Darebin Council aged-care advisory panel to cost $250,000 and “a waste”, says expert

RESIDENTS have questioned the need of an independent panel of two costing $250,000 commissioned by a northern suburbs council to advise it on aged care.

AN INDEPENDENT expert panel of two costing $250,000 has been commissioned by Darebin Council to advise on the future of aged-care services and how to create an age-friendly city.

But residents have questioned the need for outside opinion and asked the council to commit to providing aged-care services beyond Federal Government changes in mid-2020. Mayor Kim Le Cerf said the council was committed to supporting older people but concern about funding changes triggered the review.

“We know that the people using Darebin Council’s existing services for older people strongly value those services … that’s why we need a broad ranging review and consultation process,” Cr Le Cerf said.

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At the council meeting on May 21, people spoke at length in defence of the service and added signatures to an almost 1400-strong petition requesting the service continued.

Aged-care researcher and former Greens member Sarah Russell said it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money to conduct the search before there was clarity about the system.

Dr Russell said the council staff appeared “ill-informed” and that collating existing research would be a $40,000 job at most.

“The recommendation for an expert panel was clearly based on their own inability or unwillingness to read and collate the evidence from the large body of literature,” Dr Russell said.

The Federal Government My Aged Care service currently allows the individual to choose from council or other aged-care service providers but officers are concerned future funding changes may impact the council’s ability to compete effectively in the market.