Hello Leaders - Edition 6 by Care & Co Media (formally DPS Publishing)

“The new standards makes food a boardroom responsibility, not just a kitchen one”

Sam Bridgewater Co-founder The Pure Food Co.

Foxtel’s intuitive Business iQ

Lauren Todorovic Group CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Hello Leaders

Welcome to the Spring Edition, our sixth issue of Hello Leaders. This season’s stories remind us that real reform in aged care is not defined by speed or headlines, but by persistence, clarity, and the courage to keep moving forward when progress feels slow.

Across these pages, you’ll hear from leaders who embody that long view. Ian Yates AM warns against the false comfort of “stop-start funding” that erodes trust for families and providers alike. Russell Bricknell challenges us to see the bigger cost of inaction when children leave the workforce to care for ageing parents. Sam Bridgewater shows how dignity can be restored at the dining table, while Chris Mamarelis grounds leadership in presence and work ethic on the floor of Whiddon homes.

What ties them together is a refusal to settle. As Yates says, “failures will happen,” but the greater danger lies in mistaking activity for change. Rockpool’s Melissa Argent proves financial discipline and compassion belong together. Dr Cecilia Chan demonstrates that joy and connection can still flourish for people living with dementia. And Cameron McPherson reminds every CEO to “get out of the ivory tower” and back to the heart of the work.

Print matters because it slows us down. It allows these voicessometimes blunt, always constructive - to linger long enough to change how we think and act. Use this edition as a companion in your own work: mark it up, pass it on, let it provoke a harder question or a braver decision.

Change is here. What the sector needs now is not more noise, but leaders willing to lead.

Hon.

Janine

“We don’t tell ‘Sorry, we ran year.’ Medicare work that way

Aged care be on-demand in the same

tell pensioners, ran out this Medicare doesn’t way either. care should on-demand same way.”

From survival to satisfaction

CEO Sam Bridgewater’s mission to redefine mealtimes

By Jakob Neeland, Journalist, Hello Leaders

As Australia’s aged care sector prepares for the introduction of new Quality Standards, Sam Bridgewater and The Pure Food Co are working with providers to ensure mealtimes deliver not only nutrition but also safety, dignity and compliance. It’s a mission born out of personal experience and fuelled by innovation.

From a family challenge to a sector-wide mission

When Sam Bridgewater was 27, he was working in the fast-paced, high flying world of international banking in Sydney. The young, bright-eyed Kiwi had jumped the ditch in search of opportunity and was living his career dream a stone’s throw from Circular Quay.

Then his stepfather, Mark, was diagnosed with cancer and the course of Sam’s life was changed forever.

“He was going through a cancer journey and it was pretty tough to watch. He was struggling. Struggling to eat and struggling to survive through a time when he needed every little bit of help. He wanted good food, and he needed good nutrition, and he wasn’t getting either.”

Watching Mark weaken, not just from his illness but from malnutrition, lit an entrepreneurial fire in Sam’s belly and set him on an ambitious new path.

He quit his job at the bank, teamed up with his friend Maia Royal, and founded The Pure Food Co in 2013. Their goal was to make nutritious food more accessible and enjoyable for seniors with swallowing and other health challenges.

“I didn’t go looking for a problem to solve. I was a 27 year old living the dream in Sydney and a problem that desperately needed solving found me.”

Twelve years later The Pure Food Co’s texture modified food system completely dominates the New Zealand market, is in more than 500 aged care facilities across Australia, and has recently expanded into Europe.

“And with the global demographic trends and sector reforms we’re seeing, especially in Australia, the bulk of the growth opportunity is still very much in front of us.”

Contributor:

Sam Bridgewater, CEO, Pure Foods Co

The texture-modified food challenge

Raising the standard of care

The problem The Pure Food Co is tackling is huge, and only getting bigger. Almost a third of people living in residential aged care require a texture-modified diet of some kind.

That means their food must meet IDDSI (International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative) guidelines, which define the textures and consistencies needed to keep meals safe. But producing IDDSI-compliant meals consistently in-house is a significant challenge for aged care kitchens.

“With the new standards approaching, we’re seeing a big spike in the number of operators reaching out to us for advice and support on how to do texture-modified meals really well,” Sam says.

“They’re realising that trying to do it themselves not only makes it practically impossible to achieve the quality and consistency required to be compliant with the new standards, but it’s also the least cost-effective approach.

“It’s not about taking something away from their kitchen teams, it’s about giving them back time, reducing risk, and ensuring residents receive safe, nutritious, dignified meals, all day, every day.”

Sam says all the data captured by operators show The Pure Food Co’s system reduces falls, supports wound care, cuts unplanned weight loss, and reduces waste.

“They’re seeing more empty plates being sent back to the kitchen because when you put a beautifully-presented, delicious, aroma-filled meal in front of someone they’re far more likely to actually eat it.”

The Pure Food Co’s system provides frozen, portioned, nutritionally-rich meals that can be plated quickly and safely, while still looking, smelling and tasting like their original forms.

They’re enriched with more of the protein and nutrients a person needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle as they age.

Instead of the unappetising “slop” that too often characterises texture modified food, residents can receive a plate of chicken, peas and carrots that look as they should, but are modified for safety and ease of swallowing.

“Food in aged care is about so much more than nutrition. It’s about dignity,” Sam says. “If we wouldn’t serve something to our own family, we shouldn’t serve it to residents.”

The system also addresses the “protein gap” – the fact that older adults need almost double the protein intake of younger adults to maintain muscle mass, yet most are only consuming around 60% of what they need. Poor protein intake is directly linked to falls, pressure injuries, slower recovery from illness and reduced independence.

“We’ve worked with dietitians, speech pathologists and chefs to make sure our meals are not just safe and tasty, but also genuinely close the protein gap,” Sam says. “That’s where we see the biggest impact, residents who are stronger, healthier and more engaged.”

Food in aged care is about so much more than nutrition. It’s about dignity. If we wouldn’t serve something to our own family, we shouldn’t serve it to residents.

Preparing for the new Quality Standards

From 1 November 2025, the new Aged Care Quality Standards will bring food and nutrition under much closer scrutiny. Providers will need to demonstrate not only that meals are nutritious, but that they are safe, consistent, and dignified.

“The new standards mean food will no longer be seen as just an operational issue, it’s a governance issue,” Sam explains.

“Boards and CEOs are being asked to show evidence that nutrition and mealtime experiences are being managed to the highest standard. That means moving past shortcuts and inconsistent practices.”

The Pure Food Co supports providers by reducing compliance risks. Meals are designed to meet IDDSI standards, protein and micronutrient requirements are built in, and data reporting helps facilities demonstrate outcomes to regulators, residents and families.

Partnering with providers

Earlier this year, The Pure Food Co announced a partnership with Regis Aged Care, one of Australia’s largest operators. For Sam, partnerships like these are about more than scale, they’re about creating a shared commitment to better outcomes.

“We’re in the midst of a sector-wide rethink of how we approach mealtimes in aged care, and it demands that we see every single resident in three dimensions,” Sam says.

“We believe that dignity is all about choice, so we want every older Aussie to have the option of delicious, nutritious meals no matter where they are on their ageing journey.

“When we sit down with leadership teams, the conversation isn’t about replacing their kitchens, it’s about giving their staff the tools to succeed. It’s about creating consistency, reducing waste, and lifting the whole dining experience.”

At a recent visit to a Regis Aged Care home in Queensland Sam met Dawn, a resident who had recently started eating The Pure Food Co’s meals.

“She just turned to us and said ‘This food has changed my life’ and that’s always just so wonderful to hear.

“For people with swallowing challenges mealtimes can be really anxietyinducing, so the fact we were able to reconnect her with the joy of eating beautiful food was just so gratifying and made me feel quite emotional to be honest.”

The next course

The Pure Food Co is continuing to grow, having recently expanded into France and setting its sights on further European markets. But Sam’s focus remains close to home.

“Australia is at the forefront of aged care reform, and that makes it one of the most important places in the world for us to be working,” he says.

What drives him is not awards or headlines, but the experience of his stepfather’s darkest moments and the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of older people face the same struggles with food every day.

“She just turned to us and said ‘This food has changed my life’ and that’s always just so wonderful to hear”

“We want ageing nutrition to be part of the mainstream health and wellness conversation because we know that empowering people with awareness and knowledge is the best way to drive change and ensure the safety and happiness of seniors.”

For providers, the lesson is clear: getting food right is about more than compliance. It is about residents’ dignity, health, and leadership. And with the new standards fast approaching, the time to act is now.

Brilliance, spunk and heart

Aged care leadership teams need business, clinical and empathetic clout

The leadership team at Rockpool have finalised the acquisition of their four flagship sites to Regis. Core to the standard of excellence that drew in the keen interest from the listed national buyer, Melissa Argent, CEO, shares the substance of the stepping stones of her career, and the non-negotiable elements of Rockpool’s leadership. In an industry rocked by continuous upheaval, key strategies of leadership to not merely survive but thrive with sustained stellar performance is way past due. Aged care leadership must pivot to meet rights-based care, but equally as critical, entrench a sector bolstered by financial sustainability. Both goals are essential to Australia’s future.

Amy Henderson, Journalist, Hello Leaders

Contributor: Melissa Argent, CEO, Rockpool

Melissa Argent, CEO, Rockpool

“You can be a strong leader and be kind. I will never veer from that.”

Quality Leadership is a basic requirement

An irksome reality for the industry; The performance of the worst, impacts the environment of all. Core to a resilient and robust aged care sector is the quality of its leaders overall. With providers still collapsing, all must ask hard questions and hear equally hard answers. Everchangeable regulatory environments, concurrent crises, impossible decisions, transitions and obstacles are leadership’s reality. Excellence in aged care leadership has never been more needed and required. As thousands of boomers age into residential aged care (RAC) and the reform Act requiring substantial resources, a financially and pragmatically resilient sector is no longer a wish-list item but a basic tenet of facing the future.

‘This

could be better’

Melissa Argent started as a nurse in senior care. Instinctively she assessed improvement was needed in her workplace, “there had to be more efficient ways to manage processes and secure improved outcomes”. While she loved clinical care, she knew the business of care needed to be understood as a key component for prolonged success. She had a “significant drive for more.” Pursuing a health management degree, she organically ascended into leadership roles; patients and numbers was her sweet spot. And yet burning questions of, “how to do this better?” remained. Big macro issues and elevating teammembers to perform lead into more study, studying finance saw Argent take her first stepping stone twist, from senior healthcare to banking.

Moving the goal-post to stellar performance

Argent knew the status quo wasn’t cutting it, bigger questions had to be asked and answered. To garner a comprehensive skill-set, resolve issues and to build something to be proud of required the aged care perspective but also other sector frameworks. From her time in finance, she saw that establishing a proud expectation is vital; Aged care should not be seen as the industry to ‘cruise in’ but a beacon of excellence.

The finance sector brought Argent together with her current business partners Bill Summers and Michael Watson. Rockpool had its napkin moment, with their vision, and Argent’s healthcare background, it was off to the races. It was as a mixed skill-set coalition they stepped in, joining together to create what became Rockpool, and what inspired the nationally listed Regis to seek acquisition.

The excellence required to bring a buyer to the door is a telling factor of quality, functioning and reputation of Rockpool as a provider. As a marker and standard of performance, being approached for acquisition may well be a standard of excellence that providers should aspire to.

Fire in your gut: profoundly committed through uncertainty

Building Rockpool from the ground up took an entire leadership team that was profoundly committed. They loved what they did. Argent is adamant, she has “the best team around me... that’s how you dream big and keep pushing the limits of what aged care can be.” Settling is not an option, from Argent’s experience, core to leadership in aged care is the depth of loving the work, the commitment to the journey and sincerity of conviction is vital.

Argent advocates for upcoming leaders to listen to that fire in their gut. She had it, she knew she needed to make her own path to answer the questions of improvement, efficiency and curiosity about the business-side of care that she wasn’t getting through the traditional routes. She explains, “The traditional model of university wouldn’t set you up for my route, it was an enormous leap from nurse to banker. From a stable role to the completely unknown. I couldn’t have predicted healthcare to Westpac.” Argent doubles down on being committed to better, even if that means deviating from ‘the safe’, ““while you can be petrified you have to go for it”. Argent knew she needed to break out of the mould, and surround herself by people who would do the same, “while nursing is incredible, through the traditional university model, the study of nursing and initial work alone does not fully instill the leadership skills the aged care sector needs.”

Bridging gaps

There is a gap in current university training, Argent sees, particularly for front-line staff. While kindness, caring, compassion and the scientific skills are solid, she advocates that the teaching of leadership in roles is a huge gap at present. To take leadership of a team, role oversight, conflict management, and macro-management of a care unit, these are critical components that should be developed in front-line staff and executive staff alike.

Argent highlights that “business acumen is critical.” She has challenged universities on their curriculum, that while the clinical knowledge is substantial, “where is the business unit? Where is the accounting? Where is the sustainable business principles unit?”

“Dream big and keep pushing the limits of what aged care can be.”

Know the numbers: Profit is not a ‘bad’ word

Aged care can thrive, Argent believes, if the attitude of profit is shameful flipped. The industry must be, “teaching people the cost and return on investment.”

“This is not a conversation about ripping people off or providing people poor care, this is sounding the alarm on how much of aged care is being run inefficiently… how the sector is delivering aged care is becoming completely unsustainable. How do we all contribute to making that better?”

At Rockpool the acquisition was managed in-house, while a lot of work no surprises were in store as the whole leadership team knew the intricacies of the finances. She believes financial principles are integral to any provider’s leadership. In order to provide quality RAC to all, there must be balance, and keen awareness, that it costs to provide care. Further than that survival finances, Argent advocates that, “as a sector we desperately need investment.”

“There’s no other industry that thinks that profit is bad.” Rather, “It’s being profitable to keep building and investing and pivoting to meet the needs of the future.”

Profits are an integral resource to building up the sector. “People must be paid appropriately, attracting people to run organisations requires investment, this requires businesses to make a profit.” She asserts it’s not a zerosum game, “Understanding financial principles and balancing that with care and compliance is critical.” Aged care leadership must look to facilitating an environment where a skilled workforce is developed, with clinical qualifications and leadership strength. Enticing pay scales is a reality of that. With an elevated workforce partnered with care, and compliance not compromised, care excellence results.

Rockpool Northshore Hamilton

Brilliance and kindness: Cultivating respect means respectful challenge

“You can be an exceptional leader and be kind. Early in my leadership career I was told, ‘you won’t do well because you don’t have mongrel in you’, to that I said no thanks, you can be a strong leader and be kind. I will never veer from that.”

Argent notes that provider leadership must be surrounded by the smartest and best people. “You should never be threatened by putting someone brilliant around you. I have surrounded myself with an incredible team of people from vastly different backgrounds, who see things differently.”

“Diversity in brilliance is what makes us say to each other, we are a force to be reckoned with…I love that they challenge me.”

“Spunk is important” to the leadership journey, Argent notes. The leadership team at Rockpool has skill and spunk from numerous industries, “we have to attract new talent and ideas to navigate huge developments in technology such as AI, there is so much coming at us…you need people to jostle the status quo and this has to be a basis for recruitment of leadership.”

Empathy and transparency

Argent clearly articulates that the Rockpool team, “did not decide to sell the operating business lightly.” Working through the business transition side of the acquisition, the leadership team has kept front and centre that they need to balance that what is being sold are people’s homes, employing front-line staff proud to work at Rockpool.

The leadership team has understood “it’s managing enormous change for them as well, and it’s doing it alongside Regis’ leadership team”. Argent shares how the Regis team has come to the table in transparency, a commitment to continued positivity under the new brand name.

Loving what you do in aged care is not a nice-to-have

Being able to deal with huge pressures, uncertainty, vague rules, ever-changing regulation is to “have a lot of fun along the way.”

“Leaders have to love what you do. If you do not love what you do, and don’t still get the sense of pride of making a difference, then don’t be in the industry.”

A flat leadership helped the executive team weather times, being “close to the action.” Sharing a core behavior, “When having a bad day, we go out to one of our homes and are reminded, ‘yup, that’s what I’m here for’”. The proximity to those in direct care is critical, being connected to “what you are there to do as leaders”.

Watch this space

As for the future of Argent and her team, she shares that the Rockpool brand “will take key-leadership members and continue working.” The continuing team has “three future sites”, one opening as soon as July 2026. “We’re almost back in start-up mode with the development, construction and ramp-up phases underway”, with the acquisition “allowing us to re-capitalise and build quicker”. Profits for good, for development, for more beds in an ever-demanded sector.

“We’re working to come back bigger and better than ever.”

Chris Mamarelis, CEO of Whiddon

Hard work, no shortcuts

Chris Mamarelis’ route to leadership

By Amy Henderson, Journalist, Hello Leaders

Chris Mamarelis has been CEO of Whiddon for almost a decade, leading an organisation that runs 23 homes, cares for more than 1,500 residents, and employs more than 2,600 staff. The scale alone could flatten most imaginations, but for Mamarelis, scale is not a shield. It’s a responsibility - and it demands calculated-risk.

His leadership style is defined by pragmatism and persistence. He doesn’t shy away from hard truths about aged care: the pressures of meeting regulation, the high demands on staff, and the complexity of caring for vulnerable people. But he also believes the sector needs leaders willing to “stick their necks out,” to “cut through red tape”, and to keep moving forward even when solutions aren’t easy.

“It’s people who are central to what we are doing, that must be 100% the focus, that’s the motivation to get things right”, Mamarelis says.

“When people say aged care is about buildings, I laugh. While they are important, it’s people who are central to what we are doing… residents and staff are the North Star.”

The practical route

At university, Mamarelis chose practical jobs on his way to being a CPA. “I started in payroll and accounts payable.” He shares, “By doing it in reverse, I had a great appreciation for the different roles, no matter what level of qualification or skillset you had.”

“My first proper paid job was at Red Rooster... roasting chickens in year 10 and 11,” he says. “One thing I learnt from that, and from my father, is work ethicputting your best foot forward in the workplace is an important lesson.”

In a fast-food kitchen, he learnt the vital discipline of working with dedication and perseverance, even in the smallest tasks. It’s a lesson he’s carried throughout his career.

It’s this grounding that colours how he leads today. He doesn’t reduce aged care to assets and spreadsheets. “When people say aged care is about buildings, I laugh,” he says. “while they are important, it’s people who are central to what we are doing… But residents and staff are the North Star… if priority is [only] profits or growth but not people, that’s going to be problematic.”

Culture that can pivot

Mamarelis talks often about culture, the invisible engine that makes organisations ready for calculated, innovative-supporting risk. For Whiddon, he says, the ability to adapt is not optional but essential. “We’ve evolved culturally to pivot,” he explains. “To break through barriers and red tape.”

Leadership on the floor

Mamarelis’ philosophy isn’t confined to the boardroom. He is known for engaging directly with frontline staff and residents. He makes time to ask about the morale of employees at centres, particularly where new programs are being tried.

“A number of times we’ve taken a breath, ‘are we asking too much of people, is this home at capacity?’...that was a driver to invest in project management…we don’t want to burn people out, we want to balance innovation with the day-to-day.”

Mamarelis honours all working in aged care and doesn’t sugarcoat aged care. “It’s not black and white, it’s dynamic, it’s got many shades to it”, he says. Talking about approaches to change, “some of these will fail but some will work” but he believes in perseverance, “we can only try.”

Looking forward

Mamarelis acknowledges challenges, compliance, workforce shortages and funding pressures but sees opportunity for the sector to come together to make sustainable impacts.

“Front-line staff in homes want to be freed up… and provider leadership can contribute to that.”

If leadership maintains seeing, “people as the North star, [this ensures] creating impact that’ll keep you on the path.”

Quiet conviction

If there’s a lesson in Mamarelis’ story, it’s the leaders that keep showing up, for residents and front-line staff alike can stay the course. Leadership that takes calculated-risk, refusing to settle for the status quo will make the impact that has punch. His leadership style is less about flash than about convictionquiet, relentless, people-centred conviction.

In the end, the picture that emerges is of a leader who knows exactly what’s at stake. Not revenue streams or corporate trophies for their own sake, but the lives of residents who need care today, and the staff who deliver that care under a pressure that rarely lets up.

And maybe that’s what aged care needs most: not perfection, not polish, but leaders willing to stick their necks out when the safer choice would be to stand still.

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“Children are to exit the workforce to care for older members because supports are

The impact on productivity

are choosing workforce older family because no are available. on Australia’s is immense.”

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Outcomes, not optics:

Ian Yates AM on the hard reset aged care still needs

By Jakob Neeland, Journalist, Hello Leaders

When Ian Yates AM talks about aged care reform, he doesn’t reach for euphemisms. The former Acting Inspector-General of Aged Care, now in an advisory capacity, describes a sector that has undeniably improved since the Royal Commission, yet remains structurally reluctant to do the one thing reform demands: change how outcomes are produced, measured and used to define and achieve best practice.

“We need to focus more on outcomes,” Yates says. “By outcome, I mean the real-world impact on the older person and their family. Until we rebuild aged care around that, we’ll keep mistaking activity for progress.”

Building an office from scratch

Yates’ brief as Acting Inspector-General was deceptively simple: stand up an independent oversight body that had never existed in human services. In practice, it meant creating a new Commonwealth agency, which meant pushing complex legislation across the line, and signalling plainly to the system that this wouldn’t be yet another collegial body. He and his team did this in record time

“People assumed we’d sit down, and ‘have a chat’ and agree how we’d ‘work together’” he recalls. “We were clear: our job is oversight. If we have concerns, we raise them and pursue them. And we have the power to get the information we need.”

One early milestone after becoming Acting Inspector-General under the new Act: a Memorandum of Understanding with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to establish a regular, structured flow of information, not ad-hoc “fishing trips,” as Yates puts it, but ongoing visibility of data to monitor system performance. “That sounds technical,” he says, “but it’s how you move from ad hoc assertions to rigorous evidence.”

Contributor: Ian Yates AM, Independent consumer advocate

Home care should be on-demand

If Yates sounds most urgent about anything, it’s the home care package backlog, which, he notes, reversed its downward trend and rapidly reached record levels again. He argues for a principle that government already accepts in other domains: entitlement on assessment.

“The Government does the assessment and tells you what level of support you need. Then you’re told to wait 12, 15 months, sometimes more. People deteriorate. Some die. It’s a denial of service. We don’t tell pensioners, ‘Sorry, we ran out of age pensions this year.’ Medicare doesn’t work that way either. Aged care should be on-demand in the same way - ” Its what the Royal Commission strongly recommended.”

The analogy is both sharp and unanswerable: if Australia wouldn’t tolerate a waitlist for pensions, why tolerate it for essential care? “The logic is humane and operational,” Yates continues. “Stop-start funding destroys confidence, for families and providers. You can’t plan a workforce or services on a moving target.”

Personal care must stay free

Yates supports monitoring the new cocontribution settings closely, but he’s unambiguous on the essentials.

“Personal care should have no cocontribution. Assistance with showering and hygiene isn’t discretionary, you only accept it if it’s essential, it should be treated like clinical care. Require copayments for lawn-mowing and home maintenance if you must; don’t tax essential health care and dignity.”

He expects strong consumer reaction if costs impede core support and wants the Inspector-General to track the lived impact closely.

“We need to focus more on outcomes – the real-world impact on the older person and their family. Until we organise around that, we’ll keep mistaking activity for progress.”

Ian Yates AM

My Aged Care shuts too many out

If home care is rationed, the front door is also too narrow. As Acting InspectorGeneral, Yates initiated a review of My Aged Care, describing it as a gateway that functions “for government” but not reliably for vulnerable people, including people with disability, First Nations peoples without trusted local health partners, people with language and communication barriers, and many regional Australians.

“Functionally, it brings large numbers of people into the system, at considerable human cost. Too many never get through. If My Aged Care worked as intended, we wouldn’t need to supplement it with a patchwork of helpers and intermediaries.”

He’s especially concerned by reports of frequent telephone-only assessments used to speed throughput. “You can’t assess complex needs and establish trust over the phone as a default. It’s not just inefficient; it’s unsafe.”

Delays can become perverse incentives. Yates recounts long-standing advice families still hear: if you can get someone into hospital, assessments happen quickly because the states need the bed and do the assessment. “It’s been happening for years. That’s not a system; that’s a workaround, and discriminatory.”

Residential care faces a demographic and a dignity gap

Yates sees a looming supply crunch in residential care layered atop unresolved quality gaps.

“The market isn’t a market. The government is the dominant payer, price-setter, and heavy regulator, then tells providers to ‘go build’. Many don’t feel financially secure enough to invest, and frankly, they’re unsure what to build, because boomers won’t accept yesterday’s models.”

He’s blunt about practice in core domains: dementia care is “clinically safe in many places, but predominantly not consistently dignified or respectful.” Palliative and end-of-life care should be a mandatory capability “because nearly everyone entering residential care is on a trajectory that requires it, but most don’t receive it.”

And social connection must be protected and enabled: “People fear residential care because it can sever community ties and remove agency. The residential experience needs to be integrated with the community, not warehoused away from it.”

Star ratings don’t show best practice

Yates isn’t against ratings; he’s against clunky proxies that confuse consumers and lull providers. The promise to “continuously improve” the current star ratings hasn’t materialised meaningfully, he says.

“This is a clear example of where, if the sector keeps waiting for the government to define ‘best practice,’ we’ll get a bureaucratic version, expedient and blunt. Providers, consumers, and experts should codify best practice themselves: set high quality standards, recognise excellence, and make it legible to the community and a requirement of being in the business.”

In short: lead, don’t wait.

Reform is progress, not transformation

Yates acknowledges that several reforms since the Royal Commission have improved fundamentals, especially workforce measures, overall funding and some regulatory changes. But he’s clear that the Royal Commission called for transformation, not incrementalism.

“We’ve fixed parts of the system that triggered the Commission. We have not transformed it. Confidence is still fragile. Ask people in the community, it hasn’t shifted enough.” A telling example, in his view: access rights. “There’s a right to be assessed. There’s no right to actually receive what you’ve been assessed for. That’s the gap.”

Culture must change in and outside the system

The Inspector-General office was designed to tilt culture toward transparent, evidence-based oversight. Yates pushed for that with MOUs, data pipelines, and a clear posture: not ‘mates in the tent,’ but firm, fair scrutiny.

Yet culture change can’t stop with regulators. Yates wants providers to lift the bar themselves and to be frank about peers who shouldn’t be in the sector. He also wants the sector’s voices aligned.

“We get reform when providers, consumers, and experts work together with a clear ask. Right now, there are too many disparate voices. Government convinces itself it has ‘done aged care’ because money has gone in. Money without standards about outcomes doesn’t equal quality.”

What leaders must do now

For executives, Yates’ message is not a checklist but a direction of travel. Leaders must re-anchor their organisations around lived outcomes,

what older people and their families actually experience day-to-day.

They must stop waiting for the government to codify best practice and instead co-design standards with consumers and experts, recognising excellence credibly and setting thresholds to belong. Protecting dignity must sit at the centre of service design, with personal care treated as nondiscretionary and residential and home care business models built for autonomy, social connection, and end-of-life excellence.

Advocacy also matters. Yates calls on leaders to champion entitlement on assessment and to reject the logic of rationed home care that erodes confidence and capacity. He urges the government to elevate the quality of assessments, resist telephone-only shortcuts, and mandate processes that reflect people’s complexity and build trust.

And he warns against complacency in supply: the next generation will not accept legacy models of care in residential facilities or in the home. Providers must start designing for what’s coming, not what’s past.

Yates’ closing note is not cynical, it’s disciplined.

“Failures will happen. That’s not what should scare us. What should scare us is standing still, rationing access, confusing and failing consumers, and congratulating ourselves for activity that doesn’t change outcomes. The sector needs confidence. We only earn it by delivering the things people really want and can feel happening.”

Outcomes, not optics. It’s a challenge and a compass.

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Progress without consensus

Tracey Martin’s playbook for aged care reform

Trying to get aged care reform across the line can feel like banging your head against a brick wall. The Hon. Tracey Martin has experienced a few situations where she faced persuading a less than receptive audience of her points. From spending nine years as a Member of Parliament in New Zealand, and now, as the Chief Executive of Aged Care Associated NZ, she is well versed in the realities and practicalities of getting things done with others who don’t exactly see eye to eye with her. For the vulnerable under the care of aged care leadership, it is paramount that quality reform is achieved alongside even those we would deem as ‘the other’.

By Amy Henderson, Journalist, Hello Leaders

Know your true audience

When working to lobby or persuade, there is the onus to do just that. Opposition or rebuttal can be daunting, even for an experienced professional.

“The first time I stood up in the house to take my five minute call on a bill and the members from the other side of the house began shouting at me – what I could not tell you – I realised that their intent was to make me doubt myself,” Martin shares, “that I must be wrong for them to shout at me, that somehow they knew more than I or were smarter than I.”

But it was in remembering who she was there for, her constituency that she found her feet. “I realised then that I was not speaking to them or for them, I was speaking to the New Zealanders beyond the cameras on the wall of the parliament”.

Cause underpins courage

Some of the most vulnerable people across the world rely on aged care leadership to be their voice. When encountering difference in opinion in the effort to effect change for the better, the ground beneath your feet has to be solid before you invite others on to it.

In a world of superheroes and flashy capes, purpose has been packaged as fantastical and intergalactic. But there’s nothing so simple and strong as purpose and passion that coincide to right a wrong for another. Martin shares, “I found myself elected to parliament by accident because I believed there was an unfairness that took place.”

Seeing your point as good and true may sound simplistic but foundation for change should first be simple, then strong. After remembering who she was there for, “this reinforced for me the belief that ‘not everyone will agree with me but my view is valid’ – outside this house there are other New Zealanders who deserve to be represented who agree with this view. “

Understanding the landscape

A reasonable lament often heard around any table, board or dining, is ‘why can’t they all just agree’. Bipartisan cooperation on all issues seems like the ideal to get sweeping changes enacted, however, Martin is grounded in reality. “Political parties will never create a cross-party consensus on any issue that they will have to campaign on and the general public doesn’t really want them to either.”

Humans love choice, in their food, as much as their politics. “If major political parties agreed consistently then the public would create other political parties to provide them with choice for their vote.”

In the routine of lobbying for change, aged care leaders will unlikely encounter the easy road. Building relationships, and from that trust, not necessarily ubiquitous agreement, can be the start of common ground. It can be done, Martin shares, “From the opposition benches I created relationships across all political parties and passed a members bill with unanimous support.”

The Hon. Tracey Martin Chief Executive of Aged Care Association New Zealand

“I realised then that I was not speaking to them or for them, I was speaking to the New Zealanders beyond the cameras on the wall of the parliament.”

Goals orient through disagreement

The best negotiators go into highoctane scenarios ready to find a common thread of shared reality, agreeing on something that both parties find important and want to work towards. Martin routinely works to honour the position of the politicians she’s working with. That they, like she, are working to represent and be the voice of their constituents. “I am working with the majority of political parties in the New Zealand parliament to entrench the required solutions to our aged care challenges in all of their manifestos.” While it may seem efficient to approach reform conversations with only your shaped argument, persuading always involves ‘walking in their shoes’.

“Each [solution] with the required perspective to appeal to their individual voting bases – this is as close as we will get to cross party consensus on this issue.”

Working towards change in the systems that are in place, means bringing others to the table while being smart and respectful. By getting through initial differences to see where each party’s goals coincide, this can mean great strides for all involved.

Collaborative change doesn’t require total agreement

Shaping how Martin conducts herself in her leadership roles are traits that started young. In every government chamber, boardroom or provider facility, “from an early age I was raised with a sense of fairness, standing up for others that were not able to stand up for themselves, treating all people with respect and being welcoming of all peoples.”

Disagreeing is a core part of human life, let alone in aged care leadership. It is becoming increasingly worrying that disagreeing well in the public square is a skill that has been eroded.

Core to Martin’s journey of aged care reform is disagreeing well. It is a nonnegotiable skillset, temperament and expectation that must be sown into, to reap the change of aligned goals from those that sit across the chamber or sector.

“Being able to disagree with people without hate or violence, that it is not necessary for one of us to change our mind, for us to both feel fulfilled post an intense conversation.”

“It became increasingly obvious that a cross-party taskforce was not going to happen, so I changed tack–working through each political party separately to build consistent solutions.”

Creating common ground

Common ground can be hard to find, and sometimes that calls for man-made islands to be made. While as much work as it sounds it’s another dynamic way in which Martin navigates aligning her goals for aged care with others.

“I was calling for a cross-party taskforce on our aged care issues, it became increasingly obvious that this was not going to happen,” she says, “therefore I needed to change tack and why I will create cross party understanding and consistent solutions by working through each political party separately.”

It will take, “educating them all to the real issues/challenges, providing them with the political and practical solutions, writing policy for them that delivers the same solution to the same problem for all parties but is presented in a way that resonates with their particular voting base.”

Dynamism over obstacles

As leaders it can seem that over every hill there looms another, tenacity to keep going in the aged care industry is a key ingredient. Purpose and passion, and data-substantiated points to reform, for the human-beings relying on care, cannot be theoretical for aged care leadership. Martin leverages all these, and daily brings spunk and levity to the journey to boot.

“If I had to pinpoint an ingredient in my leadership style that fuels it, it would be my belief that when faced with a wall, I don’t stop – I look for the doorway that others have missed.”

Systemic comprehension heightens effectiveness

Martin’s journey from parliamentarian to aged care peak body chief shows that non-linear pathways can provide heightened awareness of the various cogs at play, and how to approach them.

She highlights that messaging is important to frame the reform wanted, time must be taken to understand who you are talking to, and what levers they have.

“I can ensure that the messages I provide to different target audiences is specifically tailored to provide them with the reasons why they should care and take action.”

From working across sectors, or taking the time to build relationships with those who have skillsets and effectiveness in strategy and understanding systemic change elevate the work put in to lobby for aligned enacted goals. Without compromising integrity of conviction during this journey – to heighten being effective in results to benefit the residents and front-line staff that need change most, is critical.

It is worthwhile to, “know how change can be made, who has their hand on which lever and under what timeline that lever can be pulled.”

Aligned goals guide the long road

At the foundation of lobbying, disagreeing well, persuading and bringing people to the table there must be an overarching goal that is unshakeable. There must be, “recognition that the residents in aged residential care are still the same citizens and permanent residents they were before they moved into care,” she says, “the government’s responsibility to fund their clinical care remains intact –so the government needs to step up.”

There’s little wonder we are drawn to those that agree with us. Psychologists have long shared that our brains love to be quickly affirmed. While disagreement lies at the reality of the aged care reform journey, there are aligned goals to ground.

Martin’s leadership journey is an encouragement to all aged care leaders to lean into those hard conversations, to do the work of persuasion with fact and respect because the effectiveness of common ground yields results. She hopes that New Zealand and Australia will lead the world in providing the best care to our seniors in the most appropriate settings for them. That, “others will come to this part of the world to study us - and if you are in either nation you can be confident that the care you need you will receive regardless of your financial circumstances.”

There’s nothing like an ultimate goal with substance to bring all the “ayes” to the chamber.

The takeaway for leaders

Reform won’t wait for everyone to agree. The work is to align on outcomes, tailor the case to each audience, and keep respect at the centre. That’s how Tracey Martin turns opponents into co-authors – by knowing who holds which lever, when to pull it, and why it matters to the people we serve. If leaders can disagree well, go party-byparty, and stay fixed on the goal – safe, dignified care, funded and delivered well – progress becomes inevitable.

When dementia stopped his dance, Dr Cecilia Chan started a movement

The music had barely faded when the dancer stepped away. A man who had once filled halls with rhythm, who had even started a dance academy after retirement, stopped overnight. Nothing was physically stopping him. His diagnosis was new, but his legs still remembered the steps. When asked why, his reply was devastating in its simplicity:

By Amy Henderson, Journalist, Hello Leaders

“I am stopping because I am afraid. I am afraid I won’t be able to dance the way society expects me to. I am afraid I will disappoint them, so I am withdrawing.”

For Dr Cecilia Chan, a gerontologist working in Penang, Malaysia, those words were a turning point. They revealed how much of the suffering linked to dementia isn’t caused by the disease itself, but by the expectations and judgments of others. “It hit me really hard,” she recalls. “It made me think his reaction has a lot to do with us, how we as a community support people or label them. We need to address that.”

From that moment, Chan decided her work would not only be about clinical care, but about rewriting the story that surrounds dementia. She wanted to prove that people living with the condition could still belong, connect, and yes, even dance.

Contributor:

Dr Cecilia Chan, BSC Eldercare Centre, Malaysia

Photo credit??

A compass guided by people, not paperwork

At the BSC Eldercare Centre, where Chan leads much of her work, the approach is simple but radical: the person comes first. That might sound like a cliché – she laughs about how often “person-centred care” is rolled out as jargon – but in practice it means reshaping care plans around an individual’s world, their memories, their strengths, and their family.

“We have to start there,” she says. “We use their world to relate with them, use that as a landscape to assess ability, not to focus on what is lost.” The question is never just what someone can no longer do. Instead, it’s: What remains? What can still be celebrated?

The work is deeply communal. Family members, neighbours, friends and volunteers all become part of what Chan calls the “village” of support. This shared responsibility doesn’t just provide practical help – it builds resilience and trust, showing families that dementia does not have to mean disconnection.

The magic of human contact

If there was ever any doubt that connection mattered, the pandemic dispelled it. “COVID showed us we needed in-person socialisation,” Chan says. “We can’t live in isolation.” That lesson shaped her practice. She describes moments when clients who seemed withdrawn suddenly open up after a touch on the arm, a smile, or a song from their youth.

“I see a magical thing happen when they are engaged with who they are, not corrected for what we might call a mistake or minor behaviour issue, but accepted the way they are. When that happens, they flourish.”

These are not small triumphs. For families, watching a loved one reemerge in laughter or song can be transformative. For staff, it reinforces that the measure of care isn’t compliance or control, but human connection.

“The stories we tell about dementia shape how people live with it. If those stories are dominated by fear and loss, people withdraw. But if the stories are about resilience, connection and joy, then people can keep dancing.”

“We don’t need language to connect. We need empathy, creativity, and courage.”

Facing the hardest truths

Chan does not shy away from the most challenging parts of dementia. She has worked with families from the moment of diagnosis through to the last breath, offering training, workshops and what she calls “experiential learning” for carers. Her team shares real case studies so that families understand what lies ahead – not in textbooks, but in lived experience.

“There is a lot of fear of death,” she says. “But if we can journey together, if we can build trust, then we can prepare, support, and be there.” It is, she believes, a privilege to accompany families through this entire arc of life and loss.

Her insistence on collaboration extends to the medical world. She values her network of geriatricians and often advocates directly for clients when medication side effects outweigh benefits. “We need a health team working together,” she says. “If I can do it, it can be done.”

Challenging the stigma –one beach at a time

Perhaps her boldest experiment came when she decided to take people with dementia to a beach resort for a weekend retreat. The idea seemed absurd to many colleagues. They warned her it would be “mission impossible”, predicting disorientation and chaos.

Chan disagreed. “That attitude was utterly rubbish,” she says, her smile breaking wide. With help from her network – and even a dance troupe flown in from Tokyo – the retreat went ahead. Families, clients and volunteers spent three days together, dancing, resting and enjoying the sea air.

The outcome? No chaos, no breakdowns. Just joy. Even participants with advanced dementia found connection through art, music and movement. “We don’t need language to connect,” Chan says. “We need empathy, creativity, and courage.”

For the families, the retreat was proof that life with dementia could still include adventure, beauty and laughter. For Chan, it was confirmation that taking risks – calculated, compassionate risks –is essential to change the narrative.

Supporting the supporters

Chan knows the burden of dementia care is often carried by families, and she sees training and empowerment as crucial. “Family members and volunteers know how to support their loved ones,” she explains, “because they have seen how their loved one has transformed and improved with this holistic approach.”

By building confidence in carers, she helps shift the narrative from fear to possibility. This ripple effect strengthens communities, reduces stigma, and ensures that innovation doesn’t stop at the clinic door.

A movement for dignity

Dr Cecilia Chan’s work is rooted in a conviction that dementia care must be more than managing decline. It must be about possibility, empowerment and dignity. Her approach shows what is possible when professionals, families and communities come together with empathy and imagination.

Her message to leaders is clear. The stories we tell about dementia shape how people live with it. If those stories are dominated by fear and loss, people withdraw – just as the dancer once did. But if the stories are about resilience, connection and joy, then people can keep dancing, in every sense of the word.

What Chan has built is not just a program, but a movement. It challenges the clinical silos, the stigma, and the resignation that often shadows dementia. It reminds us that care is not a tick-box exercise, but a profoundly human relationship.

As Chan says, “We need to change the limiting narrative.” She is doing just that – one retreat, one family, one dance at a time.

Locked out by the algorithm:

Why AI recruitment may be failing aged care

By Amy Henderson, Journalist, Hello Leaders

Artificial intelligence has swept into recruitment, promising the golden trifecta: faster hires, lower costs, and better candidates. For aged care, a sector desperate to fill rosters, the appeal is obvious. But beneath the gloss, emerging evidence suggests these systems could entrench bias, shut out exactly the people the sector needs most, and leave behind a trail of invisible exclusion.

The shiny tool with a shadow

Across Australia and the world, AI hiring systems (AHSs) are rapidly becoming the norm. Chatbots now conduct first interviews, algorithms rank candidates, and video platforms claim to predict job fit. L’Oréal, Vodafone, Anglicare Sydney and countless others are experimenting. Hospitals overseas are relying on AI to sift through thousands of applications.

But as Dr Natalie Sheard, lawyer and McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne, warns, the very systems built to streamline recruitment risk “solidifying traditional forms of discrimination, playing an active role in creating new ones, and paving the way for intentional discrimination.” Her reminder is blunt: data is not neutral.

Maria’s fight

For Maria, 62, the cost is personal. After two decades in pharmaceutical marketing, she lost her job in a restructure. She retrained, learnt new digital skills, and meticulously tracked her applications in a spreadsheet her son set up. Out of 127 applications, 89 were rejected within hours - far too fast for a human to have read them.

“I fixed up my resume, updated LinkedIn, even learnt social media,” she recalls. “But looking good doesn’t get you past programs that weed out based on graduation dates and career gaps.”

Her story is not an outlier. Globally, AI hiring systems have been caught downgrading CVs mentioning “women’s,” rejecting candidates who wear headscarves, and excluding people with disabilities because adjustments were deemed “too much trouble.”

“At 62, I’m not outdated. I’m experienced. I’m not set in my ways. I’m seasoned. I’m not too expensive. I’m valuable. And I’m still fighting.”

Aged care can’t afford blind spots

For aged care, where older workers bring empathy, resilience and maturity, algorithmic bias is more than a compliance risk - it is a workforce threat. The industry relies on people with non-linear careers, diverse cultural backgrounds, and lived experience. If AI screens them out, the sector risks homogeneity at a time when diversity is its strength.

Sheard’s research highlights the scale of concern: an estimated 30% of Australian organisations and 42% of global companies already use predictive AI in hiring. Yet evidence of bias is mounting faster than safeguards.

“A discriminatory AHS,” she cautions, “can cause harm at unprecedented speed and scale, and has the capacity to systematically lock disadvantaged groups out of the workforce.”

A leadership test

Hello Leaders readers know that recruitment in aged care is not just about filling vacancies. It is about building workforces of compassion and competence for some of society’s most vulnerable people. AI may help shortlist and speed things up - but it cannot be allowed to replace the human judgement required to see value in non-traditional candidates.

Maria puts it best: “At 62, I’m not outdated. I’m experienced. I’m not set in my ways. I’m seasoned. I’m not too expensive. I’m valuable. And I’m still fighting.”

For aged care leaders, the question is simple: will you let algorithms decide who gets through the door, or will you insist that people - in all their diversity - remain at the heart of recruitment?

The power of integration

How QPS helps you spot risks before they escalate

By Adam Holcroft, General Manager, QPS Benchmarking

Aged care leaders know the struggle of working with compliance tools that work in isolation and are reliant on manual data entry. Double handling, unidentified risks, and staff burnout are all consequences of using systems that lack connectivity and do not work cohesively. That’s why forward thinking providers are turning to QPS Benchmarking’s integrated quality platform, Converge CQI.

Built from the ground up to work with your chosen clinical and business systems, QPS unifies risk, compliance, audits, and care. All in one simple interface.

While most platforms track what’s already happened, Converge CQI works in real time to help you catch and manage emerging risks before they spiral into costly problems.

Managers are able to spot patterns, assign follow ups, and generate audit ready reports without hunting through emails or copying into spreadsheets. Every action is auto linked to the right team, service, and resident.

“This is about seeing the full picture. Not piecing it together later,” says QPS Benchmarking General Manager Adam Holcroft. “We’re giving providers the power to act immediately.”

Converge CQI is a fully integrated and customisable solution designed to link with platforms such as Telstra Health Clinical Manager, Health Metrics eCase, and other key sector systems. It’s not just a one size fits all bolt on system.

These integrations feed live data directly into QPS dashboards which eliminates double handling. Errors are then reduced and risks are brought to the surface immediately.

There is now an even greater need for providers to modernise their compliance systems with the new Aged Care Quality Standards set to take effect. Converge CQI has been specifically built for this shift as it automatically maps actions to the updated standards and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

Converge CQI is your Digital Risk Engine:

• Proactive Risk Detection

Real time alerts surface issues before they escalate

• Connected Workflows

Audits, feedback, incidents, and actions. All tracked and linked.

• True Integration

Feeds from clinical and management software update automatically.

• Effortless Compliance

One click reporting aligned to the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

• Custom Dashboards

Benchmarking and board ready insights at your fingertips.

• RealTime Visibility

Live view of quality and risk across all services and locations

Manual data tracking is a guaranteed way to create blind spots. And disconnected tools will mean your organisation misses compliance deadlines. Converge CQI gives you clarity, control, and more time. Now you’ll be able to shift your staff’s focus to what you do best. Care for people.

QPS is offering free live webinars and demos to walk your team through the platform and help assess your readiness for the new standards.

Email: office@QPSbenchmarking.com

Phone: (02) 4229 5880

Website: QPSbenchmarking.com

Authenticity in leadership

Why aged care CEOs must get out of the ivory tower and onto the floor

By Jakob Neeland, Journalist, Hello Leaders

In aged care, the gap between boardroom decisions and frontline realities can feel like a gulf. For Cameron McPherson, CEO of Medical & Aged Care Group (MACG), closing that gap is the responsibility of leadership itself. His philosophy is simple: leaders need to spend more time on the floor and more time being real.

“Two-thirds of our staff are personal carers,” he says. “Logic would have it that I need to spend time with them and actually ask questions. The floor is where it all happens.”

Cameron’s approach, shaped by personal experiences and a commitment to genuine relationships, offers a compelling blueprint for leaders in Australia’s aged care industry. It’s also deeply personal. MACG is a family business that was pioneered by his father in 1995. Cameron stepped into the role of CEO in his early thirties, in the midst of his beloved father’s two decade battle with motor neurone disease. It was at the time, the longest recorded case in Australia and a brutal formative experience that shaped Cameron’s views on care and leadership.

“Seeing care through the eyes of next of kin gave me a frontrow seat to what good and bad care looks like. He showed me resilience, he showed me strength, and he showed me how much dignity matters. The memory of late-night phone calls when his father had fallen on the bathroom floor still sits heavily with him. “It broke me, to have the strong man that I love so much and look up to like that, it broke me. But I know he’d be proud of what I’m doing and that’s why I’m so hands-on. It’s a family business and I consider the staff part of that family.”

Cameron McPherson, CEO of Medical Aged Care Group (MACG)

“You cannot understand the culture of your organisation if you only see it through reports. Taking a proactive approach to understanding the issues that your staff have in their duties builds trust and helps bring ideas to the surface.”

Contributor: Cameron

McPherson, CEO of Medical Aged Care Group (MACG)

A baptism of fur

In 2008, as a new CEO in his early thirties, Cameron’s ground roots philosophy to leadership met its first test at MACG’s Casey Manor facility when he was cornered up against the wall by a resident who was gently pawing at him and meowing like a cat.

Cameron fondly recalled thinking, “What have I got myself into? I was motioning to the staff, saying, ‘Can you come help me out?’ They said, ‘Nah, no.’ It was a test to see what I was made of. “That moment showed me this isn’t a cruise ship. This is residential aged care.”

Since then, he has seen time on the floor not as an occasional gesture, but as a responsibility of leadership.

“You cannot understand the culture of your organisation if you only see it through reports. Taking a proactive approach to understanding the issues that your staff have in their duties builds trust and helps bring ideas to the surface.”

And to do this, he makes a conscious effort to show up at his facilities, not as “the CEO,” but simply as Cameron.

Presence over pretence

For McPherson, leadership isn’t about crafting glossy strategic plans from an office. It’s about being present where the real work happens.

This hands-on approach stems from his belief that the best ideas come from those closest to the residents, like Deb Hailey, a personal care assistant at MACG’s Casey Aged Care, whose insights have shaped strategic decisions, including the design of the Pebble Beach facility.

“When we had the extension done at Pebble Beach, I told the builders that I wanted them to work with Deb. There may have been an eyebrow or two raised when I gave that responsibility to a PCA, but I was adamant because she knows the residents in that facility better than anyone.

Cameron’s commitment to authenticity sets him apart in an industry where some leaders hide behind polished facades. “I’m an open book. There’s no airs or graces, no pretence. What you see is what you get, and that’s what I expect from everyone,” he says. This approach fosters a culture where staff feel safe to share ideas and residents feel valued as individuals, not just diagnoses. He contrasts this with the pretentiousness he encounters at industry conferences.

“There’s so much inauthenticity out there. Some industry leaders don’t have the courage to be authentic. Maybe it’s fear, maybe it’s impostor syndrome, maybe they’re hiding, maybe they’re so far removed from the floor that they have lost the ability to communicate with the front line staff, but you’ve got to be real to be respected,” he insists.

Cameron’s time on the floor directly informs MACG’s operational and strategic decisions. He observes challenges like staff burnout and language barriers among carers from non-English-speaking backgrounds.

“A lot of our carers aren’t from Englishspeaking backgrounds, so we need to make life easier for them. Their hearts are in the right place,” he explains.

To address this, MACG implemented AI-driven software to reduce paperwork, allowing carers to focus on residents. “Technology helps get them back on the floor, doing what they love: being with residents,” he says. A shift management system also monitors wellbeing, ensuring staff take breaks to avoid burnout. “We do wellbeing checks. We want staff in a good mental, emotional, and physical state to forge long and fulfilling careers,” he notes.

His interactions also shape MACG’s approach to person-centred care, particularly for residents with complex needs like dementia. “It’s about relationships, not transactions. The industry framework stifles us with clinical metrics, but it’s not about falls or risks. It’s about knowing who the person was prior to their arrival.”

A call to action for CEOs

When it comes to delivering advice to others in the same position, Cameron was blunt in his assessment of what needs to occur.

“Get out of your ivory tower. Get out and smell the roses and all the other smells you might encounter on the floor of your facilities. It stimulates the senses and it gives you a front row seat to what’s working and what’s not.”

He also advocates leading with questions as a sure fire means of fostering trust. “Ask, ‘What’s working? What’s not? How do you feel? What suggestions have you got?’ Make them think. Create a space where they feel safe to share,” he says.

Balancing this with strategic responsibilities is essential, but McPherson sees it as non-negotiable. “If two-thirds of your staff are personal carers, you need to be with them. And don’t forget to tell them they’re doing a bloody good job, and mean it. The best ideas come from the floor.”

The long game

Why aged care leadership is a marathon, not a sprint

By Amy Henderson, Journalist, Hello Leaders

It’s easy to go in for immediate results. A 100m finish line could mean adrenaline filled change and instant resolution for the people that need it most. The image of being the Usain Bolt of aged care could understandably be a striking one for any CEO; Clutching the baton of aged care reform in their hands, the crowd goes wild as multiple challenges are solved in 9.58 seconds. Yet Russell Bricknell, CEO of Juniper aged care, believes change must be a long-distance event, no matter the draw and glory of the sprint. “Things take time to change in this sector, and you can’t rush it.” This is not from resisting change but wanting it to last the miles and decades ahead.

Lasting impact takes time

“When I first came into the industry, my friends said to me, ‘you have to take your timelines and extend them by three’, they might have understated that by another factor of three.”

Born overseas and exposed to other cultures, Bricknell has long been oriented to people who were disadvantaged. Raised by parents who came through violence and early grief to pour out themselves for good, he muses that this likely underpinned him and his siblings having a “social justice bent”.

When seeing that justice bent, it is a rational pivot for CEOs and leaders to try and change what’s wrong with immediate urgency but as Bricknell has learnt through decades, there is more to impact than merely getting legislation and rules to change.

“You actually have to go through the change process because at the base of it, it’s getting people to change attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.”

Without a doubt this is harder to do. The endurance needed to persuade with “the personal and data” can be gruelling but if CEOs set the finish line as hearts and minds changed, that means resilient systemic impact from a growing “village.”

The value of shared effort

Avoiding running in circles means leaders need to be in touch with why they are running at all. Bricknell says, “if you are wanting to effectively lead an organisation, you have to be as close to the people you are caring for as possible, and the people who are working with them.”

That means aborting the motorcycle that is following the group of runners and joining the pack, “I try to get on the floor at every aged care facility once a year, with over 25 facilities, that’s not easy but I’ll consistently be doing different things, at different times with each team.”

Most telling is the reaction from residents when Bricknell works a shift, “they love it when you work a shift with front-line staff.”

And there’s no disguising the chuckle that highlights the good-natured ‘let’s see what you can do’ he receives when working on the floor from staff, “You get all the hard work. It’s exhausting. It’s really exhausting.”

“The people who work in RAC work really hard.”

To keep lobbying for change at high levels, means acutely knowing what it is to do the work in the ‘ordinary’ ones. Bricknell can easily answer the part that gets him sweating most with floor work, “the cleaning is the hardest.”

“It’s that you’re on your feet, you’re on your feet all day, you don’t stop.”

It is worthwhile for leaders to know what it takes to provide excellence in care, what makes quality care for residents, and the cost it exacts on those that provide it, day in and day out.

“Leaders need to be as close as possible to the people they care for.”

Widening the lens

Bricknell has been vocal about what he sees as serious inequality of aged care in WA, particularly the percentage allotment of home care packages, “They chose to delay the new packages with the act delay. I think that was wrong.”

He advocates that when leaders are working towards change, they must reassess the impact zone.

“On a personal level, my father-in-law had a very long wait for an assessment, and a very long wait for a home care package. You see the damage it causes, not just for him but for his wife and extended family.”

In campaigning for more home care packages, Bricknell has reframed the picture to include those formerly left out. “The other thing that’s really flawed about all this is the impact on partners and family. Children are choosing to exit the workforce to care for older family members because no supports are available. The impact on Australia’s productivity is immense.”

He calls for leaders to see the full view of what they’re wanting to reform, “supporting services to seniors is not just good for those that need it but good for Australia.”

“Sustaining people to participate in the workforce, sustaining seniors to stay healthy at home and out of hospital, has a benefit that’s bigger than the dollars spent on home care.”

Owning the hard problems

When it comes to the blame game about funding between state and federal government, Bricknell laments, “it shows we haven’t learnt anything from the Royal Commission.”

Rather than being part of the theatrical nature of punting barbs across and “kicking the can of aged care down the road”, he believes leaders should pick the can up, dented and difficult as it is.

“The problem is hard. The problem needs you to think across the lines, not just within the lines.” But leaders also need to be ready to run with the dented can for all the miles it takes.

“Working to lobby change with government is no different to leading cultural change in organisations. You have to have an eye for the long-term.”

The fuel that sustains change

Pounding the pavement of change can be hard on the joints but Bricknell says to new leaders in aged care, you have every right to be hopeful, “aged care is a place where you can absolutely shape things.”

The why is Bricknell’s grandmother who had a, “wicked sense of humour”, the why is “the Government’s own data”, the why is in changing unnecessary systemic realities that are, “not just perverse but cruel.”

As the race keeps going, Bricknell reflects that, “we’re a service and industry that focuses on the care of people.” For current and future leaders, persevering for reform, “You have to build relationships and show heart, you have to get people in touch with the why.”

Russell Bricknell, CEO of Juniper aged care

The long road of leadership

Sticking it out is a must, “You have to have the eye for the medium and long term, you are not going to shape it in one, two or three years.”

But the pay-off comes.

“I am more effective now because I have spent such a long time in the industry and I’ve taken the opportunity to learn.”

If Bricknell’s leadership style and successes say anything to leaders, it’s to stay in this race. It’s one of the most important out there.

At the end of the day, leadership in aged care isn’t about speed or spectacle - it’s about stamina, persistence, and purpose. The finish line isn’t a policy announcement or a media headline, but the lived reality of older Australians and the people who care for them.

Bricknell’s reminder is clear: if leaders commit to the long race, with heart and humility, the impact will last not just for years but for generations.

From outputs to outcomes

Making resident experience the operating system of care

By Janine Yeates, Group Marketing & Brand, Care & Co Group

In aged care, “experience” used to be a bonus you hoped would follow good compliance. That’s changed. Resident voice is now a headline metric on public portals and a standing item in board packs. Providers report on perceptions, staffing minutes, quality indicators and audit actions. Families can compare homes with a few clicks. Boards track dashboards each quarter.

The real question isn’t whether the paperwork is in order. It’s whether all this reporting is actually lifting daily life for residents or simply feeding the bureaucracy.

Visibility isn’t value

Australia’s reforms have put experience centre stage. Star Ratings, the Residents’ Experience Survey and the Quality of Life and Quality of Care Experience Indicators have made the experiences of residents more transparent than ever. The Resident Experience Survey makes up the single biggest slice of an aged care home’s overall star rating, contributing about one-third of the score. This visibility is overdue, yet without change on the floor, transparency only proves an organisation can manage a spreadsheet.

When measurement replaces improvement

Many executives describe the same grind. Teams spend weeks preparing submissions, gathering evidence and lining up for audits. The survey is run, results are tabled, action plans are drafted, and frontline staff are still stretched too thin to act on the insights. Measurement becomes the job, while improvement slips to the wish list.

Even the star rating system can blur reality when everything is collapsed into a single score. The smarter boards look beyond the headline and into the sub-ratings and resident comments.

Making experience the operating system

Health research links positive patient experience to better clinical outcomes: fewer adverse events, stronger adherence to care plans, even lower mortality. Outside health, companies that build their model around experience grow faster and hold customers longer. In aged care that translates into steadier occupancy, stronger reputation and a workforce that wants to stay.

So how do leaders make resident experience the true operating system? Start with governance. Put it on the agenda every month and require a decision on each review: what insights were gained, what actions will follow, who is responsible, and what outcomes are expected next quarter. Tie at least one KPI to a specific experience measure so the conversation produces concrete commitments, not just polite discussion.

Then focus on closing the loop, not just collecting surveys. Layer quick pulse checks and staff feedback on top of the mandated measures. Give issues an owner at the home level within 48 hours and escalate if they’re not resolved. Share “you said, we did” updates where residents and families can see them.

“Compliance is the floor. Compassion must be the momentum.”

Treat experience with the same discipline you give clinical services. Map the key resident journeys and areas of wellbeing – admissions, mealtimes, lifestyle – and set clear standards for how those moments should feel and unfold. Protect the staffing minutes that create dignity and connection, especially during high-impact moments. Small, well-planned changes around food alone can transform daily life.

Keep the improvement work continuous and manageable. Encourage each site to run short, focused projects and track progress with simple run charts. For every new report demanded, retire an old one to free time for action. Align executive incentives with humanity by tying part of bonuses to tangible improvements in experience measures and celebrating teams that respond fastest to resident feedback.

Technology should help, not add friction. Aim for one dashboard that pulls together experience, complaints, quality, and workforce feedback. Use AI to spot patterns or flag risks, but keep real people front and centre for the conversations that need empathy.

Finally, involve residents and families as genuine partners. Set up advisory groups with clear authority and family agreements that spell out how feedback will be used and when updates will be given.

From compliance to compassion

A practical way to keep this balanced is to run two clocks. One tracks compliance: submissions, evidence, the usual traffic-light reviews. The other tracks improvement: every 90 days, pick one resident journey to focus on, set a clear uplift target and share beforeand-after results. If the compliance clock starts consuming the improvement clock, you don’t have an experience problem. You have a resourcing one.

You’ll know you’re on the right track when board packs feature stories of lives improved, not just tables of ratios. When variance across sites narrows and staff can explain exactly how their actions move specific survey results. When audits feel like confirmation, not crisis. And when occupancy and reputation stabilise because experience itself has become the brand.

Public transparency has already changed the sector for the better, but data collection alone won’t create warmth at breakfast or a faster helping hand. Those moments come from systems that turn feedback into daily action. Build that system – governance, incentives, workforce design, technology – so compliance is the floor and compassion drives the momentum. That’s how you meet the letter of the law while exceeding the spirit of care.

Switch for a safer dose

BESTMED medication management integrates with more software partners across home, NDIS and residential aged care, so you spend less time on data stoppages. Whatever your organisations journey, we have the right connections for safer, easier and better care.

Who’s missing?

PLANNING FOR DIVERSITY

Meet your reporting requirements under the new Aged Care Act. Free training for Australian aged care providers to better plan, deliver and report on what you have implemented to support a diverse and inclusive environment for older people and your aged care workers.

Who

is the training for?

This workshop series is tailored for

• Quality Managers

• The person responsible for quality improvement, compliance or service planning

Why should you attend?

Meet your reporting obligations under the Aged Care Act 2024 Rule 166-710 1(c)

Understand and plan for all 13 diversity groups

Get access to practical tools

– Training workbooks

– Diversity data dashboards

– Planning templates

– Real-world inclusion strategies

Aligned with

– Aged Care Act 2024

– Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards

– Statement of Rights

– Aged Care Worker Code of Conduct

What providers are saying after attending the training

95% felt more competent in planning for diversity

97.6% felt more equipped to identify access barriers

Did you know there are 13 diversity groups Act

• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander persons, including those from stolen generations

• Veterans or war widows

• People from culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds

• Financially or socially disadvantaged

• People who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness

• Parents and children who are separated by forced adoption or removal

• Adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse

• Care leavers, including Forgotten Australians and former child migrants placed in out of home care

• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/transgender or intersex or other sexual orientations or are gender diverse or bodily diverse

• People with disability or mental ill health

• People who are neurodivergent

• People who are deaf, deafblind, vision impaired or hard of hearing

• People who live in rural, remote or very remote areas

cultural and mindset shift within our team. They played an essential role in facilitating the intergration of diversity plans and change into our processes and services.

Workshop participant