The new Aged Care Act will commence on 1 July 2025. We refer to 1 July 2025 as the ‘Transition Day’.
A new regulatory framework will change how the Commission regulates funded aged care services after Transition Day. Through this new framework, the Commission will regulate how providers and workers deliver funded aged care services and safeguard the rights and well-being of older people accessing those services.
Transition from the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 to the new Act will change the Commission’s powers, functions and duties. We refer to these Acts as the ‘old law’.
All requirements on providers and workers under the old law will continue until Transition Day. For example, the requirement to communicate and consult with older people about their care and services, to comply with the Aged Care Quality Standards and the Code of Conduct, and to follow the rules relating to fees and charges won’t change before Transition Day.
Commencement of the new Act does not mean regulatory activities under the old law will stop after Transition Day.
Where the Commission has started regulatory activities under the old law, these activities will be changed, continued or replaced with the commencement of the new Act.
Most activities will change to their equivalent under the new Act, others will continue under the old law after Transition Day, and some will activities are so different that they will end and be replaced by a different activity under the new Act.
The Commission’s transition to the new Act on Transition Day follows arrangements described in the Aged Care (Consequential and Transition Provisions) Act 2024, which begins alongside the new Act.
The Transition Act follows three principles to describe the Commission’s approach to Transition:
- Activities will change to their equivalents in the new Act where possible to ensure transparency and consistency after Transition Day.
- Activities will continue under the old law where they rely on obligations or powers that are significantly different from those under the new Act.
- Activities will end where they rely on parts of the old law that stop under the new Act.
Workers should refer to the Transition Act to support their planning for Transition Day.
