The Aged Care Amendment (Ratio of Skilled Staff to Care Recipients) Bill 2017 is seeking “to enhance the level of care provided by aged care facilities nation-wide” according to Senator Derryn Hinch’s Second Reading Speech.
The Bill proposes that a minimum adequate and safe ratio of appropriately skilled staff to care recipients be mandated in the Quality of Care principles, based on the number of residents receiving care and the level of care provided by the facility.
The Act currently does not prescribe a minimum staffing standard for Commonwealth-funded aged care residential facilities and does not specify what constitutes “appropriately skilled and qualified staff” for the purpose of providing care. Providers currently have an obligation to have sufficient appropriately skilled and qualified staff, but can be flexible with the overall number of skilled staff to allow for differing needs of residents and for other characteristics of a facility, such as the location.
The Bill seeks to address the current skills mix in residential care facilities, with the majority of aged care staff in Australia being personal care attendants or community care work with a declining share of registered nurses.
However, it is uncertain whether the Bill will be passed in the House, with both the government and the Australian Greens indicating that they will not be supporting the Bill. The Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt has raised concerns that the Bill fails to identify how the ratio will be calculated or to address the additional costs that mandatory ratios would impose on aged care providers and consumers.
The Bill comes as a response to the coverage of flu casualties in New South Wales and Queensland and National Aged Care Staff and Skills Mix Report 2016, in which only 8.2 percent of respondents indicated that staffing levels in residential facilities were always adequate.
To read the Bill, click here.
To read the Second Reading speech, click here.
