Single Voice for Aged Care Providers
7 July 2011 at 3:15 pm
The national peak body for Not for Profit aged care providers, Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) has announced plans to pursue a merger with the for-profit peak, Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA).
ACSA President Klaus Zimmermann says the ACSA Board has resolved to seek support of its State members for a merged national body.
It is proposed that the existing State Associations of ACSA and ACAA become the members of the new national entity.
Klaus Zimmermann says the merger or restructure of the NFP organisation has been an ongoing debate for many years.
Zimmermann says a single body will make it that much easier to represent all providers and channel their energy into leading the reform process for aged care.
He says the national peak will represent both NFP and for-profit providers who all driven by the same goal of providing quality care for older Australians within a sustainable system.
He says the Government’s commitment to reform the aged care system and the Productivity Commission inquiry provided an unprecedented impetus to resolve the issue once and for all.
He says the proposed Productivity Commission reforms will require consensus and support from all stakeholders including consumers, providers, health professionals and government with aged care providers at the forefront of the reforms and a new national peak will help provide a stronger focus for the industry.
In the past 12 months ACSA says ithas investigated a range of options for restructure and consulted members widely.
The organisation found that maintaining a federation of states with a merged national peak emerged was the preferred option following a recent member survey undertaken by McGregor Tan Research.
A taskforce of three ACSA Board members will oversee the transition process to a new organisation.
