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LASA Budget Response: No Surprises But Liability Looms

Tuesday 14 May 2013, 10:04 pm

NEWS RELEASE

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Age Services: Budget 2013 No Surprises but Liability Looms

“Budget 2013 has no real surprises, nasty or nice for the age services industry,” said CEO of peak industry body, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) Mr Patrick Reid

“This budget has been pitched as balancing structural spending with structural saving to support the government reform agenda in a tight fiscal environment. LASA welcomes a budget with no surprises but laments a lost opportunity to further enhance the reform process by ensuring that funding matches the cost of care for older Australians.” said Mr Reid

Read more here

Information Technology in Aged Care Conference: Technology the key to meeting age service demands

Tuesday 30 April 2013, 10:18 am

The Aged Care Industry IT Council an joint entity of LASA and ACSA will host its annual 2 day conference in Melbourne this week.  Assistive technologies are an essential ingredient to enhancing care, reducing cost and enabling more 1-2-1 human interaction between staff and clients. The conference will hear from Australian and international speakers with experiences in topics as wide ranging as how technology changes the way we communicate, enabling the consumer care directed revolution to how a simple robotic vacuum keeps older Australains living in their own homes longer. Read more here

LASA Demands Proper Parliamentary Scrutiny of Aged Care Bills

Monday 29 April 2013, 10:05 am

LASA will present to the Community Affairs Committee Inquiry scrutinising the 5 Aged Care Act related bills to enable the policy changes announced under the Governments Living Longer Living Better reform.  LASA is clear reform is needed and like most stakeholders agreed with the findings of the Productivity Commission  in 2011.  LASA will be furnishing amendments to the legislation but the key issue is the bills before the Senate are ‘superstructure’ legislation. These bills contain little detail. The vast amount of detail is found in the related principles and yet these principles have not yet been made available.  The government expects that this legislation will pass blindly through parliament.  This is exceptionally poor process and LASA will be making it clear that age service providers and older Australians deserve the same respect this committee gave to disabled Australians when it reported after scrutinising the NDIS legislation, saying that without related detail legislation could not pass. Read more   here

LASA: Leading the Way in Age Service Transformation

Wednesday 20 March 2013, 1:41 pm

Age Services are amidst the greatest reform known. Last week amendments were tabled in the Federal Parliament to the Aged Care Act to enable passage of the Living Longer Living Better (LLLB) policy. Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) is the peak body for age service providers, covering both not-for profit and private providers of community care, residential care and retirement living.

“LASA has just concluded a national road show to ‘test the pulse’ of providers of age services across the country about the reforms.  Feedback from over 630 members was clear; while a reform process was needed there are a number of key issues that need refinement before the legislation passes.” said LASA CEO, Patrick Reid.

“With the road show completed last week LASA has moved quickly, convening a meeting of its national board, under the chair of Gen Peter Cosgrove (retd) along with LASA state CEO’s. Yesterday a delegation representing not for profit and private providers of residential, community and disability services met with Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler.” said Mr Reid. more

Age Services: Government Continues to Fail Older Australians

Tuesday 05 March 2013, 1:01 pm

Today, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing announced a workforce compact for age services workers. At a time when staff availability and quality is the critical issue and will continue to be so for the long-term, the compact has failed. Leading Age Services Australia, unions and the government spent many months in negotiations in order to deliver wage increases to some of Australia’s lowest paid workers.

‘The compact is strikingly similar to aged care reforms. It is a ‘tinkering at the edges’ that will not address the real issues faced by the industry.’ said Mr Patrick Reid, CEO of industry peak body, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA).

‘LASA supports an age service workforce that is appropriately paid and well trained but how can this happen with an industry that is put under even greater financial pressure? Workers need secure appropriately paid jobs. In age care high quality services are virtually impossible to implement when funding in no way matches the daily demands of resident care or services required.’  said Mr Reid

050313 News Release: Workforce Compact

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