Navigating the reforms

Hear from Services Australia about Support at Home integrations, how Uniting Care is using AI to support their care services, and our planned digital roadmap in preparation for new Aged Care Act on 1 July.

Webinar date: Wednesday 19 Feb, 2pm – 3:30pm AEDT

The department ran a Support at Home pricing survey to better understand the prices providers are intending to charge under the first year of Support at Home. 

The Support at Home Claims and Payments Business Guide is now available to give providers information about claims and payment processing under Support at Home from 1 July 2025.  

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has prepared a high-level Sector Readiness Plan to assist the aged care sector in preparing for the new Aged Care Act. The plan provides a summary of the key resources that will be made available by the Commission over the coming months. 

See what you have missed on the new aged care regulatory model, plus links to more information and further resources. 

The new Financial and Prudential Standards will commence with the introduction of the new Aged Care Act from 1 July 2025. The new Standards set out the minimum requirements for good financial and prudential management of aged care providers. They are also designed to manage risks to people receiving care and the public.  

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, Liz Hefren-Webb will host this webinar.

Webinar date: Tuesday 18 February 2pm AEDT

This webinar will give aged care providers and older people, families and carers an overview of how residential care fees are changing under the Aged Care Act from 1 July 2025.

Webinar date: Tuesday 11 Feb 2025 2:00pm to 3:00pm AEDT

The department will fund First Nations assessment organisations to provide culturally safe, trauma aware and healing informed aged care assessments. This will empower older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to access aged care services that meet their needs.

This booklet provides a pictorial summary of the Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner Andrea Kelly’s Report to Government. 

The Report outlines key findings and recommendations based on feedback received from older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their families and communities, service providers and peak bodies.

Palliative care education and training for providers and the workforce.

How Palliative Aged Care Outcomes Program (PACOP) supports residential aged care facilities in the use of standardised patient assessments and symptom response protocols in their facilities. 

This handbook outlines core components to assist Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) Programme providers to prepare to transition to Support at Home.

The guide provides greater transparency about providers’ finances and operations and helps older people, their families and carers to make informed decisions about their care and selecting the right provider.

Home Care Package and Commonwealth Home Support Programme Providers are eligible to receive $10,000 (excl GST) of one-off funding towards the cost of upgrading IT systems.

Applications close: Tuesday 25 Feb 2pm AEDT

The Stage 4a release contains the draft Rules for Chapter 2, 3, 4 and 7 of the new Aged Care Act. This release focuses on: how places are allocated to providers under certain specialist aged care programs, provider responsibilities such as the requirement to have a registered nurse on site 24/7, accommodation payments and how former providers must manage information and records. 

Pricing guidance is now available to help in-home aged care providers set their own prices for the first year of Support at Home.

This video was for aged care providers. The Strengthened Quality Standards will replace the current Aged Care Quality Standards on 1 July 2025.

In this video, Assistant Secretary Robert Day from the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Harmonisation and Regulatory Strategy Branch, provides guidance about the provider registration preview. The preview is part of the deeming process of aged care providers under the new Aged Care Act.

This plain language fact sheet provides a summary of what rights older people have when accessing aged care services.

Beta versions of the Quality Indicator 1.2, Registered Nurse 3.0 and Provider Management 2.0 APIs are available to help software developers plan for coming changes. We encourage software developers to build to these APIs to be compliant.

The Quality Indicator API will move into production on 1 April.

The Registered Nurse and Provider Management APIs will move into production on 30 June.

Older Person’s Advocacy Network (OPAN) webinar on what rights older people have when accessing aged care services.

Webinar date: Wednesday 26 March, 1 – 2 pm AEDT

Understand the activities that we are delivering with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and Services Australia to support older people and the sector to transition to the new Act.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has prepared a high-level Sector Readiness Plan to assist the aged care sector in preparing for the new Aged Care Act. The plan provides a summary of the key resources that will be made available by the Commission over the coming months. 

The GPMS guide to digital changes for providers outlines the key digital changes that providers will experience in the lead up to the implementation of the new Act. 

The Support at Home program manual is a guide designed to assist registered providers to understand and comply with the Support at Home program rules, procedures and obligations.

The Quality Indicator version 2.0 API system to align with new staffing quality indicator reporting requirements has been released.

Software developers must be prepared for allied health data reporting before 1 April 2025.

Providers must submit quarter 4 (April to June) allied health data by 21 July 2025.

This document provides guidance for Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) providers about the new regulatory model. 

From February to April 2025, the department has been engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders to understand preferences for a future funding model. 10 workshops have been hosted as part of this initiative in partnership with Community Controlled Aged Care Providers and Stolen Generations Organisations 

Understand the key entities and their relationships underpinning changes under the Act, as well as business terms and concepts to support the changes.

This webinar will give older people, families and carers an update on the Support at Home program, including information for existing care recipients transitioning into Support at Home from 1 July 2025. The Department will be joined by a representative from OPAN.

Webinar date: Thursday 3 Apr 2025 2:30 pm to 3:30pm AEDT

This webinar is for aged care providers, older people, families and carers. It will cover key reforms under the Aged Care Act 2024, focusing on the new Higher Everyday Living Fee and changes to residential aged care accommodation funding.

Webinar date: Thursday 10 Apr 2025 2:00 pm to 3:00pm AEST

From 1 April, residential aged care providers need to start collecting data for the new ‘recommended allied health services received’ quality indicator.

Quality indicator reporting for Quarter 3 (January to March 2025) is due on 21 April.

Changes this quarter:

• The ‘physical restraint’ indicator is now called ‘restrictive practices’.
• Question 6 in the Consumer Experience survey and question 2 in the Quality of Life survey now have a ‘not applicable’ response option.

Beta versions of the Registered Nurse 3.0 and Provider Management 2.0 APIs are available to help software developers plan for coming changes. We encourage software developers to build to these APIs to be compliant.

The Registered Nurse and Provider Management APIs will move into production on 30 June.

The Beta version of the Quality Indicator API version 3.0 moves into production on 13 October. We encourage software developers to build to this API to be compliant.