Taxpayer money at risk from special needs loophole

Aged-care providers can tick a box on the My Aged Care website that nominates them as specialists in servicing clients with special needs.

Aged-care providers can tick a box on the My Aged Care website that nominates them as specialists in servicing clients with special needs such as foreign language or LGBTQI, with no proof of qualification, the aged-care royal commission heard on Wednesday.

By promising to support special needs clients, they are favoured in the allocation of funded aged-care places, but the government has never checked whether providers do what they said they would after the aged-care place was secured, the commission heard.

The evidence prompted royal commissioner Lynelle Briggs to warn that the current arrangements risked a “serious misallo­cation of a lot of government money”.

Counsel assisting the commission, Peter Gray QC, asked federal Department of Health official Jaye Smith whether an aged-care provider needed to prove actual expertise before delivering ser­vices to groups with special needs.

“We know there has been functionality added to My Aged Care by which a provider can nominate a specialisation, for example a language. Another example might be LGBTQI. (But) what about the ­aspect of prequalification before a provider is allowed to do that?” he asked.

“It hasn’t been addressed,” Mr Smith replied. “I absolutely accept that quality assurance of that information is critical and we haven’t done that yet.”

Mr Gray also noted there was a “carrot” offered to aged-care providers to care for special needs groups. The quid pro quo was being offered more aged-care ­places if they promised to give ­priority to particular special needs groups. “And yet there has been no follow-up at all, ever, in terms of monitoring whether approved providers have actually been following through with that promise. Is that right?” he asked Mr Smith.

“That’s correct,” Mr Smith said. “No systemic follow-up has ever occurred.” He said it was a priority for the government to put in place a robust process for follow-up conditions of allocations ahead of the next round of aged-care ­approvals.

Ms Briggs, however, was blunt. “This … is a massive issue, not only about the effectiveness of needs-based planning but also about the effectiveness of the allocation of government resources,” she said.

“If you allocate a lot of resources to special needs groups and can’t be guaranteed those resources are being brought to bear to support those special needs groups, then there’s a serious misallocation of a lot of government money, isn’t there Mr Smith?”

Under the Aged Care Act, people with special needs include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, those from non-English speaking backgrounds, people in rural or remote areas, those who are LGBTQI, veterans and people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The commission is this week examining aged-care issues for these groups.