As we enter the festive season, it is an opportune time to reflect on the year the LSA has had and highlight the events and achievements of 2023.
This year we capitalised on the opportunity of highly relevant national conferences taking place in Adelaide. I attended the PIEF personal injury and disability national summit in August and the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Spinal Cord Society (ANZSCoS) in November. These events were valuable opportunities for insurers, researchers, injury and disability specialists and service providers to come together to share insights and discuss issues to help us all achieve better outcomes. With these being held in Adelaide, many of our front-line Services team were able to attend from a professional development perspective.
In May, I travelled to Sydney, Singapore and London with Boris Petrovic, Director, Corporate to ensure a smooth renewal of our reinsurance coverage for the 2023-2024 financial year. Reinsurance is important to provide cover in the event we have an unusually high participant intake. In the climate of high inflation, this protection is even more critical to ensure we can fund the treatment, care and support participants need for the rest of their lifetime. Our overseas and interstate trips paid dividends with some new reinsurers joining our panel.
In July, we ended the 2022-2023 financial year with our highest ever Scheme intake, accepting 63 Lifetime Support Scheme participants. Sadly, from a participant perspective, this intake reflects poor Road Safety outcomes in terms of numbers of lives lost and those seriously injured in 2023, and we are hoping not to repeat this for some time. Pleasingly, the intake in the first half of the new financial year has been below average.
To ensure the LSA is equipped to support the growing number of participants for the rest of their lives, this year we also developed the Living Life model. In the Living Life stage, participants have increased independence and stable and predictable services, thereby requiring less intensive Service Planner involvement. 30% of participants are currently in the Living Life phase and this figure will increase overtime as the Scheme continues to grow. This significant project outlined how the LSA will support this growing participant cohort.
In November, we also turned on our new core IT system, SALSA2, to replace existing technology that had reached its limits. Developing the LSA’s technical and business readiness for turning on the new system was a significant achievement. The dedicated team worked tirelessly to resolve the teething issues that accompany the implementation of any largescale IT transformation. With SALSA2 we finish the year with greater organisational agility and better equipped to meet the needs of our growing organisation.
Looking forward, I’m also pleased to announce that we will have two new Board members joining us next year. Tim Binks and Andrew Culley have been appointed effective from 7 December 2023.
Thank you for all of your support in 2023. On behalf of the LSA team, have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.
Regards,
Rick Howe
Chief Executive
