Chief Executive message
This reporting year Catholic Homes continued to deliver its mission to provide quality and compassionate care to older people.
These past 12 months have been significant for the number of developments within the aged care sector that have had wide ranging impacts on the organisation’s operations.
I acknowledge the dedication and skill of our staff who together showed resilience and compassion during and when the COVID-19 situation in Western Australia thankfully began to turn in the latter part of 2022.
As the calendar year ended we saw the withdrawal of the government’s State of Emergency arrangements for Western Australia and an easing of restrictions for aged care.
Our residents, clients and their family members are commended for their sympathy and cooperation as we worked hard to keep people safe.
In 2022-2023 Catholic Homes responded to the many changes coming to us as a result of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
Aged care providers including Catholic Homes were coming to terms with a raft of new aged care regulations, and developments in funding, quality management and compliance.
The evolution of the sector has had fundamental impacts on almost all aspects of the organisation’s operations from consumers’ experience, compliance, staffing and quality measures.
Another key focus of the Commission was the requirement that all residences have in place a registered nurse around the clock and during the year we progressed towards this goal.
Catholic Homes has invested greatly in its workforce, systems and processes to ensure that we are an attractive employer and provider of choice.
Significant achievements for the organisation have included meeting the new Aged Care Code of Conduct, as well as responding to the Government’s regulation of restrictive practices and serious incidents reporting in residential aged care.
During the year we introduced a new payroll and rostering system to achieve greater efficiencies and beneficial outcomes for our staff and the care they provide.
I’m pleased to report that Catholic Homes has maintained full compliance across all its sites in relation to the Australian Age Care Quality Standards.
The Australian national age care classification funding model (AN-ACC) was implemented by the Federal Government during the year.
In order to deliver the proper level care to our residents, we created new support, quality and clinical roles to help our care staff as we looked to deliver more improvements in residential care.
It was with deep sadness that a determination was made to close our Servite residence in Joondanna after more than 40 years of operations because the building and its facilities were considered unsuitable for residents’ requirements.
To assist our people as we worked on the task of decommissioning the service, we appointed additional staff and resources to the residence.
Everyone involved in the process is acknowledged for their compassion and skill in conducting this challenging work.
Thankfully, each of our residents were moved to new homes and many staff took the opportunity to redeploy within the organisation.
As work advanced on our new Sister Mary Glowrey residence in Belmont, we appointed a new customer liaison officer to the residence to help with new admissions.
Despite labour and materials supply shortages, construction of the building progressed throughout the year as we looked forward to its completion later in 2023.
In 2022-2023 we invested in our workforce with a focus on training and development as well as rewarding and recognising our employees.
To further advance Catholic Homes an employer of choice, we implemented new systems in rostering, payroll, financial reporting, reinforced governance and quality oversight, and the provided training and development to further equip staff to deliver quality care and services.
Catholic Homes further recognised the efforts of our staff and the cost-of-living challenges they experienced this year.
We were able to ease some of this pain by passing on a significant wage increase for certain classifications while providing fuel cost relief to our home care workers.
In acknowledgement of our staff for their commitment, Catholic Homes supported a minimum three percent salary increase for certain frontline staff for the fifth consecutive year. This is an incredibly important achievement that goes a long way to reward our staff and promote aged care as a valued and fulfilling career.
Work continues with stakeholder groups on work value case negotiations.
The goal of older Australians to remain in their own home longer was among the highest priorities for the organisation throughout the year.
Catholic Homes has invested in our Home Care services with the appointment of new clinical quality support roles to ensure our staff can deliver excellent service to clients.
To meet increasing demand, we expanded our scheduling team and appointed new allied health practitioners to deliver more in-home services to our clients.
As cost-of-living pressures continued to be felt in the community, Catholic Homes was able to grant a once-off payment to its home care staff to help them manage rising fuel prices.
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Congratulations goes to our chef at Trinity Paolo Bravi for taking out a hospitality industry Brightest Star Award in true recognition of his professionalism and love for his work.
In closing I take this opportunity to acknowledge the devotion of all our wonderful staff who continue to care for and support our residents and clients so that they may live a good life in their homes.
To the Catholic Homes Board and Executive Team, I thank you for your service and support during a challenging year as we worked together to deliver our mission to the community, supported by our common faith and values, to enhance the lives of those we serve.
Paul Andrew
Chief Executive
