Here we are, almost a quarter of the way through the year already. We had a slightly odd start to the year because of COVID with government employees working from home since Christmas eve and throughout the entirety of January. February saw unusual arrangements for returning to school among other things disrupting our schedules. I am thrilled to say that in March we are properly back to the office and our regular working arrangements have resumed and importantly, throughout all of the disruptions, we have been able to ensure services continue without disruption and we have been able to do what we are needed to do to support the LSS participants.

In February we had our scheduled board meeting as well as a strategy day with the board – more on the strategy progress later in this bulletin. The actuary has advised an adjustment to the portfolio valuation that needs to take place due to the increased life expectancy of current participants. We are well prepared to manage the impact of these adjustments to the portfolio but are closely watching the impacts of war in the Ukraine, as well as the rise of inflation locally, which all affect the valuation of both our investments and liabilities.

Travel is creeping back into life, and I recently travelled to Melbourne with the LSA Chair, Melinda OLeary, to attend the Australian Governance Summit which is an important event on the calendar. With a focus on board governance and key issues boards need to manage, the topics included changes in governance in healthcare during the pandemic, geopolitical challenges in our region, and the focus on social impacts on organisations.

In addition, we took the opportunity to meet with the NDIA to discuss the interaction between their scheme and ours and to understand where we need to collaborate in data sharing as well as gaining an understanding of issues that have historically arisen. We also met with our Victorian counterparts, TAC, who had learnings to share regarding the ongoing challenges in Victoria with COVID. I’m pleased to report a strong commitment from our colleagues to collaborate and share knowledge.

And while we have continued service provision to participants without impact, the logistical uncertainty with the Omicron variants has unfortunately seen the rescheduled International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) event for April 2022 removed from the calendar. Our intention is to ensure we celebrate the next IDPwD during the week of 3 December 2022.

Regards,

Rick Howe
Chief Executive, Lifetime Support Authority

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