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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2292 ..

MR CORBELL

make recommendations to the ACT government for planning service delivery over the next five years.

The review covered both territory and Commonwealth-funded programs and examined met and unmet need and ways to better coordinate existing respite care models.

The review was complex as respite care is provided through the Commonwealth Departments of Health and Ageing and Family and Community Services as well as ACT Health, the ACT Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services and the ACT Department of Education, Youth and Family Services.

The report provides 28 recommendations covering the following areas:

overall issues relating to service planning, data collection, community participation, equitable access and work force;

system design issues;

system efficiency issues;

access and linkages to respite care;

carer and consumer rights; and

quality of services.

The report has drawn significantly from consultations with providers and carers to identify issues that are directly affecting the sector and its clients. The report shows that there is a discrepancy between the types of respite arrangements that carers and care recipients want and what is currently available.

Respite services are provided by a variety of organisations, including government service providers, non-government and volunteer organisations, and businesses. All organisations work hard to provide high-quality services, however fragmentation and gaps in service provision do occur.

The government notes that providing better respite services is not only an issue of providing more funding. It is also about broader cultural changes, greater flexibility, and more client-focused services for carers and care recipients.

The government is already in the process of addressing some of the issues around the provision of respite care through respite funding in the 2002-03 budget. Examples of this include:

A cross-portfolio approach to innovative respite care pilot schemes which will provide flexible models of respite care. The pilot will begin in July 2003 and run over 12 months, and will be monitored to identify usage by clients in areas

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