It’s the last week of June and we’re catching our breath.
After months of relentless momentum of clients scrambling to ready themselves for the new Aged Care Act due 1 July—there’s now… a pause. A pushback. A quiet. Or at least, a quiet relative to the storm that’s been.
At P.J. Recruitment we’ve felt it too. We’ve been stretched across the country, from the southernmost tip of Tasmania, through regional Victoria, and all the way to the top end of the Northern Territory.
There’s a strange synchronicity between what we’re seeing across Aged Care and what’s happening behind the scenes here. Boom. Bust. Scramble. Pause. Breathe.
We recently explored how the Support at Home program would reshape home care delivery, offering more choice for older Australians, and with this placing a serious demand on the clinical workforce. The (now delayed) 1 July rollout was always ambitious and left most aged care providers grossly stretched with additional projects, above BAU and little money in the kitty to get this going.
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Now, with the Aged Care Act delayed to 1 November, providers find themselves somewhere between relief and recalibration. And many are asking: What does this mean for operations, for leadership, and for our people?
A Timely Pause, Not a Step Back
The delay offers breathing room, but as Ageing Australia CEO Tim Symondson reminded us at the Peak State Conference that took place earlier this week:
“This is not a moment for us to take the foot off the pedal. This is the time we needed to get some of those basic things right.”
According to Symondson, this delay is not about slowing down, it’s about doing it once and doing it right.
For consumer advocates worried about rushed reform, he added:
“They don’t want to go ahead with something they’re worried will not deliver those greater outcomes… I was starting to sense they were very concerned that older people were going to suffer because of the rushed nature of some of these changes and the confusion that it might cause.”
“This is three months to get some of those basic things right so that older people’s care is better after the Act than it was before, not the other way round.”
Boom, Bust, and the Burnout Cycle
The reform timeline may have eased, but the pressure hasn’t disappeared. If anything, the past few months have revealed just how fatigued the sector really is.
- Providers have been working around the clock to interpret reform requirements, rebuild clinical frameworks, and backfill leadership roles, all while juggling day-to-day operations.
- Aged Care Leaders (especially in rural and regional settings) have been trying to make change stick without breaking their teams and often without the dollars.
- Workforce planning has become both urgent and overwhelming, particularly as many organisations still lack the registered and enrolled nurses needed to support the reform agenda.
So Where To From Here?
This is the moment to recalibrate, not retreat. The extra three months gives providers a window to:
- Strengthen governance and clinical systems
- Reinforce interim leadership while permanent hires are still underway
- Check in on the wellbeing and resilience of key managers
- Ensure Support at Home readiness doesn’t fall off the radar.
At P.J. Recruitment, we’re seeing a shift, from firefighting to future-proofing. Clients are using this pause to get their leadership mix right, reduce pressure on overworked staff, and align their structures with what’s coming in November. We’re being engaged to recruit more newly created roles than what have historically fallen across our desks at any one time.
A Pause Worth Using
This pause in policy doesn’t mean a pause in purpose. We’re digging deeper to support clients through this reform, and ensure that the people we place are going to make a difference, both commercially and to the care and service end that users receive. Both gains.
The past few months have reminded us just how demanding this sector is, and how many leaders are carrying more than their fair share. Whether it’s the CEO trying to interpret another policy brief, the clinical manager stepping into operational gaps, or the board member juggling a CEO’s resignation. Everyone is stretched. My team included! You can only do what you can do. Expectations from the Government on aged care providers have been epic. Expectations of our clients are sometimes epic too. We all need to just do our best, for each other.
So the question isn’t just: what does this delay mean for aged care?
It’s: how do we use this moment to reset, to pace ourselves, and to support those who are holding it all together, so we’re not just surviving through reform, but building something better on the other side.
I’m going to be preaching this practice also with my team. To pause, pace ourselves and support our clients who have been trying to hold it all together for what seems like forever. We can only do what we can do, with zest, professionalism and commitment.
We’re here for that conversation, and consideration. With the people doing the real work. With the leaders who don’t always get time to pause. I’m even encouraging clients to call it like it is. To say out loud ‘it’s too much and too hard’ at the moment. Everyone has a home life, a professional life and external factors that sometimes become too much to handle. And with the organisations who want to keep delivering, without burning out their best people along the way.
So let’s all pause for a bit in terms of intensity of the way we work, and recalibrate.
Let’s keep talking.
Let’s keep building.
Let’s use the pause wisely.
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