ACWA IPART submission: August 2024
On 19 August ACWA lodged its second submission with IPART to inform its upcoming discussion paper focused on the costs and pricing of OOHC. The submission comprises a paper on the specific economic cost pressures experienced by OOHC providers in FY 2023–24, and a series of case studies evidencing the positive outcomes providers have been able to achieve for children and young people, which ideally, will also deliver longer-term cost savings for the NSW economy.
This recent submission should also be read in conjunction with the March 2023 submission ACWA prepared giving feedback on the IPART Terms of Reference, and related cost and resourcing pressures facing the sector.
We also provided IPART with documents relating to ACWA’s current and planned work examining future options for addressing the shortage of foster carers in NSW given its relevance to IPART’s ongoing investigation into the cost and pricing of OOHC.
- Demographic Outlook: Impacts on the availability of foster parents
- Demographic Outlook: Impacts on the availability of foster parents (Narrative Summary)
- The future of foster care in NSW: A portrait of future carers
In previous news, we advised that ACWA had established an advisory group involving 15 providers to assist us in responding to the review, along with a subgroup of 8 financial and operational leaders representing the 8 providers. This sub-group agreed to assist in providing IPART with more in-depth information to better understand cost and pricing issues across the sector by completing much more detailed information requests from IPART than were issued to the rest of the sector last month. They also worked closely with ACWA and our actuaries, PFS Consulting, to prepare the costs pressures paper and case studies.
ACWA wishes to especially thank and acknowledge the substantial input of our IPART advisory group for their valuable contributions to these documents.
IPART is expected to call for written submissions in response to the discussion paper in October, with a public hearing also likely to occur in the fourth quarter of the year.
ACWA will continue to keep members informed of developments relating to the IPART review.
