Notifying us of a change in circumstances

You must let us know if you have particular changes in your circumstances that are included in the new Aged Care Act 2024 (new Aged Care Act).

You must notify us within 14 days about:

changes or an event that affects your suitability to be a registered provider
changes that affect the suitability of any of your responsible persons
changes in who your responsible persons are
significant changes to your organisation or governance arrangements
significant changes in the scale of the aged care services you provide
changes in the types of services you provide
specific changes to your associated providers
specific changes to an approved residential care home
specific financial and prudential matters.

Types of changes that you need to notify us about

There are 9 types of change in circumstances that you must notify us about.

Changes or event that affect provider suitability

Providers must notify us if there’s a change in their circumstances or an event that affects or may affect, their suitability to be a registered provider.

This change in circumstance is relevant for all providers in any registration category.

You can find more information on Changes or event that affect provider’s suitability.

Changes to the suitability of a provider’s responsible person

Providers must notify us if there’s a change in their circumstances that affects or may affect, the suitability of one of their responsible persons.

This change in circumstance is relevant for all providers in any registration category.

You can find more information on Responsible person changes.

Changes to a provider’s responsible person

Providers must notify us when:

a person becomes a responsible person of the provider
a person stops being a responsible person of the provider.

This change in circumstance is for all providers in any registration category.

You can find more information on Responsible person changes.

Significant changes in a provider’s organisation or governance arrangements

Providers must notify us of any significant change to their organisation. Specifically when entering into or changing an agreement with another entity (organisation or person) to deliver services that support their management or governance function. This doesn’t include entering into an agreement for delivering funded aged care services.

If the provider isn’t a government entity, you also need to notify us if:

there’s any significant change to the provider’s legal or business structure, including a restructure of the organisation, or a sale, acquisition, or merger
the provider enters external administration
the provider appoints a restructuring practitioner
there’s an insolvency event relating to the provider.

Change in organisation arrangements are relevant for all providers in any registration category.

Providers must also notify us of significant changes to their governance arrangements. This is any change that would mean the provider no longer has:

a majority of independent non-executive members
at least one governing body member with experience in providing clinical care.

Change in governance arrangements are relevant for providers who are required to comply with governing body membership obligations under section 157 of the new Aged Care Act.

You can find more information on Changes in organisation or governance arrangements.

Significant changes in the scale of aged care services provided

Providers must notify us of significant changes to the scale of their services, including:

a change to the local government area that you provide funded aged care services in.
This change in circumstance is relevant for all providers in any registration category except providers registered in Category 6.
a significant increase or decrease in the number of their workers that affects their ability to deliver services. This change in circumstance is relevant for all providers registered in any registration category.

You can find more information on Change in scale of services.

Change in types of services provided

Providers must notify us of any change to their intended service types. You should only use this type of notification to tell us about a change in a category that you’re already registered in.

This change in circumstance is relevant for all providers in any registration category except if a provider is only registered in Category 6.

You can read more information on Change in service types.

Changes to associated providers

Providers must notify us of changes to their arrangements with associated providers. This includes:

starting a new arrangement between the registered provider and an associated provider to deliver aged care services for the registered provider
changing or extending an existing arrangement between the registered provider and an associated provider
ending an existing arrangement between the registered provider and an associated provider.

This change in circumstance doesn’t apply to:

individuals who meet the definition of both aged care worker and associated provider (they should be considered an aged care worker)
agreements with an associated provider to supply labour under a labour hire agreement
agreements with an associated provider to deliver services that support the management or governance of the registered provider.

This change in circumstance only applies to providers registered in category 4, 5 or 6.

You can find more information on Changes to associated providers.

Specific changes to an approved residential care home

Providers must notify us of the following changes to their residential care home using the change in circumstance form:

a change that may affect whether the residential care home still meets the definition of a residential care home*
a change to the building or premises that could be a risk to providing quality and safe residential care
a planned construction or renovation that will affect providing aged care services
an unplanned event that will cause sustained disruption to providing aged care services
a change in the ownership of the premises where the residential care home is located, or a change in agreement about how the premises are used as a residential care home

Providers should not submit a Change in Circumstances form for changes to the number of their approved beds. More information is available on Changes to the number of available beds.

*A residential care home is a place that is:

the residence for people who need ongoing aged care services, including nursing, because they’re unwell
fitted, furnished and staffed to provide those services.

It can be:

within, or in the same location as, a hospital or other health service that has a service agreement to deliver aged care services
within a retirement village (that meets the 2 dot points above)
a place that is a complex of buildings.

This change in circumstance only applies to providers in Category 6.

You can find more information on Changes to an approved residential care home.

Specific changes to financial and prudential matters

Providers must notify us of changes to financial and prudential matters. This means any change to a provider’s ability to deliver aged care services, including:

not being able to pay their workers’ entitlements
any change that affects an existing or new revenue source
any time the provider can’t pay their debts when those debts are due.

Changes to liquidity are where the provider isn’t maintaining, or is at risk of not maintaining their default or evaluated minimum liquidity amount.

Changes to financial and prudential matters apply to every registered provider, except government entities.

Liquidity changes only apply to providers in Category 6 that aren’t:

a government entity or a local government authority
providing aged care services through National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP).

You can find more information on Changes to financial and prudential matters.