Transforming aged care

A range of changes are being made to aged care, in response to the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

The changes to aged care in Australia aim to achieve six key outcomes:

• respect, care and dignity (this page)

• real control and real choice

• safe and high quality care

• independence through care at home

• easy, consistent and equitable access

• appropriately skilled care

Our progress to date

Since the Royal Commission into Aged Care Final Report, we have made a range of improvements to aged care, including:

• introduced Star Ratings for residential aged care

• introduced a Serious Incident Response Scheme, to make aged care residents safer, and extended this to home care

• improved transparency and accountability around home care pricing and fees

• supported a wage increase for aged care workers

• established the Office of the Interim Inspector-General for Aged Care

• giving older people a formal voice to government through the Council of Elders

• new local, face-to-face support in Services Australia service centres to help older people and their families and carers navigate the aged care system

• initiatives to support providers to grow a skilled workforce

• provided the new Basic Daily Fee supplement to improve care and services – especially food and nutrition – for aged care residents

• stronger controls around restrictive practices

• mandatory quality indicators for residential aged care

• business support for aged care service providers

• introduced the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model, which gives more equitable government subsided aged care funding to residential aged care providers that better matches residents’ needs and the costs of delivering care.

Our plan for aged care reforms in 2023

Some major reforms are ongoing, and we will continue to progress a range of initiatives including:

• reforming in-home aged care

• developing a new rights-based Aged Care Act

• designing a new regulatory framework

• building, training and supporting a compassionate, diverse workforce.

• ensuring registered nurses are on-site and on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in residential aged care homes

• ensuring increased care minutes with registered nurses, enrolled nurses and personal care workers in residential aged care homes

• implementing the National Dementia Action Plan

• ensuring aged care services are safe and culturally appropriate for First Nations Elders

• creating a better-connected aged care IT network to support the broader suite of reforms

Council of Elders

A recommendation from the Royal Commission, the Council of Elders, is a group of older people from diverse backgrounds with lived experiences of ageing and aged care. They play an important role in representing the views of all older people in Australia and provide advice to the Government about aged care reform and ageing well.

Read more about the Council of Elders.

National Aged Care Advisory Council

Also a recommendation from the Royal Commission, the National Aged Care Advisory Council provides expert advice to Government on the aged care sector to support the implementation of the reforms. The advisory council is made up of leaders from across the not-for-profit, government and private sectors, and reports directly to the Minister for Health and Aged Care, and the Minister Aged Care.

Read more about the National Aged Care Advisory Council.