Council man makes care shift
It seems an unusual move, leaving the chamber of local government for the aged care sector.
However, that is exactly what Ray Glickman has done.
From August he will be the new CEO of Anglican Homes, one of Western Australia’s largest aged care providers, leaving behind his role as CEO of the City of Fremantle – a job he has held for the past nine years.
Mr Glickman said he had made the change because he wanted to move into a more commercial role.
"I’m also the chairman of Therapy Focus, a not-for-profit group, so moving into a big commercial role with a social purpose was a good segue for me," he told WA Business News.
Mr Glickman is well aware of the challenges facing aged care, something his role at Fremantle prepared him for.
That means he has no illusions about the opportunities and challenges that face the sector, particularly the Federal Government’s move to bring in building requirements for residential aged care in 2008.
"The accreditation process, at one level, is a wonderful thing. It promises to deliver consistent, modern care," Mr Glickman said.
"At the same time it’s also a challenge in terms of the capital building standards."
Besides the aged care preparation, he was also managing a $50 million a year budget at the port city.
Mr Glickman said one of the things that attracted him to the Anglican Homes role was the fact that the organisation had spent the past few months putting together a strategic plan.
"It lays out the type of organisation it wants to be. They’ve certainly done a lot of homework," he said.
Mr Glickman said his initial Anglican Homes role would be one of organisational development.
"That’s one of the main things I’ve been doing at Fremantle," he said.
"I put in place a cultural change program to make the organisation more business like.
"That’s the sort of thing this organisation [Anglican Homes] wants to do to make sure it can compete and deliver on its Anglican mission."
Anglican Homes has 1,500 staff and volunteers.
It has five nursing homes with 261 beds, 10 hostels with 448 beds, two dementia specific hostels with colocated respite centres, 19 independent living villages with 835 units and three dementia-specific day centres.
Those facilities are located throughout Perth and in Mandurah, Kalgoorlie and Albany.
While it is the principal aged care agency of the Anglican Diocese of Perth, the organisation receives no financial support from the diocese.
Anglican Homes also has a catering division, Total Catering Solutions, which has had short and longer-term contracts to provide meals to a range of organisations including the Cancer Foundation of WA, the City of Belmont, Hakea Prison and Royal Perth Hospital.
