OUTSTANDING SMALL RURAL COUNCIL INITIATIVE

Hepburn Shire Council

Hepburn Shire Council Community Life Team

Aged Care and Disability Services Transition

Hepburn Shire Council sought to understand the impacts of the Commonwealth Aged Care reforms so that their Council could make informed decisions that would be in the best interests of the Hepburn community.

A small, rural Shire with only 15,000 people and limited resources, Hepburn developed a project control group to oversee the project, ensuring that strict probity and governance requirements were met along with extensive community consultation. This resulted in Council making a decision to transition to two new service providers and the creation of a community-wide positive ageing strategy.

Providing Council a thorough understanding of the reform environment so that it could make an informed decision regarding the future of service provision for particularly vulnerable community members meant wide consultation was necessary.

Pop up consultations were held across all villages and hamlets in the Shire and included consultations on the development of a positive ageing strategy.

Occurring during the pandemic, important letters to clients and family members were hand delivered so that they would be the first to know of Council decisions while postal delays were expected. Consultation extended to other councils which have been on similar journeys and which have since contacted Hepburn for advice and resources in transitioning to new service provision paradigms with new providers.

This process saw the council bring on value-aligned service providers which brought with them service provision features that would ensure a seamless client journey for community members. Community feedback on the transition has been overwhelmingly positive, with the council continuing to play an important role in helping the community navigate ageing and aged care services.