A new model for regulating aged care consultation – Summary Report 2023
This report summarises stakeholder feedback received during public consultation related to Consultation Paper No. 2: Details of the proposed new model and the department’s response.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission) made 148 recommendations to help improve quality and safety in aged care. In response, a comprehensive program of reforms is now underway.
In its findings, the Royal Commission noted that the current regulatory framework is no longer fit for purpose: “Ineffective regulation has been one of the contributing factors to the high levels of substandard care in Australia’s aged care system. Regulation should seek to prevent harm to people receiving aged care services and ensure that instances of substandard care are detected and addressed.”
In response, and consistent with the reform agenda, a new model for regulating aged care (the new model) that places older people in Australia at the front and center of its design has been developed. The new model is designed to drive cultural change across the sector, improve outcomes and protections for older people, and restore trust in the system.
The new model aims to be:
- Risk-proportionate, enabling regulation to be applied differentially based on the risk associated with the care.
- Person-centred, ensuring that the quality and safety of older people in Australia is at the heart of the regulatory framework.
- Rights-based, ensuring protections are in place and the rights of older people are upheld and respected.
- Continuously improving all elements of service delivery by equipping providers and workers with the right resources to deliver safe care.
There are four safeguards that will help deliver on the new model by mitigating the risk of harm to older people, increasing protections for older people, and encouraging continuous improvement in service delivery.
These safeguards contain a broad set of tools that will be implemented to help achieve these goals:
- Supporting quality care – focuses on working with providers and helping the sector to lift the quality and safety of aged care service delivery.
- Becoming a provider – the way entities will become an aged care provider and remain suitable to continue delivering services to older people.
- Responsibilities of a provider – the obligations providers must meet to facilitate the delivery of quality care and enhance the protections, rights and delivery of services provided to older people.
- Holding providers accountable – the ways in which outcomes for older people will be achieved by facilitating quality care and deterring poor performance through monitoring, compliance, and enforcement activities.
An important focus on the new model is the establishment of a new registration model for providers delivering aged care services. This registration model includes grouping of service types (nursing, personal care, etc) into registration categories and then applying obligations on providers that facilitate quality, safe and accessible care for older people.
The new model informs the development of a new Aged Care Act (the new Act) and its subordinate legislation. It supports the new Act, in-home aged care reforms, and other recommendations from the Royal Commission. The new model is expected to commence with the new Act.
This paper consolidates feedback under the four different safeguards and includes the next steps for the department to action your feedback. More details on the new model is in the department’s Consultation Paper No. 2: A new model for regulating Aged Care – Details of the proposed new model.
