Senator Ludwig: The Minister for Health and Ageing has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question: (1) (a) During 201-11, the Department entered into a total of 525 new consultancy contracts with a total value of $50,871,382.31. (b) The Department entered into a total of 451 and 429 consultancy contracts during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 financial years respectively. Details of individual contracts and their values can be found in Section 4.3 of the Department of Health and Ageing Annual reports for the relevant financial years. These reports can be accessed at the following link: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Annual+Reports-3 (c) The Department’s staff numbers are recorded as part of the Annual Report process for each financial year. Staff numbers for respective financial years are displayed below. Year Staff Numbers 2008-09 4,926 2009-10 5,287 2010-11 5,421 Staff numbers include: Headcount figures of departmental staff at the end of each financial year (i.e 30 June) Inoperative Staff Staff employed at Australian Commission of Safety & Quality in Health Care. While externally funded, staff in this organisation are employed via the Department’ (2) (a) The Department has entered into nine (9) arrangements with ANF to the total value of $1,032,430.59 since 1 November 2007. These figures are according to the Department’s contract reporting system as at 25 August 2011. (b) A breakdown of these nine contracts can be found at Attachment A. (c) In the 2010-11 Budget, the Government announced that it would fund a body of research into the staffing inputs that are adequate to provide good quality care, supervision and support for particular resident profiles. The Department received a submission from the ANF which met the requirements of this research project and delivered value for money. A grant was then provided in accordance with the Commonwealth Grant Guidelines. (d) Due to an administrative error, details of the grant provided to conduct a research study on staffing levels, skills mix and residential care needs were initially posted on the AusTender site on 14 July 2011, as opposed to the grants reporting webpage of the Department’s internet site. Details of the grant were removed from AusTender and published on the Department’s grants reporting webpage on 15 August 2011. ATTACHMENT A Contract No. Vendor Name Contract Start Date Contract End Date Contract Purpose Contract Value 3000028398 Australian Nursing Federation 31/01/2008 30/01/2010 To Support the Community Aged Care Workforce - Mainstream Round 1 $24,200.00 3000029473 Australian Nursing Federation 29/04/2008 31/05/2008 To Provide Support for Publishing "Nurses Paycheck" Through the ANF Website $20,000.00 3000031225 Australian Nursing Federation 30/03/2008 15/02/2009 Funding Agreement with Standards Australia $141,908.00 3000034705 Australian Nursing Federation 24/11/2008 1/09/2010 To Support the Coalition of National Nursing Organisations meetings $113,300.00 3000035162 Australian Nursing Federation 23/12/2008 30/06/2009 To Develop an Evidence Base on Nursing in Primary Health Care $25,630.00 3000038499 Australian Nursing Federation 29/06/2009 1/10/2011 To Provide Better Skills for Better Care Program Funds for Education & Training of Aged Care Workers $9,514.59 3000044961 Australian Nursing Federation 24/06/2010 29/07/2011 To Provide Secretariat Services for the Coalition of National Nursing Organisations & Develop Framework for Nurse Credentialing $97,883.00 3000050142 Australian Nursing Federation 29/06/2011 29/07/2012 To Provide Secretariat Services for the Coalition of National Nursing Organisations $49,995.00 3000050380 Australian Nursing Federation 30/06/2011 30/06/2012 To Conduct a Research Study on Staffing Levels, Skills Mix, & Residential Care Needs in Australian Aged Care Facilities $550,000.00