Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards

The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (strengthened Quality Standards) are a set of requirements for what quality and safe aged care looks like.

The strengthened Quality Standards make sure that the care older people receive:

is safe and high quality
meets their needs and preferences
upholds their rights.

The strengthened Quality Standards are part of the new Aged Care Act 2024 and they applied from 1 November 2025. They’re more detailed and measurable than the previous Quality Standards, which were in place before the start of the new Act.

Why the Quality Standards have changed

In 2021, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended the government urgently review the Quality Standards and update them where needed. The recommendations included:

Recommendation 18: using the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s expertise in developing clinical standards
Recommendation 19: calling for an urgent review of the Quality Standards to include focus on specific areas
Recommendation 20: about regular reviews of the Quality Standards on an ongoing basis
Recommendation 21: identifying priority issues for review.

The Royal Commission found that areas of the Quality Standards could be improved, including:

dementia care
supporting diversity
provider governance
food and nutrition
clinical care.

The strengthened Quality Standards

There are 7 strengthened Quality Standards:

The structure of each strengthened Quality Standard includes:

Intent – which describes the intended overall purpose of the Standard.
Expectation statement – which describes what the older person can expect from their aged care provider related to that Standard.
Outcomes – which describe what providers will be assessed against.
Actions – which describe what providers can do to meet the outcome.

The government will review the strengthened Quality Standards every 5 years so that they continue to improve with best practice.

Go to the Strengthened Quality Standards guidance tool to read:

Quality Standards legislation
information to help you understand each of the standards and how they apply to you.

Assessing performance

We do audits to assess if a provider is meeting the strengthened Quality Standards.

We do an audit against the strengthened Quality Standards when:

an organisation or person is applying to be a registered provider in categories 4, 5 or 6 for the first time (registration audit)
a registered provider is applying to renew their registration in categories 4, 5 or 6 (renewal of registration audit)
a registered provider is applying to vary their registration to add categories 4, 5 or 6 to their registration (variation of registration audit).

Audits help us understand if the provider or applicant can conform with (meet) the standards that apply to them.

We publish the results of our audits on our Find a report page.

See our audit information.

Audit ratings

We give providers a rating against all the outcomes for each strengthened Quality Standard. The overall rating for that standard is based on the outcome ratings. The different ratings we give are:

conformance
minor non-conformance
major non-conformance.

Providers renewing their registration in category 6 can also get an exceeding rating. We consider giving an exceeding rating when the provider:

shows that they conform with all standards and outcomes
meets additional exceeding criteria.

You can find more information about how we assess performance and audit ratings in our audit pages.

Managing non-conformance

Where we find minor or major non-conformance with the strengthened Quality Standards, we make the provider take action to achieve conformance. (Non-conformance means that you did not demonstrate that you’ll be able to meet a particular standard or outcome of that standard.)

We base how we respond to non-conformance on the risk faced by older people. We respond in a way that’s proportionate (in proportion) to that risk. We make sure the provider addresses any risks to the safety, health and wellbeing of older people.

You can find more information on how we manage provider supervision, non-conformance and enforcement by reviewing: