Supporting you with the Prudential Standards
While Peter Edwards is taking a well-deserved break, I am pleased to have this opportunity to bring you this month's Insights while I am acting as Executive Director, Financial & Prudential Regulation.
I thought I would use this opportunity to share the new educational resources the Commission has developed to support you in financial and prudential matters.
In December 2022, Peter discussed why the Prudential Standards are important. In short, the Prudential Standards cover governance, liquidity, records and disclosure, and they detail your responsibilities about the use and management of your consumers’ refundable deposits. When you meet the Prudential Standards, your organisation can grow and continue to improve aged care and services.
A new poster and a series of factsheets are available to help you understand, and assess your compliance with, the standards. You can view these resources below:
When used and managed appropriately, refundable accommodation deposits can provide a source of additional income for your business. There are certain things, known as permitted uses, that you can use refundable deposits for. The Permitted use of refundable deposits webpage hosts a range of factsheets and informative videos to introduce you to the permitted uses and your obligations in managing refundable deposits. We also have three permitted use learning modules available on the Commissions’ Aged Care Learning Information Solution, which is free for all employees of Commonwealth-funded aged care providers to access.
These resources have been designed to help you understand your obligations and build the skills and knowledge to make best practice financial governance and operations your everyday standard. We look forward to continuing to support you and we are focussed on developing more engaging and relevant resources for you and your staff. Don’t forget to share these resources, and this post, with all personnel involved in managing refundable deposits.
Thanks for joining me. Next month Peter will be back for his regular insights and will spend a bit of time discussing the relationship between prudential regulation and management of quality and safety of care delivered to older Australians.
Paul Heinemann
Acting Executive Director, Financial and Prudential Regulation