From Steve's desk

It’s been a busy couple of months with operational teams hitting some key milestones and earning well-deserved recognition.

Starting with a shout-out and welcome to our latest Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme intake as they settle into 17 of our residential care homes across Queensland and New South Wales. This program is making a practical difference helping to meet workforce needs, particularly in some of our more remote locations. A huge thank you to the many people who have been supporting the 98 strong team – Australia’s largest single intake – through their induction and training. You can read about some of their experiences getting to know new team mates, residents and local areas here.

In April, 200 leaders came together for the 2024 Operational Roadshow. This was a first in bringing all service lines together to find better ways to serve our customers and provide feedback on important topics like the Group’s new Care and Service Governance framework – a great initiative and a real differentiator for us.

In May I shared with you my thoughts on outcomes from the Federal budget – a mixed bag for aged care. On the plus side, the Government committed to fully fund wage rises from Stage 3 of the Work Value Case but missed the opportunity to pass the Aged Care Taskforce recommendations. Once enacted, these recommendations will provide more certainty around funding to inform future pay increases – as always as soon as we receive the funding, we’ll pass it all on to employees. Once again the new Aged Care Act was delayed and while the 24,100 increase in home care packages was welcome, it will not be enough to reduce the queue or make a real difference for the many people experiencing extended waiting periods for care they need now.

Also in May, our focus on positive ageing was recognised internationally at the 12th Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards in Singapore, with two major wins. The first was Operator of the Year: Active Ageing for encouraging older people to live well and age with purpose. The second was Innovation of the Year: Employee Wellbeing recognising the raft of effective workplace health and safety programs in place across the Group.

We are starting to see our brand come to life in uniforms, fleet and building signage across our homes, villages and communities. More to come on this as we prepare to introduce our single brand externally with a campaign starting in Victoria from end June and from September in other states. This campaign will help raise awareness of who we are, what we do and the valuable work our teams undertake. You may see it on television, in print, on billboards and online. In this edition you can take a look at An Australian Story – our very own book filled with some amazing facts and stories from Bolton Clarke’s 139-year history. It’s an extraordinary read!

On the Research Institute front, as part of our work with the Ending Loneliness Together program, we will be hosting a roundtable event in Melbourne to raise awareness with policy makers about the largely hidden issue of chronic loneliness and social isolation in older people. The focus will be on actionable evidence-informed solutions that promote social connection.

Other major milestones include welcoming the first residents at our newest retirement living community, Callisto Place, in Melbourne in June and seeing Willowdale residential care home in Sydney reach almost 75 per cent occupancy just 10 months since opening its doors.

All these achievements are a direct reflection of YOUR commitment, hard work and dedication.

You can read about these topics and much more in this edition of Montage.

Enjoy exploring this issue.

Steve