On Wednedsday 17th March, Prestige was visited by two auditors from the Department of Social Services for a standards review. As the manager of 20 Home Care Packages (HCP) on behalf of Lifestyle Aged Care, Prestige is obliged to undergo this standards review on a regular basis.

This year the review’s criteria was particularly dictated by the upcoming changes to Inhome Aged Care. These changes will take place from the 1st of July 2015 and aim to place a heavier focus on Consumer Directed Care (CDC). Under these changes, clients will have an increased involvement in the money being spent on their care and the services available to them. Lucky for Prestige, CDC has always been at the core of our business.

The department has not audited Prestige since November 2013, so it was necessary for us to review and assess all client files, policies and procedures to ensure they reflected both the upcoming changes and the kind of high quality service we strive to deliver. On top of dedicating these documents to the care of our Home Care Package clients, Prestige also employs two highly skilled case managers to support their needs and wishes.

The auditors pulled apart our policies and procedures, as well as our client files, and assessed them against three standards:

1. Effective Management
2. Service Delivery
3. User Rights and Responsibilities.

They also contacted and questioned a number of Prestige care staff and clients.

Although Prestige has not yet received the final report, all feedback suggests that we passed with flying colours. We are a stand out company in terms of consumer directed care and the auditors told us that many other organisations comment on how fantastic our service is.

We would just like to congratulate our General Manager, Bronwyn Mcpherson, and our two Case Managers, Aaron Cockram and Stephanie Burman, for their outstanding work and preparation in the lead up to the audit. We are very proud of all the work you do!