Consumer protection:

This submission examines the Aged Care Investigation Scheme (CIS) against principles of best practice in complaint handling and finds significant areas of improvement. The analysis takes into account the circumstances of aged care residents and their family carers who are in a difficult situation when making complaints. Since the resident is in the full time care of the organisation which is the subject of the complaint, family carers and residents naturally fear retribution. This requires the CIS to be more flexible when accepting complaints and reviews of decisions. The areas of improvement include : transparency and accountability, reporting and review procedures and separating powers of the CIS from the Department of Health and Ageing.