industry & reform
‘ Lost our focus ’
Increased regulation distracting sector , expert says
By Elise Hartevelt
Increased regulation in aged care over the past two years has led to providers and staff losing autonomy in their roles , an employment relations professor has said .
In July last year , aged care minister Anika Wells announced the sector ’ s reforms , including a new Code of Conduct for staff and providers .
Wells received national criticism earlier this month after ‘ secretly ’ changing home care package manual rules .
Yet , employment relations senior lecturer Dr Matthew Xerri from Griffith University said that constantly increasing the number of rules is taking away the ability of organisations and workers to provide quality care .
“ As much as it tries to maintain a quality level , our current regulatory framework
14 agedcareinsite . com . au actually puts pressure on the industry ,” Xerri explained .
“ It ’ s reducing the sector ’ s autonomy – everyone is basically reading off scripts . “ We seem to have lost our focus .” Aged Care Insite spoke with Xerri about how we could raise the quality in aged care through leaner regulatory models rather than further restrictions and policies .
ACI : Can you explain why more rules could lead to decreased care delivery in aged care ? MX : Aged care services are very limited in what they can do because of the regulatory framework . On one side , we ’ re hearing horror stories and reports that the quality of care in aged care is poor . And on the other side , you ’ ve got a regulatory framework designed to maintain that quality of care .
Every time we see a report from the Royal Commission , the results are similar – that aged care is underfunded and lacks transparency and accountability . The government also responds to this in the same way . It says , ‘ okay , let ’ s increase the regulation .’
But that ’ s the problem here . Some regulation is necessary , but by constantly increasing the burden and the amount , it ’ s taking away the ability of organisations and workers to provide quality care .
It seems that we ’ ve lost our way and focus .
The focus is no longer on delivering care but on maintaining profit level , and for not-for-profit organisations , it ’ s minimising costs .
All of this extra red tape and paperwork they have to follow and do leads to reduced autonomy , confusion around policies and more time spent on correcting mistakes and trying to understand new guidelines .
As much as it tries to maintain a quality level , our current regulatory framework actually puts pressure