The Australian Government is introducing a range of practical measures to improve accountability and transparency in the aged care sector. The Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) Act 2022 establishes new requirements for aged care providers and expands the role, powers and functions of the Commission. It implements 9 measures and responds to 17 recommendations from the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The Explanatory Memorandum to the Act provides a useful summary of the new requirements for approved providers. We have developed the following fact sheets about the reforms: Of the 9 measures implemented under the Act, 4 are directly relevant to the regulation of aged care. From 1 December 2022, the SIRS extends from residential aged care to home care and flexible care delivered in a home or community setting. This includes providers of Home Care Package, Short-Term Restorative Care at home, Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care (NATSIFAC), Multi-Purpose Services Program and Transition Care Program services. The Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Incident Management and Reporting) Instrument 2022 has now been registered. This legislative instrument includes details about how the SIRS will apply to home services. The Commission has published guidelines on SIRS for home services providers. Aged care providers notify the Commission of SIRS reportable incidents through the My Aged Care Service and Support portal. A user guide for home services providers and staff, ‘How to access and use the Service and Support Portal for Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS): In-Home Care’, is available on the department’s website. As more information becomes available, we will continue to update our SIRS webpage. A Code of Conduct (the Code) has been introduced for aged care providers, their workers and governing persons. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Amendment (Code of Conduct and Banning Orders) Rules 2022 detail the 8 elements of the Code and what it means for approved providers of aged care, their governing persons and aged care workers. To assist approved providers to understand their obligations under the Code we have published a comprehensive Code of Conduct for Aged Care: Guidance for providers. The Code of Conduct for Aged Care: Guidance for aged care workers and governing persons will assist workers and governing persons to understand how they must behave and treat people receiving aged care services. We also have a dedicated webpage that explains what the Code will mean for people who receive aged care. The reforms will introduce new governance responsibilities for approved providers, including requirements regarding: To assist approved providers to understand their obligations, we have published our guidance for providers. To view the legislation, go to Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Governance and Reporting for Approved Providers) Principles 2022. For more information, visit our Provider governance webpage. New consent arrangements will be introduced around restrictive practices. These will more clearly set out who can give consent in situations where restrictive practices are necessary for a person who is unable to provide consent themselves. For more information, visit our Minimising restrictive practices webpages for providers and people who receive aged care. The Aged Care Quality Standards provide a shared understanding of what is expected in aged care, and are a valuable resource for older Australians, their families, aged care providers and people working in the sector. In March 2021, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety called for an urgent review of the Aged Care Quality Standards. The Department of Health and Aged Care has consulted with groups from across the aged care sector, and the broader community, to understand what changes should be made. The strengthened Quality Standards will be: The department concluded a 6-week public consultation on the draft revised Aged Care Quality Standards on 25 November 2022. This consultation was launched with a webinar on 17 October. Feedback from this consultation process will inform further changes to the strengthened Quality Standards, which will be included in the review report submitted by the department to Government at the end of 2022. The review of the Quality Standards is being done within the context of broader aged care reforms. This includes changes to the Aged Care Act 1997, provider responsibilities and developing a New Support at-home Program, Star Ratings system and expanding the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program. Further information on this reform is available on the department’s website. We will actively support providers to understand and prepare for the new obligations. This will include publishing guidance resources, as well as offering education on what is expected of providers under the new provisions. We will also be supporting older Australians, their families and carers to understand the changes and what they can expect from them. We will continue to publish updates on the reforms in this section of our website. Stay up to date with our updates on the reforms, including new resources and activities, by regularly visiting our website and subscribing to the monthly Aged Care Quality Bulletin. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for regular updates about the aged care sector reforms. We are hosting a series of webinars on the aged care reforms from a regulatory perspective. Please check this page regularly for: Registration for webinars open no later than one week before the event. Note: the content of the webinar held on 13 September was the same as that covered in the 8 September webinar. We are developing document with responses to questions asked during our aged care reform webinars that, due to time constraints, we could not address during the sessions. This document will be regularly updated. SIRS for home services – Webinar Q&As as at 30 November 2022 Code of Conduct for Aged Care – Webinar Q&As as at 16 November 2022 Webinar Q&As as at 20 October 2022 Questions relating to regulatory requirements of the reforms can be submitted to agedcarereform@agedcarequality.gov.au. Responses to de-identified questions will be added to this page and updated regularly. You can also read more about the government’s aged care reform initiatives on the Department of Health and Aged Care's website.Overview of reforms
Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) expansion into home services
Legislative instrument
SIRS guidelines for home services providers
My Aged Care SIRS user guide for home services providers
Code of Conduct for Aged Care
Strengthening provider governance
New restrictive practices consent arrangements
Revised Aged Care Quality Standards
Support from the Commission
Reform webinars
Reform webinar recordings
Introduction to aged care sector reforms – a regulatory perspective
Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) for home services
Code of Conduct for Aged Care
Strengthening provider governance
Reform webinar Q&As
Submit a question
More information
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Monday, 5 December 2022 - 3:36pm