Source and Approval of In?Home Care Support Grant Funding

Question

Senator O'SULLIVAN: I want to start with the in-home care sustainability support grant. Firstly, Minister, both a bouquet and a brick. I appreciate the way that we were able to engage with you on this. This is obviously an important issue. While it's a small proportion of the total number of families in Australia-a small number, with some 800 or so that are impacted-it is obviously very impactful for them. So I appreciate that some steps have been taken to help resolve the affordability issues for in-home care. That's the bouquet. The brick is that it's taken a long time to sort this out and they haven't had the support for quite some time to cover the cost difference in wages, and obviously those out-of-pocket costs over the last couple of years have been borne by families that really have struggled. I've had much representation saying that it's become very unaffordable, and there are families that absolutely rely on in-home care because of their situations. It's not necessarily just their preference, but it's a necessity for them to have in-home care provided for them. As we explore this, there are still some gaps that may still need to be filled, but we'll see how we go. I want to understand the $5 million in-home care sustainability support grant. Can you advise which appropriation program or budget measure this funding is being drawn from? Ms Crane: That's come out of the Community Child Care Fund, which sits under 1.1. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Is this new funding or has it been reallocated from an existing- Ms Crane: It's existing funding. Senator O'SULLIVAN: The grant does not appear as a discrete measure in the budget. I couldn't see it anywhere; maybe I missed it. Why was this funding not specifically disclosed in the budget process? Ms Crane: This was not part of the budget process. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Can you table the advice provided and the funding approval documents relating to the establishment of this grant? Ms Crane: We're happy to take that on notice. Senator O'SULLIVAN: The grant was announced on 2 June, just a couple of days before estimates. When was the decision to establish this grant made? Ms Crane: I'd have to take on notice the exact date. What I would say is that some of the insights and the stakeholder feedback that you have referred to, in terms of working with stakeholders around what the impact has been or where services are feeling the pinch, has been with the department for a while. We've been working through what that looks like. But, as for the actual date on decisions, I'm happy to take that on notice.

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000685.pdf (opens in a new tab)