Council
21 December, 2023
Home services continue
MOYNE Shire councillors have voted to continue providing home and community care services after an extensive five-month review.
Councillors voted at this week’s Ordinary Meeting of Council to continue the service after Federal Government reforms prompted council to complete a full review of services to get a clearer picture about how the changes might impact operations.
“We needed to be sure that the services we were delivering were still going to be able to be delivered in a way that best suited our clients in the face of these reforms,” Moyne Shire mayor Ian Smith said.
“Continuing these services provide ongoing security for over 500 existing clients and our hard-working and dedicated teams who are out and about every day providing quality care and services for people in our community.
“We now have a clearer picture on how these changes will impact our service delivery and we are confident we can continue in the space and possibly even grow it.”
The review involved five community forums, surveys, engagement with other key stakeholders and internal discussions with staff.
Cr Smith said the feedback provided showed clients valued locally-based service provision.
“The Federal Government changes to the sector meant it was important to have a good look at our services and make sure they could still meet the needs of the community, who told us they value highly the services our teams provide and the importance of having a local service provider,” he said.
“The review found we can continue in this space and with the addition of Home Care Packages the service won’t run at a loss and can possibly grow.
“This is a great result for our clients, our staff and the wider Moyne community – our trusted and locally based team will continue to provide high quality care in home.”
Cr Smith said teams would now work on optimising services in preparation for the roll-out of the Federal Government’s reforms in 2027, with implementation to be evaluated in a year.