Wangaratta Council is in the process of removing itself as one of the major home care providers in the North East.
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The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme made it too risky for the council to continue the packaged care program in its previous form, offering services to 12 different municipalities.
From next year, it will be cut back to just clients in Wangaratta needing specialist services such as podiatry or home improvements.
Council candidate Ken Clarke raised the issue at October’s meeting, after the quarterly finance report revealed an extra $270,777 left over from the services.
Chief executive Brendan McGrath said money belonged solely to the program, funded by federal or state government grants.
The council initially proposed to scrap the whole program, because the system where individual clients could choose their own services was too risky to stay involved.
But some of the 23 home care jobs were saved after lobbying from workers.
“We’re in the process of transitioning each individual that’s not in Wangaratta to another care provider and we expect that process will take until about August or September next calendar year,” Mr McGrath said.