12/01/2023
Happy New Year one and all.
And welcome 2023!
I really hope and pray you’re enjoying an active and safe holiday period and looking forward to the year ahead!
On behalf of our entire Care Consultancy team, I want to say an enormous thank you to all of our staff, clients, and stakeholders far and wide, for what was an incredible year in 2022.
As I look back, I’m amazed at the hard work and dedication of our people, the commitment of our clients, and just so grateful for all that you do to make our community a better place.
2022 saw us grow again significantly in complexity and sophistication.
It was a historic year in which we registered both of our principal clients, Care Forward and Care Assess, as charities.
New boards and massive increases to finance, administration and compliance requirements are just the beginning.
We embarked upon a major business transformation project for Care Forward using the services of Blue Bike.
We opened a fourth office in Burnie for Care Forward, which was the largest provider of Home Care Packages in Tasmania for the second year in a row.
At the same time, we managed significant changes for Care Assess, not least a major tender outcome and subsequent adjustment to our AN-ACC assessment services.
All the while, Care Assess continued its record of outstanding achievement in its RAS and VHC assessment services, in the midst of incredible business and staff shortages.
Mentioning these highlights doesn’t even scratch the surface though of the underlying achievements that underpins everything we do.
The real reason to celebrate is the difference we’ve made in the lives of the hundreds of staff and clients across Tasmania.
Seeing that impact can only really be understood by listening to the stories of the thousands of people we work with across our beautiful community.
And as we look forward to continuing to serve you in 2023 and beyond, can I also say how excited I am to be moving forward as a care consultant now managing two not-for-profit organisations.
What is not changing however is our mission of enabling these service providers, our clients, to operate as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
And they have engaged us for this very purpose, because they want Care Consultancy to not just manage their organisations but to enable them to achieve the highest performance and the best outcomes for their consumers.
Our principal clients have entrusted this monumental responsibility to us, and Care Consultancy is dedicated to delivering on our contractual promise to them.
And for their sake, not just our own, we need to!
Both Care Forward and Care Assess, need to step into a new future state of operating more efficiently as well as effectively.
That’s because the new Support at Home Program, which next year will be replacing all current in-home aged care programs, is about more than just reducing complexity, and increasing access; it’s also about improving value for money for government and consumers.
In consolidating assessment services and in-home care programs, this is an opportunity for government to ensure aged care expenditure over time is as predictable and fiscally sustainable as possible.
Yes this is also about improving assessment to better align services to people’s needs, and yes it’s also about increasing timeliness, choice, control, quality, safety, and support for independence.
However, one of the biggest challenges for us as we manage both of our clients, and prepare them for the new in-home aged care program, and plan how best we can get them transition ready for 1 July 2024, is ensuring they are sustainable in the competitive marketplace.
That is one of the greatest focus areas for Care Consultancy at the moment: how do we enable Care Forward and Care Assess to transition into a new set of funding arrangements based on activity-payments at set prices, so that they are sustainably delivering value for money.
Delivering value for money in this new environment is all about delivering a service for a set price, and then competing to do it with the best quality and timeliness we can achieve within that.
All of this is not just possible, it’s achievable, together, and we’re committed to it, in order to see our clients enabling more and more people to live well at home across Tasmania.
Please partner with us again in 2023 as we re-commit to another year of working with you, for your benefit, not just our own.
So, thank you, once again.
My heartfelt appreciation to one and all for your commitment to us, just as we re-commit to another year of dedication to you.
I can’t wait to care consult in 2023, with you, for you.
Let’s make the most of it.
Cheers.
