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Australia’s first Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner has been appointed to lead the new and independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Announcing the appointment of Janet Anderson (pictured), Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt said Ms Anderson would oversee establishment of the Commission as it prepared to begin compliance monitoring from 1 January 2019.
Mr Wyatt said Ms Anderson was First Assistant Secretary, Health Services, in the Department of Health from 2012 to 2015 and Director of Inter-Government and Funding Strategies in the NSW Department of Health between 2006 and 2011.
For the past two years, she has held the positions of Deputy Chief Executive and Acting Chief Executive of the Northern Territory Department of Health.
Mr Wyatt said the new Commission would have a budget of almost $300 million over four years, employing dozens of additional senior compliance officers.
“It will immediately integrate and streamline the roles of the current Aged Care Complaints Commissioner and the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency,” Mr Wyatt said.
“From January 2020, it will also incorporate the Department of Health’s aged care compliance responsibilities.”
He said Ms Anderson would oversee the approval, accreditation, assessment, complaints resolution, monitoring and compliance of Commonwealth-funded aged care providers.
The Minister said Ms Anderson would be assisted by aged care medical expert, Professor Michael Murray.
In a separate development, Mr Wyatt announced that a new Aged Services Industry Reference Committee would begin work immediately to bring industry and consumers together in order to set competencies and skills needed to deliver safe, quality aged care services in Australia.
“The need for a dedicated focus on the aged services industry’s skilling and workforce requirements was a major finding from the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce Report,” he said.
