Aged Care Quality Bulletin #6-2026 | Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission

Commissioner’s message

This week, the Government introduced a Bill to amend the Aged Care Act 2024 (Aged Care Act) and establish Australia’s first permanent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner.

Subject to the Bill passing, this independent statutory role will have functions and powers to strengthen the provision of culturally safe, trauma-aware and responsive aged care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Reporting to the Minister, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner will be situated within and supported by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

The new Aged Care Act and Statement of Rights recognise the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander older people to access aged care that is culturally safe, culturally appropriate, trauma aware and healing informed.

Last week Minister Rae announced the appointment of Ms Jodi Cassar to the interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner, succeeding Andrea Kelly through to the proposed appointment of the permanent role. We look forward to continuing to work with the office of the interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner to progress our collaboration and engagement.

In just over 3 months we will gather at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre for our National Aged Care Provider Conference 2026. We have now opened up registrations to allow more than 2 representatives per provider to attend in person. Spaces are limited so I really encourage you, if you haven’t already to register now. I look forward to seeing you in Brisbane in October.

With 2026 already at its halfway point and the start of a new financial year, it’s a busy time in the sector and at the Commission. We’re working to update our fees to better reflect the costs of registering providers. Once the fees have been approved through Parliament and included in the Aged Care Rules 2025, we’ll publish them on our website. We expect to do this in the next 6 months. Until then, the current fees and fee waiver criteria apply.

Continuing in the financial space, we’ve updated our resources to better support providers to meet their obligations. The Evaluated minimum liquidity amount notification form now includes instructions and examples. This should make it easier to complete the form and help providers to meet the Liquidity Standard. We’ve also updated some of our Financial and Prudential Standards resources to better define terms and explain how to calculate liquidity amounts.

This month, we’ll be contacting providers to take part in our targeted review of the Liquidity Standard. We want to find out if they understand their obligations under the new Aged Care Act. Targeted reviews provide a valuable opportunity to focus on a specific issue or group of providers. They help us understand the sector and educate and support providers.

World Refugee Day on 20 June highlighted the diversity of Australia’s population and our long history of welcoming people from around the world. At the Commission we shared stories of refugee experiences to recognise the struggles and successes. It reminds us of our different experiences and backgrounds, which stay with us as we age. To help providers create environments that are diverse and inclusive for older people and for their workers, Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) is offering free diversity training. You can find out more below.

Liz Hefren-Webb
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner

Have you registered for NACPC26?

We encourage you to register to secure your in-person spot at our upcoming National Aged Care Provider Conference (NACPC), hosted by Michael Rowland at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Tuesday 13 – Wednesday 14 October!

In addition to 2 representatives from each provider, additional representatives can now be approved to attend in person subject to availability – so we do encourage you to register today!

The conference will provide an opportunity to hear directly from the Commission, older people and other sector representatives, take part in practical discussions, and connect with sector colleagues from across Australia.

Free registration is open to registered providers of residential care, Support at Home, Commonwealth Home Support Programme services, and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program services.

Limited workshops are being hosted on Monday 12 October for smaller providers on risk, and for larger providers on culturally safe care. If you haven't received a direct invitation and are interested in participating in the workshops, please email agedcare@thinkbusinessevents.com.au.

Aged care reform update

Updated Regulatory Bulletin – Support at Home pricing

We've updated our ‘Regulatory Bulletin – Support at Home pricing’ to further explain providers’ service and reporting obligations, including:

service agreements
transparent pricing and reporting
reasonable pricing.

Key updates include:

further guidance on transition costs
content on requirements for service agreements, monthly statements and individualised budgets
guidance on pricing for care management and directly sourced services (for example under self-management).

The bulletin also includes a detailed case study outlining our expectations of providers entering into service agreements and ongoing requirements relating to pricing, administration and care delivery.

More information about the Support at Home program can be found on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s website, including:

Regulatory action against HELF overcharging

We're investigating several providers in relation to the charging of Higher Everyday Living Fees (HELF) in their residential aged care services.

The Commission has issued notices to a number of providers to compel them to give us information about their decision-making processes and practices in applying HELF in their services.

Several providers have already acknowledged errors in their application of HELF and have offered assurances that existing residents won't experience any reduction in services or imposition of new fees for services that were already in place prior to the implementation of HELF. Where existing residents had been inappropriately charged, providers have made refunds.

As reported in Aged Care Quality Bulletin #5, providers can't charge HELF for services that they are required to deliver under the Aged Care Quality Standards and Statement of Rights, nor can they require residents to enter HELF agreements.

Providers must make sure that charges for extra services are transparent, optional, and in line with legislative requirements. We are also investigating whether providers are properly considering the interests of older people in the decisions that they make about pricing.

The Commission will use its formal regulatory powers whenever provider conduct is unacceptable or unreasonable. If the Commission finds that residents have been charged incorrectly or unjustly, we will use our powers to make sure providers promptly issue refunds to those impacted.

Targeted review on the new Liquidity Standard

In July 2026, we’ll start a targeted review on the new Financial and Prudential Liquidity Standard.

All non-government providers registered in Category 6 need to comply with the Liquidity Standard. This includes having a Liquidity Management Strategy that makes sure they have systems and strategies to manage cash flow and financial risks.

Targeted reviews focus on a specific issue or group of providers. They help us to educate and support providers. If we find that a provider isn’t complying with their obligations, we can work with them to fix the issues.

Through this targeted review, we want to find out how well providers understand and comply with the obligations in the Liquidity Standard (under the Aged Care Act).

Which providers do we choose to review?

We may choose you for this review if:

you’re at risk of not meeting your financial and prudential obligations
you haven’t met your financial and prudential obligations in the past
your organisation is in a location or of a size or type that we want to work with
we think the review would benefit you.

After we complete a review, we produce a report to share our findings. The report includes common mistakes and issues for providers to think about.

We’ll contact the providers we choose for this review in July.

You can find more information on targeted reviews on our website.

Updated resources for the Financial and Prudential Standards

We’ve updated some of our Financial and Prudential Standards resources to help you understand and comply with your obligations.

Updates include:

clearer definitions of cash expenses, cash and cash equivalents under the Liquidity Standard
detailed explanations for calculating and keeping default and evaluated minimum liquidity (MLA) amounts
changes to the form you use to notify us about your evaluated MLA
improved checklists.

We’ve updated these resources:

Financial and Prudential Standards: Guidance for providers
Fact sheets for each standard
Evaluated minimum liquidity amount (MLA) notification form
a poster about the new Financial and Prudential Standards.

Evaluated MLA notification form

You can use the notification form to tell us if you’re:

electing (choosing) to maintain an evaluated MLA
revoking (cancelling) an election (choice) to maintain an evaluated MLA
re-determining (re-calculating) an evaluated MLA.

What’s changed

The new form has:

instructions for completing the form
examples of information to include
a new declaration section
a guide to submitting the form.

We no longer accept scanned forms. Instead, you need to:

download the new form
complete it on your computer or device
email the form to liquidity@agedcarequality.gov.au.

If you have questions, you can email liquidity@agedcarequality.gov.au.

You can find more information and resources on Financial and Prudential Standards on our website.

Annual updates to fees for providers

We charge providers fees to:

assess applications to become a registered provider
renew or vary their registration
do registration audits.

Each year we review and update our fees to make sure they accurately reflect our costs. For example, we apply indexation (automatic adjustment of prices) to keep up with inflation. Inflation is an increase in the level of prices of the goods and services that households buy.

We’re currently updating our fees. To do this, we need approval through Parliament to include the updated fees in the Aged Care Rules 2025. When the fees are final, we’ll publish them on our website in an updated Cost Recovery Implementation Statement. We’ll then start charging the new fees.

We expect this to happen part way through the 2026–27 financial year. Until then, the current fees and fee waiver criteria continue to apply.

You can find more information about fees on our Cost recovery webpage.

Improved provider forms

We have improved our provider forms as well as the process for submitting them. We have:

updated instructions
included new questions
developed clearer guidance.

We have also improved how and when we check the information you enter.

From early July 2026, you will see real time validation checks on the forms you submit. This means that when you upload your forms on our website, our system will automatically check them first to make sure they’re complete and accurate.

If a form is outdated, missing, or has errors, you will get an alert to let you know. This will show you which forms you need to correct and re-upload. The alert system means you don’t have to wait for an email to tell you about the errors.

When we assess your forms, we may contact you to confirm or give us extra information. We will also contact you and let you know if we won’t accept your form and why.

Renewing your registration

Renewal of registration forms aren’t available on our website. We’ll email you these forms before your registration expires. You can learn more on our renew a registration webpage.

Make sure you use the most up-to-date form by downloading it from applications requests and notifications.

You can give us feedback on our forms by emailing info@agedcarequality.gov.au.

Learn more about provider registration on our website.

Voluntary assisted dying – provider responsibilities

Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is when a qualified doctor or nurse helps a person with a terminal disease or medical condition to use medication to end their life. VAD is different from palliative or end-of-life care.

‘Voluntary’ means it’s the person’s own free choice to access VAD. The person must be able (have the capacity) to make this decision themselves.

Registered providers have obligations around VAD under the Aged Care Act, Statement of Rights, and Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS). Providers need to meet an aged care resident’s needs for palliative care or end-of-life care whether or not they’re considering or eligible for VAD.

We have created a fact sheet that explains provider responsibilities when someone in their care is thinking about, or wants to, access VAD.

The fact sheet includes information on:

provider obligations under the Aged Care Act
VAD and the Aged Care Quality Standards
provider responsibilities under SIRS
support for aged care workers and other residents
VAD case studies

More information

Fact sheet – Voluntary assisted dying
End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC)
What is palliative care? Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

Refreshed and improved digital guidance tool

We've updated our digital guidance tool

The digital guidance tool is the home of the Strengthened Quality Standards Guidance, registration guidance and the provider handbook on the Commission website. The tool allows you to easily view our guidance online or download a personalised PDF based on your service characteristics.

We recently upgraded the guidance tool to make it easier to use. Rest assured that the changes are just to the look and feel of the tool - the content and the functionality hasn't changed.

You can access the new look digital guidance tool at Strengthened Quality Standards - Provider Guidance.

Clinical update

Clinical alert: Preventing and responding to dehydration

This month we published a clinical alert on preventing and responding to dehydration in older people receiving aged care services. The alert was in response to a recent coronial inquest in South Australia where an older person living in residential aged care died from acute renal failure caused by severe dehydration. The coroner found that the death was preventable and that it happened because of lack of a systemic mechanism to monitor fluid intake or recognise the potential seriousness of dehydration in aged care residents.

Key points

Aged care providers must be alert to the dehydration risks for the older people they care for.
Providers must support their staff to be able to recognise:
- who is at risk of dehydration
- when to escalate their concerns about an older person’s hydration status.
Providers must make sure they implement strategies to prevent dehydration and maintain these on an ongoing basis.
A comprehensive assessment must be undertaken on entry. Ongoing assessment of the older person must also occur whenever there is a change in condition, a dehydration risk is identified, or symptoms present.
Providers should exercise caution when assessing older people for the signs and symptoms of dehydration. They can be unreliable and appear too late. Assessment should consider the person’s recent fluid intake and fluid losses.
If dehydration is suspected, encourage fluid intake and refer promptly to the older person’s GP or other medical practitioner for medical assessment, diagnosis, and a treatment plan. The medical assessment should include a discussion regarding the benefit of blood testing for more accurate hydration assessment and monitoring.

You can read the full alert, which includes information on what providers and workers need to know, on our website.

Webinars

Audit

Tuesday 28 July 2026, 2.00 pm to 3.00 pm (AEST)

More information will be available close to the event on our website.

Incident reporting in context – what’s changed

Tuesday 18 August 2026, 2.00 pm to 3.00 pm (AEST)

More information will be available close to the event on our website.

Recording available: Open disclosure – the essentials

The recording and slides from our 16 June webinar, Strengthening behaviour support to reduce inappropriate use of restrictive practices, are now available.

The webinar focused on how providers can minimise restrictive practices. Panellists talked about how you can build capability and systems to improve behaviour support and prevent the use of restrictive practices.

Get involved

Join the Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council

Expressions of interest are now open to join the Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council (Advisory Council).

The Advisory Council gives advice on the Commission’s work to the:

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner
Complaints Commissioner
Minister for Aged Care and Seniors.

Council members have a broad range of skills and expertise. Members are appointed by the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors on a part-time basis for up to 4 years.

You can find out more about the Advisory Council on our website.

To apply to be a member, submit your application before 11:30 pm AEST on 14 July 2026.

Training and resources

OPAN Planning for Diversity training

Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) is offering free in-person and eLearning training on diversity.

Who’s Missing: Planning for Diversity training supports providers to:

plan for and provide a diverse and inclusive environment for older people and aged care workers
report on how they provide a diverse and inclusive environment, in line with the Aged Care Act.

This training is for the people at your service responsible for improving quality, planning services and complying with your obligations. It aligns with the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, Statement of Rights and Aged Care Code of Conduct.

The training is available as:

face-to-face workshops
self-paced eLearning.

It will:

help providers understand the 13 diversity groups defined in the Aged Care Act
provide useful tools, including planning templates, training workbooks and real-world inclusion strategies
give teams what they need to put diversity principles into practice.

You can find more information about the training and how to register on OPAN’s website.

Online live learning in July

Places are available for our upcoming live learning sessions in July. Each month, we deliver live learning for people working in the aged care sector. These sessions offer practical tips to support learners to understand how to meet their obligations in their service. Commission facilitators deliver our live learning sessions.

Our workshop topic for July is the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

Places are limited, so head to our Live learning page to learn more or register today.