Canning: public meetings to guide where aged and disability services funds are funnelled

MEMBERS of the Canning community who access the council’s aged and disability services packed a public meeting to discuss potential restructure in the face of Federal funding changes yesterday.

The meeting was lead by Ansell Strategic managing director Cam Ansell, the firm commissioned by council to undertake a full review of the City of Canning’s aged care and disability services.

Currently City of Canning receives all aged care funding and allocates it throughout the City’s facilities, but from February 2017, the Federal government will fund the consumer directly.

The meeting was one of two public opportunities for the community to ask questions about possible future care in the region, a second meeting is being held this Saturday at 11am.

Mr Ansell outlined the project, which included an evaluation of existing operations in the context of sector reforms, changing demographics and consumer preference.

He said Australia’s ageing population put pressure on existing infrastructure that did not compare to modern standards and warned switch to consumer first reforms in February 2017 meant time was of the essence.

Canning director of community development Tania Trengrove told the meeting no decision had been made, and any decision would be made in the best interest of the community using or poised to use the services.

“The council will be involved in all engagement activities to gain as much information as possible before they make a decision,” she said.

The community is urged to provide feedback on the finding to council by 4pm June 17, and a report will be tabled to council at a special council meeting in July.

Service review findings Canning Lodge: Redevelopment in the short to medium term required in order to be relevant to the needs of future care recipients. Retirement villages: The sites require redevelopment and this is challenging because of the small scale, substantial cost and limited available land at both dites. Community Care Services and Home Care Packages: Restructure and substantial investment into systems, processes and marketing initiatives required in order for services to adapt to sector changes. Disability services: There will be a need to explore a broader service offering that caters for the holistic needs of clients. Strategic options Option one: Restructure and redevelop; invest in redevelopment of aged care/retirement living buildings. Option two: Sell property assets and restructure services; sell residential aged care and retirement living services, restructure home care, community and disability services. Option three: Rejuvenate and expand- partnership; work with specialised organisation better equipped to rejuvenate and expand offering in Canning. What the community said “It’s already difficult to market villas in the retirement village even though they are in lovely locations… it costs a lot of money to run a village that is not meeting consumer expectation.” – Cam Ansell “You highlight choice, but how would intellectually disabled people like my daughter and her husband make a choice.” – William Booth “We all know that the city gives the best practice to the community … they are to be applauded but it seems to me these options are skewed to handing over to outside organisations.” – Margaret Adams. “Obviously Canning City Council would be a lot better off if we didn’t have the cost of redeveloping things and the cost of HACC, as far as I can tell the best option is to hand over to private enterprise.” – Gay Chambers