The Department of Health and Aged Care has published the Final Draft of the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
An urgent review of Australia's Aged Care Quality Standards, which were introduced in 2019, was announced in March 2021, in response to recommendations 19 to 21 of the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
The main areas of focus were governance, diversity, dementia, food and nutrition, and clinical care.
The Department of Health and Aged Care led the review, helped by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, which determined the clinical care settings.
Consultation on a Draft of the Standards was conducted between 17 October and 25 November 2022 with both the public and the aged care sector. Consultations included 18 online focus groups, a webinar, and a survey.
The Department then ran a pilot of the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards from April to October 2023 with 40 aged care providers, and consulted widely.
The resultant Final Draft of the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards contains seven standards:
- Standard 1: The Person
- Standard 2: The Organisation
- Standard 3: The Care and Services
- Standard 4: The Environment
- Standard 5: Clinical Care
- Standard 6: Food and Nutrition
- Standard 7: The Residential Community
Each Quality Standard includes the:
- expectation statement for older people
- intent of each standard
- enforceable outcomes
- detailed actions to be demonstrated by a provider under each standard.
The Final Draft of the new standards is included in the Exposure Draft for the new Aged Care Act, which is open to public consultation now. The new standards will take effect with the new Act.
You can read the Final Draft of the new standards here.
