, thanks very much.