Australian Ageing Agenda July-August 2018 Cover Story

JUL-AUG 18

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Future Ready:

ACSA National Summit looks at ‘What’s Next’ in aged care

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FEATURE

SPONSORED FEATURE International Convention Centre, Sydney - Summit 2018 Venue

What’s next

in aged care?

The changing face of aged care and how providers can adapt to the sector will be the focus of Aged & Community Services Australia’s upcoming national summit. KYMBERLY MARTIN reports.

T

he Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA) National Summit is one of the biggest events in the aged care calendar where leading industry voices and policy makers gather to network and provide their insights into the sector.

This year’s summit in Sydney will focus on what service providers can expect in the short and medium term. It aims to identify key issues, concerns and opportunities for the sector and highlight how aged care providers can adapt to new processes and practices and best deliver services sustainably.

Now in its 31st year, the three-day event, which is taking place from 3-5 September, is expected to attract over 800 attendees including aged care CEOs, board members, general managers, researchers and other key stakeholders in the aged care sector.

The summit brings together 140 speakers, 92 sessions, 100 exhibition booths and 11 networking events to provide a platform for industry, government and suppliers to talk about the future.

Discussions will centre on emerging issues and trends, uncovering what’s next for the sector, with its changing customer needs, technology, business models, governance and workforce.

ACSA has prepared a strong, diverse and vibrant program across a wide range of topics pertinent to aged care service providers, ACSA CEO Pat Sparrow tells Australian Ageing Agenda.

“Delegates will be presented with new thinking and strategies to help navigate challenges

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Pat Sparrow, ACSA CEO, and panellists at ACSA Summit 2016, Tasmania

and learn first-hand from experts about how best to equip themselves to thrive in a changing industry,” Sparrow says. “Politicians as well as local and international industry leaders will deliver thought-provoking and practical presentations.”

The national summit will aim to highlight what’s next in the aged care industry and explore the new systems and technologies that are reinventing the future of the industry.

With a new Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to be established from January 2019, Australia will be looking at the learnings of similar international models. With this is mind, ACSA has invited the UK safety and

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quality expert Sir David Behan CBE, CEO of the UK Care Quality Commission to present at the national summit. Sir David led a wide-ranging review into quality and safety regulation of health and care in 2012. His reflections on that experience promise to be one of the key learnings of the summit program.

“As the sector prepares to move to a single set of quality standards and operate under the new single Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, valuable lessons can be learnt from jurisdictions such as the UK where similar policy shifts have been introduced,” Sparrow says. “As an industry we need to engage with what worked well in the UK and what did not, and pick up the best features and be alerted to some of the pitfalls.”

Technology is impacting the aged care industry in a number of ways from helping to improve customer service in aged care facilities and improving the lives of older Australians at home.

Aged care providers need to be aware of these new technologies, their risks and the benefits.

Also on the program is Australian biomedical engineering expert Dr Jordan Nguyen (as pictured on the cover), who was NSW finalist for 2017 Australian of the Year and named in the top 100 global influencers on virtual reality. His session will focus on how intelligent and futuristic technology can shape the future of aged care and also improve the lives of people with disability.

Jump into the world of virtual reality and explore what’s ahead with innovative technologies assisting to better the delivery of services. Nguyen, biomedical engineer and inventor, will share a number of technologies he has created for older Australians, as well as technologies available right now for aged care providers, which won’t break the bank. By re-imagining and re-defining the boundaries

Gala dinner – ACSA Summit 2016, Tasmania

“In the current climate you need commercial acumen in order to survive.”

between human and technological evolution, he is at the forefront of bringing about positive, sustainable and life-altering changes.

Offering an international perspective is CEO and founder of The Purpose Driven Group, Bruce Mullan who will recount the experiences of US aged care providers. He will examine the latest trends in ageing, disability and technology, as well as the present challenges American aged care providers are facing, and solutions they have successfully implemented to overcome these.

Mullan will be joined by US provider David Morgan, president and CEO of Future In Sight who will speak live via video-link with two renowned US aged care organisations as they take delegates through their service innovation, business models and ageing technologies. There will also be a Q&A style discussion to share US models and innovative services that Australian providers can action in their organisations, offering an opportunity for audience participation.

One of the biggest challenges facing providers is balancing the profit and purpose as many

Delegates at the exhibition – ACSA Summit 2016, Tasmania

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organisations are purpose oriented, Mullan tells AAA. “In the current climate you need commercial acumen in order to survive. Balance is too much in favour of purpose. It is ok to be purposeful in what you do but it needs to be done sustainably. With an estimated 20 per cent of aged care providers in Australia making a loss it is clear that not many have got the profit part of their business sorted out yet.”

This also applies to the NDIS, which Mullan said is not a scheme that provides decent margins in most services. “In the NDIS space organisations also need to find that balance between profit and purpose. Within a sector that is traditionally not well-funded you need multiple revenue streams in order to survive and stay true to your purpose,” he said.

Mullan will also discuss the subscription-based funding models in the US where participants spend $600 a year to be part of an organisation that provides services for seniors to support them, particularly around social isolation, in order to keep them happy and healthy at home.

“Unlike Australia there is not much Federal funding for providers in the US. Services tend to be state or community based and do not have a national footprint, which is different to Australia.”

Journalist and social commentator Jane Caro will MC the summit and lead a discussion

Delegates – ACSA Summit 2017, Cairns

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Sara Blunt, ACSA board chair

“A collaborative approach focused on building provider capability is needed to drive change.”

alongside The Benevolent Society on ‘The Drivers of AGEism’, timely given that the number and proportion of older Australians is expected to continue to grow. By 2056, it is projected there will be 8.7 million, or 22 per cent of Australians aged 65 years and over.

Other sessions of interest include Phil Butler and Penny Knight from the Australian Institute of Company Directors who will discuss their recent report on not-for-profit governance and its impacts for aged care providers.

Also, Jonathan Vallée, chief technology officer of Canadian group AlayaCare, who offers end-to-end cloud-based software solutions for consumer directed care, will discuss innovation in home healthcare.

And a panel session, ‘Retirement Living in the Spotlight – From Defence to Getting Ahead in the Game’ will address the controversial events of 2017 in the retirement living space, the industry response and the implications going forward.

Sustainable funding critical to sector’s future Sparrow says sustainability is the biggest challenge confronting the industry because it ripples across everything providers do. This will be discussed at the national summit in a number of sessions such as those from Mark Carter and

Concurrent session – ACSA Summit 2017, Cairns

SPONSORED FEATURE Michael Goldsworthy. With many NFP aged care providers struggling to stay afloat, the industry is seeing more transformation in terms of amalgamations, mergers and partnerships.

Expect to hear about emerging and future trends, the opportunities, challenges and their impact on the aged and health care sectors.

“All the issues we are confronting come back to funding that is sustainable. We know 43 per cent of residential age care providers are operating at a loss. There are financial stresses across the sector and recent government funding changes have had an impact,” Sparrow says.

“As a community we need to have a conversation about what older Australians expect, how we fund it and how we deliver it in the future. It has to be a combination of tax payer-government funding and individual contributions. We have been pushing this message for a while but have reached the sharp end where it is now incontrovertible that we need to take action to deal with the financial issues we are facing,” Sparrow said.

“ACSA has been involved in many spheres but there is a growing realisation of the hurdles ahead because it affects our workforce, which is another huge challenge in its own right. We know there is growing demand for services and if we don’t take action now it will have repercussions on everything we are trying to do.”

Workforce and industry development

Professor John Pollaers, Chair of the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce, will discuss at the summit the work of the taskforce, its key learnings and the strategic actions explored that will build the aged care workforce of the future.

The aged care workforce is one of the country’s fastest growing areas of employment, as reflected in recent employment data, and the workforce will need to grow from around 360,000 now to around 1 million workers by 2050.

“Workforce issues are arguably both the biggest challenge and opportunity the sector faces so discussions around this topic are important to be a part of,” Sparrow says.

ACSA is also expanding investment in the workforce planning and development space, taking a successful state workforce and innovation model national. Initially launched in Tasmania, the concept was developed to deal with current and emerging workforce shortages in the aged care services industry.

The ACSA Workforce & Industry Development Team will focus on building member capability to drive a strategic approach towards workforce planning and development.

Through this work, ACSA will enable Aged Service Organisations and a range of stakeholders to connect, collaborate, and build capability and expertise.

This approach, lessons learned, tools used and more, will be discussed by the workforce team at the national summit plus they will have workforce officers, information and resources in the exhibition area. Many of the approaches discussed by previous workforce inquiries and the strategy taskforce have been the focus of activity in Tasmania and can be translated to other regions but with important local input and collaboration.

The first step in expanding this concept will

Plenary session – ACSA Summit 2016, Tasmania

140

speakers

100

exhibition booths

92

sessions

11

networking events

see solutions based workforce forums conducted in selected regions in South Australia and NSW. Whilst the work undertaken in Tasmania will inform and support the expansion with the enabling and collaborative approach, these forums will facilitate customised local strategies based on the specific challenges and operating environment. “We utilise local knowledge skills and expertise and build on that,” says Darren Mathewson, ACSA’s executive director, policy and strategy. “A collaborative approach focused on building provider capability is needed to drive change,” Mathewson tells AAA. Individuals considering a career in aged services could connect with the industry by attending information sessions held around the state and then registering through ACSA’s Aged Care Services Workforce Hub. Registered training organisations and employment agencies can also connect to the hub, which means the entire industry is involved in the recruitment process, says Mathewson.

These processes support the recruitment of and a pathway for those who are the right fit for the industry. He says a key benefit is that the hub concept is easily translatable, particularly across regional areas, where staff shortages can be acute. It connects all the players around the individual and the industry, giving them opportunity and support.

The national summit will provide the opportunity to hear about the industry driving workforce of the future both at the national and regional level with the practical approaches and programs that realise real outcomes. n

ACSA National Summit 2018 3-5 September International Convention Centre, Sydney www.acsanationalsummit.com Contact ACSA: 1300 877 855 enquiries@acsa.asn.au www.acsa.asn.au

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