Mr Mossfield asked the Minister for Family Services, upon notice, on 18 September 1996:

(1) What procedures will the Government establish to ensure consistency of accreditation and accountability between States following the handover of the control of aged care to the States.

(2) What controls will the Government establish to ensure that non-profit organisations receive increased funding to be able to compete with State bodies for service delivery.

Mrs Moylan —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) The reform of aged care programs currently being explored by the Council of Australian Governments involves a realignment of Commonwealth and State roles and responsibilities with the States taking on responsibility for managing aged care programs.

The Commonwealth will have a continuing role in jointly setting objectives, priorities and strategic directions as well as defining performance standards and monitoring performance against agreed outcomes. Access, affordability and quality will be key outcomes against which performance will be measured. The Commonwealth has indicated that it will only agree to changes to existing arrangements if the changes deliver better health and well-being for consumers..

Administrative arrangements, including in relation to quality assurance and accountability will be developed jointly prior to the implementation of agreements between the Commonwealth and the States which is expected to occur from January 1998.

(2) In the residential aged care sector, only a small proportion of services are provided by State bodies. About 12% of facilities are run by State Governments providing about 11% of places. The non-profit sector provides the majority of services, running about 65% of facilities and providing about 63% of places (with the private for profit sector providing the remainder). The non-profit sector currently receives higher recurrent subsidies than State Government facilities. There is no suggestion that the non-profit sector is under pressure from State services, hence it is not seen as necessary to take further steps to help the non-profit sector to compete.