Final Report on RREF 2001 - Department of Health

PART A: BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF THE RREF
REVIEW
SCOPE OF THE REVIEW
Terms of Reference
The purpose of the Review of the Relative Resource Equity Formula, or RREF, used in the
Home and Community Care Program in Victoria is to provide advice to Victoria’s Minister for
Housing and Aged Care on options for improving the RREF as the means for distributing
HACC growth funds to the nine Department of Human Services regions. The RREF is the
resource allocation formula used to ensure that, over time, funds in the HACC Program are
distributed equitably across the nine regions in the State.
The Terms of Reference of the Review are to take account of:
1. The objectives of the HACC program;
2. The national context for resource allocation in aged care and Commonwealth
planning processes;
3. The basis on which the target population for HACC services is measured;
4. The factors which should be taken into account to achieve equity across
Victorian Regions in the distribution of HACC resources, for example socioeconomic
status, health status, cultural and linguistic diversity and geographic
factors such as remoteness, and the methodology which should be used to
apply those factors;
5. The most effective approach to recognising the needs of rural LGAs;
6. The impact of capacity to raise fees on regional resource allocation;
7. The basis on which judgements should be made in allocating resources
between LGAs within regions;
8. The relationship to local area planning and needs analysis;
9. The planning and resource allocation methodologies used by community
support programs which delivery similar services to HACC in Victoria;
10. The DHS Aged Community and Mental Health Division’s funding reform
project; and
11. Methodologies used for these purposes in other states.
These terms of reference express the concerns that have arisen in the context of the State
government’s concern to expand the HACC Program in Victoria, and to achieve equity in the
allocation of growth funds through the RREF, and to respond to issues raised by provider and
consumer groups about the effectiveness of the current RREF in pursuing these goals.
<strong>Final</strong> <strong>Report</strong> July 2001 1