Media Release
21 December 2021
The Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC) welcomes the establishment of the National Aged Care Advisory Council as recommended by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and announced by the Federal Government today.
The 17-member Advisory Council of industry and sector representatives will play an important role in providing guidance as we look to the Government to work with the sector in delivering its roadmap of aged care reform announced in the May Budget.
We welcome the diversity of the Council membership which importantly, includes practitioners with direct experience of age services delivery. We congratulate the appointees and are thrilled to have Claerwen Little, Chair of the AACC and National Director, UnitingCare Australia as our representative.
As a sector we are deeply concerned with the progress of the reform process to date, including the lack of a detailed plan and limited genuine engagement with key stakeholders who have much to contribute to the design of our new aged care system.
Although the establishment of the Council is five months later than the Government’s published plan, the sector has high expectations.
We look forward to the appropriate involvement of sector representatives in the co-design and development of major reforms to aged care service delivery. We expect the Council to be responsible for the design of the reform program and accountable for its delivery.
Engaging all stakeholders in key decisions that affect them and transparently reporting progress to the community.
We agree with the Royal Commission that the aged care system must put older people at the centre of everything it does.
We look forward to working together with the Government to improve the quality and delivery of age services for the benefit of older Australians.
The Royal Commission has called for transformational change to the aged care system and the new Aged Care Advisory Council will play a lead role in realising this outcome.