5 Stars for our Richardson House
What makes a good aged care home? We asked a ‘star’ in our region.
Edited from The Northern Daily Leader
Jonathon Hawes 10th June 2025
While aged care facilities in the New England region have rated well, a government report shows there’s room for improvement.
Last week, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) updated its quarterly Star Ratings report – the report assigns one-to-five star ratings for all government funded aged care homes.
On the bright side, not a single facility across New England had an overall rating below three stars (acceptable) with the majority hitting a four-star (good) rating.
Three of the 31 government-funded aged care facilities were given an overall five-star (excellent) rating.
We asked one of the three, Barraba’s Richardson House, what makes an aged care home 5 stars and what they think other facilities should do to improve their rating.
“You need to work as a tight-knit team. Everyone’s involved in it, from the people that work here right through to the rest of the community,” Richardson House facility manager Hellan Philp said. “We just try really, really hard, even though the government keeps throwing difficulties at us every five seconds.”
One of those difficulties is convincing qualified nursing staff to move to Barraba, a small town 90 kilometres north of Tamworth with a population of about 1329 people.
Ms Philp only became Richardson House’s facility manager nine months ago. In that short time, she’s managed to hire three addition Registered Nurses (RN’s) to work at the facility.
But despite having five RNs for the 21-bed facility, the DHDA still gave Richardson House only three stars for its staff rating, which makes up 22% of its overall score.
“In a little remote area where there are minimal rentals and a minimal talent pool, it’s been really difficult for us, and I think that’s true for anybody in a rural area.” Ms Philp said.
The data suggests Ms Philp is correct.
The DHDA’s quarterly report classified all New England aged care facilities as being in rural towns (as opposed to regional centres or metropolitan). For many facilities, staff was the only metric to fall below a three-star rating.
“The Government is saying little facilities need to have RNs 24/7, even in situations where it’s not really needed,” Ms Philp said. “Having an RN 24/7 is lovely in theory, but it’s an unrealistic expectation in practice.”
But staffing isn’t the only issue imposed by the tyranny of distance. A lack of services has also been a problem. Richardson House has been relying heavily on telehealth services to make up for a shortage of local GPs. To combat this, Ms Philp says the most important tool is building community connections.
“We try and connect with our community, so we use our own local suppliers, so we use Barraba’s own greengrocer, Barraba’s own butcher. We give back to the community and they give back to us,” she said. “…We also try to get our residents input into just about everything, from what plants we put in the garden to how often cleaning should happen. It’s about collaboration with everyone involved. This is where people live, it’s their home. They have to be happy, they have to be comfortable and they have to have trust that we’ll look after them, and I hope with our 5-star rating that’s what comes across.”