Help us prepare for aged care service changes

The Federal government is making significant changes to the funding and delivery of aged care service following recommendations from The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

The changes come in to affect from 1 July 2025, and will impact services delivered by Council that:

  • Support healthy ageing
  • Help people remain at home
  • Encourage safety, mobilisation, living well, and staying connected and independent within the community.

My Aged Care provides the entry point to Australian Government–funded aged care services for the general public. Visit the My Aged Care website or phone the contact centre on 1800 200 422 for more information.

Client eligibility for Council delivered aged care services is determined by the Victorian Regional Assessment Service (RAS) through face-to-face home support assessments of people seeking entry-level support services at home.

Council currently receives funding from the Commonwealth Government to deliver home care services to people living in our community via the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP).

The CHSP is a Commonwealth funded program that delivers entry level services to people who need basic assistance to remain living at home. The range of services includes:

  • Home care
  • Home care cooking
  • Home Care Shopping
  • Personal care
  • Access and support program
  • In home foot care program
  • Home exercise program
  • Respite care
  • Delivered meals
  • Home safety program
  • Social support

In addition to the Commonwealth funded services Council also provides a broad range of services that support healthy ageing and encourages residents to feel safe, mobilise, live well, remain connected and independent in their community. These include:

  • Home and Community Care Program for Younger People – funded by the Victorian Government to support individuals, who are 65 years and under (or 50 years and under for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), with daily tasks for to assist them to remain living independently at home and in the community.
  • Social support programs and activities
  • Healthy active living programs
  • Community wellbeing bus

The changes under “Home Care Reforms” impact aged care services delivered under the CHSP.

From 1 July 2025 it is anticipated that eligible Mount Alexander Shire residents will have choice over who, how and where their services are delivered and will have the opportunity to choose an aged care provider that can deliver a range of services that suits their current and future needs and priorities. This may or may not be your current provider. For example, a resident may choose to have delivered meals by one provider and personal care by a different provider.

For Council to remain a provider of some or all community-based aged care services, it will need to compete for available funding, retain current clients and attract new clients to purchase its services to remain viable.

Council will also need to introduce changes to the way it currently manages and provides community aged care services to meet future regulatory requirements and to remain feasible in a new market environment.

Given the introduction of changes as a result of the aged care reform, Council needs to consider and respond to these future arrangements and explore how it may best meet the needs and aspirations of its older residents and ageing community now and into the future.

At this stage, you do not need to do anything. Council will keep you updated on the progress.

Consultation has now closed

Across January and February this year we consulted broadly to better understand community views, needs and experiences around in-home and other aged-care services. We do this work as we prepare to respond to the upcoming changes.