At a Council Meeting on Wednesday 21 February, the difficult decision was made to start exiting from providing several in-home services for older residents (domestic assistance, personal care, respite care, individual shopping assistance, property maintenance and home modifications).

We will start transitioning the 650 residents currently receiving in-home services clients in stages over the coming months. We will have a team of staff, as well as a new ‘Community Connector’ service, to ensure the smoothest possible transition for clients, as well as establishing our Council as the first port of call for older people wanting trusted advice on how to navigate the entire, often complex, aged care system.

We expect everyone will have a new provider by the end of August 2024, and current clients will not experience any gap during this transition as our staff will continue to visit them until arrangements with not-for-profit providers of their choice to take up these services have commenced.

Under our new ‘Village Model’, we will continue to deliver meals and social support programs, provide a free hop-on hop-off community bus to help people get around and stay socially connected and run activities including our annual Seniors Festival and valued Linking Neighbours program.

You can read the Council Meeting minutes here.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback about the proposed changes to Aged Care services in Port Phillip. We have now reviewed all community and client feedback and created a report to inform Council.

We heard from approximately 650 community members, more than 90% over the age of 60 years old.

We heard that our community would like:

• support from Council to change over to a new provider
• new providers to offer quality services that are cost effective and tailored to individual’s needs
• more opportunities for social connection
• a single point of contact with Council and support to navigate aged care services.

You can view the report here.

The Australian Government has made changes to how it funds services for older people as part of its aged care reforms. The Council supports these reforms to make life better for older people, helping them stay independent at home while improving quality and safety.

After reviewing our current services, we've found it's not possible for us to meet the new requirements for in-home services.

Council is proposing to continue to keep offering community-based services like social programs, transportation, delivered meals, and the hop on hop-off bus service.

In home services such as cleaning assistance, personal care services, individual shopping assistance, respite care, property maintenance and home modifications are proposed to be delivered by specialist aged care providers appointed by the Australian Government.

Additionally, we are working on a new service called the Community Connector service to help older people access and connect into various services, activities, and information they need to age well.

Visit the Australian Government's website on aged care reforms for more information about the changes.

The picture above shows which Aged Care services are proposed to be provided by Council, and which would be delivered by other specialist aged care providers under the proposed change.

Please drop in to either of our sessions below to hear more and chat to one of our friendly Council staff members.

Pop by one of our 'Neighbourhood Conversation' sessions which take place around Port Phillip. For details click the blue button below.

Please note these events have now taken place.

You can find a paper (hard-copy) version of the survey at St Kilda Town Hall, or at your local library. Translated versions of the survey will be available in a variety of languages.

Please return hard-copy surveys to 'Aged Care Services, St Kilda Town Hall, 99A Carlisle Street, St Kilda'. Note: surveys must be received by Sunday 10 December 2023.

Please note we are no longer accepting surveys.