• Community Services (retired), Standard 23/05/2013
• Disability, Standard 13/08/2015

National Disability Agreement: f(1)-Rate of non-Indigenous persons and Indigenous persons admitted to permanent residential aged care, 2013
Community Services (retired), Standard 23/05/2013
Disability, Standard 13/08/2015

National Disability Agreement: f(2)-Number of non-Indigenous persons and Indigenous persons receiving permanent residential aged care services, 2013
Community Services (retired), Standard 23/05/2013
Disability, Standard 13/08/2015

National Disability Agreement: f(3)-Number of non-Indigenous persons and Indigenous persons who separated from permanent residential aged care to return home/family, 2013
Community Services (retired), Standard 23/05/2013
Disability, Standard 13/08/2015

1. The data used to measure the number of younger people in residential aged care are from an administrative data collection designed for payment of subsidies to service providers.
2. Data measuring the potential population is not explicitly available for the required time point and so has been estimated from several different sources under several key assumptions (note that the potential population definition has changed for this reporting cycle). The assumption of constant age-sex specific proportions of the potential population over time is contradicted by comparison of age-sex specific rates of severe/profound core activity limitation from The Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) 2003 and SDAC 2009, which indicate an overall slight decline in rates between these two time periods (note that the potential population has not been derived for SDAC 2003). A further assumption that national level age-sex specific proportions of the potential population from SDAC 2009 apply consistently across states and territories is untested.
3. There are issues with the consistency of the numerator and denominator for this performance indicator, as the numerator and denominator are drawn from differently defined populations and different data sources.
4. Data measuring the Indigenous potential population is not explicitly available for the required time point and so has been estimated from several different data sources under several key assumptions. Previous research has confirmed that Indigenous Australians experience severe or profound core activity limitation at more than twice the rate as non-Indigenous Australians but relative rates by age group and sex, across states and territories and remoteness areas, have not been fully investigated. In particular, caution should be exercised in comparing indicators for jurisdictions with very different remoteness area distributions of Indigenous population.
5. The use of 2006 Census data to adjust underlying age-sex specific potential population rates to account for the higher level of disability among Indigenous Australians involves mixing self-report data from a relatively simple instrument for measuring need for assistance with sample survey data collected by trained interviewers using a comprehensive survey instrument. The cultural appropriateness for Indigenous people of data collection instruments designed for the total population is not known; nor is it known how this, combined with different data collection methods, impacts on the accuracy of the estimated Indigenous potential population used in this indicator.
   

Approved providers of residential and community care submit data to Medicare Australia to claim subsidies from the Australian Government. This data is provided to the Department of Health and Ageing to administer services under the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care Principles. The data for the numerator of this benchmark were prepared by the DoHA. The AIHW did not have all of the relevant datasets required to independently verify the data tables for this indicator.

The AIHW is an Australian Government statutory authority accountable to Parliament and operates under the provisions of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987. The AIHW provides expert analysis of data on health, housing and community services. More information about the AIHW is available on the AIHW website.

For information on the institutional environment of the ABS, including the legislative obligations of the ABS, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

Performance measures are provided for 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.

DoHA Aged Care Data Warehouse: Claims are submitted by approved providers on a monthly basis for services delivered under residential age care, CACP, EACH and EACHD. Data for the previous financial year are available in October each year.

SDAC 2009 and Census 2006 data is used in estimating the potential population. These surveys will be updated in 2012 and 2011 respectively, with results to be made available in 12 to 18 months after the end of the reference year.

Results for SDAC 2012 and Census 2011 had not been released at the time of preparation of the performance measures (SDAC 2012 is still being conducted).

Estimated Resident Population data are produced each quarter, with results published six months after the reference date.

Indigenous Population Projections are produced irregularly – the most recent release was in 2009. As these data are projections, there is no timeliness issue as information for the performance measure reference years has been available for some time prior to those reference years.

Information on definitions used in the DoHA Aged Care Data Warehouse is available in the Aged Care Act 1997 and Aged Care Principles, and in the Residential Aged Care Manual 2009.

The ABS website provides information and data on the ERP, Census Need for Assistance and SDAC profound or severe core activity limitation. Detailed data extractions are available through the National Information Referral Service (cost-recovery applies).

Data from several different sources, each referencing different time periods, are used to produce performance indicator f. Data used are from the DoHA Aged Care Data Warehouse, SDAC 2009, ERP and ABS Indigenous Population Projections. This may reduce the overall accuracy of the estimates. In particular:

• Data from DoHA aged care data warehouse, ERP June 2010, ERP June 2009, ERP June 2008, ERP June 2007, and Census 2006 cover all geographical areas of Australia, whereas the SDAC 2009 does not cover very remote areas nor Indigenous communities.
• Data from the SDAC 2009 does not cover very remote areas nor Indigenous communities, whereas the other data sources cover all geographical areas of Australia.
• The use of SDAC 2009 age-sex specific rates of severe/profound core activity limitation to calculate 30 June 2008, 2009 and 2010 potential population assumes these rates to be consistent over time. A comparison of age-sex specific rates of severe/profound core activity limitation from SDAC 2003 and SDAC 2009 indicates that most agesex specific rates have declined between these two time periods (note that the potential population has not been derived for SDAC 2003). Overall, the rate of severe/profound core activity limitation for people aged 0-64 years has declined from 3.9 per cent in 2003 to 3.6 per cent in 2009.
• The use of national level SDAC 2009 age-sex specific potential population rates assumes these rates to be consistent across States/Territories. This assumption is untested.
• Information from Census 2006 about people with need for assistance with core activities is based on the self-enumerated completion of four questions, whereas people are defined as having a severe/profound core activity limitation in SDAC 2009 on the basis of a comprehensive interviewer administered module of questions, and thus the two populations are different although they are conceptually related.
  

The DoHA aged care data warehouse provides complete coverage of aged care services funded by the Australian Government under residential age care, Community Aged Care Packages (CACP), Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH), and Extended Age Care at Home Dementia (EACHD) programs.

The DoHA aged care data used to calculate the numerator of this benchmark are from an administrative data collection designed for payment of subsidies to service providers and have accurate data on the number and location of funded aged care places. Being a sample survey, estimates from the SDAC 2009 are subject to sampling variability. A measure of the sampling variability, the relative standard error (RSE) per cent, is estimated below for the age-sex specific rates of severe/profound core activity limitation.

Estimated RSE for age-sex potential population rates at national level (per cent)

Source: Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2009 unpublished data.

Potential sources of error in Census data include failure to return a Census form or failure to answer applicable questions. Data distributions calculated from Census 2006 data excluded people for whom data item information was not available. Should the characteristics of interest of the people excluded differ from those people included, there is potential for bias to be introduced into the data distributions. Quality statements about Census 2006 data items can be found on the ABS website.

See also ABS data quality statements.

The DoHA aged care data used to construct the numerator of this benchmark are consistent and comparable over time. For measure f i, there are issues with the consistency of the numerator and denominator, as the numerator and denominator are drawn from differently defined populations and different data sources. These issues reduce the consistency of the performance indicators and lead to quality issues.

While the numerator is taken from the DoHA aged care data warehouse, the denominator is an estimate derived from SDAC and ERP data. In the denominator, ‘estimated potential population for specialist disability services’ is defined as the estimated population with requiring, or entitled to, disability services. However, this does not match well with the numerator, which consists of people who used specialist residential aged care services. People who used these services may have a mild or moderate core activity limitation or limitations in other activities.