Royal Commission into Age Care Quality and Safety Submission on the Impact of COVID-19

This submission was prepared for the Royal Commission into Age Care Quality and Safety and drew from the findings from the Centre’s ‘To Health and Happiness: WA’s Health Industry Future‘ report, along with analysis from a range of data sources.

The submission asks the Royal Commission into Age Care Quality and Safety to:

• recognise and commend the contributions that personal aged care workers make to the care and comfort of older Australians living in residential aged care facilities;
• call for a review of the remuneration of personal care workers according to the level of tasks they currently perform in providing care and support to aged care residents;
• ensure that personal care workers are not being required to undertake tasks that should be provided by registered or enrolled nurses within the sector;
• recommend reform to the JobKeeper wage support package to ensure that multiple job holders within in the residential aged care sector, and their employers, are not disadvantaged in the level of support they receive relative to those holding a single job.