More than one in three home care services failed to meet all 42 Aged Care Quality Standards during the period, with compliance flatlining over a 12-month period, according to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's (ACQSC) Sector Performance Report for the June 2024 quarter.
“The rate of compliance in home services remains unacceptably low,” the report stated. “We increased our audit program for home services in 2023-24 and that focus continues in 2024–25. Home service providers can expect our audits to include:
• careful review of management processes and how they apply across services
• close examination of risk management systems and governance arrangements.”
In the last two quarters, the ACQSC has been assessing all of a home care provider's services at the same time to identify systemic issues, which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of assessments.
Organisational governance (Quality Standard 8) was, again, and as for residential aged care, the standard with the lowest rate of compliance – 30% of home care services failed to meet all organisational governance requirements – up from 23% in the first quarter.
Ongoing assessments and planning with consumers (Quality Standard 2) was the second least-compliant standards for home care services, with 21% non-compliant.
Quality Standard 6 (Feedback and complaints) entered the top 3 non-complaint issues for home care with 20% non-compliance.
“Providers are not meeting their obligation to use feedback and complaints to improve quality. The Commission will be taking action on this,” the report said.
Non-compliance with this standard showed up in complaints data, with lack of consultation/communication the most complained about issue for home care services. Fees and charges coming in second.
Case management, coordination and care planning is the third most complained about issue.
During the quarter, the ACQSC issued 20 non-compliance notices to home care providers, mostly due to providers submitting their quarterly financial reports late.
