Session 3: Short term stability
Prioritisation of key themes from provider challenges
Providers were asked to prioritise which of the key challenges identified in Session 1 (Provider challenges) were most important to address to provide short term stability.
Aged Residential Care providers did not complete this exercise due to time constraints.
From this discussion, each provider group prioritised the following key themes:
Group 1 (Medium providers)
Most people in Group 1 identified support expectations as the key challenge.
“Providing whole of life, responsive care does not align with the services specification. Funding needs to be able to be flexed and reevaluated to care for disabled people when their needs change.”
Group 2 (Large providers)
Most people identified support expectations and cost drivers as the key challenges.
“Conflicting expectations across multiple groups about what is needed does not always work with the group home pricing model, and those expectations may also not be consistent with what providers can [afford] to support.”
“Costs have risen over the last few years due to a combination of increased support expectations, more complex support needs, unclear service and funding expectations, and increasing workforce (leave), housing, health and safety and general compliance requirements.”
Group 3 (Small providers):
Most people identified cost drivers as the key challenge.
“Residential care costs have increased faster than funding, driven by a combination of factors including rising rental costs, increased staffing costs (including pay equity), increased operating and compliance costs, and the increased complexity of client need. These cost pressures are further compounded by a funding model that is occupancy based and may not completely account directly for fixed costs / vacancies.”
Across all four engagement sessions it was apparent that regional consistency and funding relationships were seen to be of lower importance to address to achieve short term stability and as a result should be a later focus for DSS.
Based on the aggregate number of votes across all four engagement sessions, the five key provider challenges have been prioritised from most to least important in achieving short term stability as follows:
- Support expectations
- Cost drivers
- Funding consistency
- Funding relationship
- Regional consistency