February Star Ratings data from the Department of Health and Aged Care (DOHAC) revealed that residents at 220 aged care homes reported they never feel safe.
Two of those aged care homes received an overall Star Rating of 5, whicxh is the highest available. The publicly available data was investigated by News Corporation, with state mastheads across the country covering their own reports, with stories branded "exclusives".
Most of the homes with residents who reported they never feel safe are small (fewer than 60 residents) and for most, the percentage that reported those feelings was lower than 10% so the actual number of residents who never feel safe is likely to be less than 0.5% of the total resident population (approximately 200,000 residents) according to our back-of-envelope calculations.
In total, there were 2,612 homes reporting data in February.
Star Ratings plagued with problems
Star Ratings were introduced by DOHAC in December 2022 in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, with one of the aims to increase transparency in the sector. A risk of additional data gathering and transparency is that the data can be used for manipulative reporting.
Star Ratings, which cost the Government millions to develop, have been under pressure since Dr Rodney Jilek, Managing Director and founder of dementia care provider Community Home Australia, published a discussion paper in January 2024 titled 'The Failure of the Aged Care Rating System'.
Since then, the Government has awarded consultants Allen + Clarke a $580,000 contract to assess the Star Ratings and make recommendations for improvements.
After Allen + Clarke handed down their findings, consultants KPMG were awarded a $390,000 contract to conduct consultations on the proposed changes to Star Ratings. Rodney branded the findings "useless".
The peak body for aged care providers Ageing Australia also found "significant limitations" in Star Ratings while the Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said Star Ratings are "not sufficiently meaningful" to help people make informed decisions about aged care services.
