Minister for Mental Health and Ageing Mark Butler today announced that more than 12,000 new aged care places throughout Australia, worth over $400 million will be on offer as part of the 2011 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR).
The 12,000 extra places to be rolled out this year builds on the 234,000 aged care beds and community care places already operational.
“Increasing the number of aged care places is essential to meeting the challenges of our ageing population. The Gillard Labor Government is providing more funding, for more services, to more older Australians than ever before,” Mr Butler said.
The ACAR is the major funding round in the aged care industry each year and sees new Australian Government-funded aged care places allocated to service providers through a competitive process.
“Places will be on offer to the providers who best demonstrate they can meet the growing needs of the ageing population in their local region,” Mr Butler said.
“Applications are independently assessed and judged against criteria including financial strength, capacity to provide care and providers’ past experience in delivering care.”
The ACAR will give aged care providers the opportunity to apply for:
• Residential, community and flexible aged care places worth more than $400 million a year;
• Up to $150 million in zero-real-interest loans;
• More than $58.5 million in capital grants to build or upgrade residential aged care facilities; and
• Extra Service status for new or existing facilities.
This year’s round demonstrates the Government is continuing to invest in developing and improving aged care experiences for the nation’s oldest Australians.
Since 2007, the Labor Government has increased funding to aged care by over 34 per cent.
In addition to our substantial investments in aged care, the Government is building a national aged care system that will provide better support for older Australians.
The Productivity Commission is developing detailed options for redesigning Australia’s aged care system and the Government will consider these options in full when the final report is delivered later this month.
The invitation to apply for the 2011 round will appear in major national and regional newspapers on Saturday 18 June 2011 and applications will close on Tuesday 2 August 2011.
To help prospective applicants, information sessions will be conducted from Monday 20 June to Thursday 30 June.
Details of the venues and times of the information sessions will available from the Aged Care Information Line on 1800 500 853 and on the Department of Health and Ageing website at www.health.gov.au/acar2011.
Application forms and supporting materials will be available on the Department of Health and Ageing website at www.health.gov.au/acar2011.
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