Sydney based private client home care operator, DIAL-AN-ANGEL, is merging with Government funded home care operator, Nextt. Family owned DIAL-AN-ANGEL was established in 1967 by Dena Blackman and is now led by her daughter Danielle Robertson (both pictured). They have 1000 registered ‘Angels’ plus 55 office staff with locations across Sydney, Central Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth offering cleaning, child care, aged care and nursing. Nextt has 50 in-house staff plus 500 community care staff.

Robertson will take on responsibility of Business Development in the new group while Nextt CEO Rex Comb will become Exec. Chairman.

The private home care space is being reshaped as operators prepare for the full move of government reallocation of funds from providors of home care to the consumers themselves – Consumer Directed Care - commencing in July 2015 (nine months away).

The UK experience with CDC is that aggressive private operators took 40% market share from the traditional not for profit operators who were slow to adapt to providing consumers what they want rather than what NFPs traditionally gave them.

Here in Australia the NFPs have been proactively preparing their staff for this new consumer focussed world.
The MD of Just Better Care Canberra, Fergus Nelson (pictured), had to transfer his father-in-law to Sydney to access an aged car place after waiting two months in hospital for a local vacancy, such is the shortage of beds in the ACT.
Canberra received $161M in aged care funding in 2013 or $420 per Canberra resident. The national average is $584.
The Federal Government says the number of aged care places will increase to 125 per 1000 people aged 70+ by2021-22.

Is this a sign of things to come? ACSA CEO John Kelly keeps making the point that 200 new aged care beds need to be built each week for the next seven years to maintain the current balance of supply. This in part explains the escalating value of private care operators. 

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