More than one-third of Home Care services failed to meet the Aged Care Quality Standards in the March quarter, a seven percentage point increase from the same period a year earlier.

"We are concerned about this and have increased the number of quality audits we do," the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) wrote in its Sector Performance Report for the March 2024 quarter.

For the first time, as the ACQSC assessed each provider, assessing all services as part of the single quality audit, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of Home Care Quality Audits conducted in the quarter.

"By focusing on providers rather than individual services, we are better placed to understand risks and issues facing older people receiving care," the report states.

"We want to understand if these issues are related to how the provider operates or if they are just about the individual service."

The ACQSC is now 'watching' all providers "all the time" to identify risks early, including through monitoring of mandatory reporting, complaints, reports of serious incidents, and audits, the report notes. This results in a smaller number of providers requiring "heightened supervision". Early remediation was required in 10 instances for Home Care during the quarter, compared with one notice to remedy and no sanctions.

Other Home Care highlights during the March 2024 quarter from the report were:

• A Home Care pricing audit of 54 providers found outdated Home Care agreements were being used, incorrect prices were published on website My Aged Care, and consumers were charged different price to those on their monthly financial statement.
• Ongoing assessment and planning with consumers had the highest rate of non-compliance with 36% no complying.
• Case management, coordination and care planning are three of the top 10 complaints received about Home Care.
• There is only 76% compliance with Standard 8 (Organisational governance), well below the rate for residential aged care.
• Complaints about fees and charges, and management of finances still account for 3 out of the top 5 most complained about issues in home services.
• There were 732 reports of neglect (57% of total Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) notifications) and 48 reports of unreasonable use of force, amid a 9% increase in notifications for Home Care services.

Read the report here.