Places to people – Embedding choice in residential aged care | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

How residential care places work from 1 November 2025

Under the Aged Care Act 2024 (the new Act), residential care places are now assigned directly to older people who have been approved for government-funded residential aged care services.

This change aims to give older people more choice and control over which residential care home delivers their services.

Residential aged care providers no longer need an allocation of places to deliver government-funded aged care services.

Providers that deliver residential aged care through the Multi-Purpose Services Program or Transition Care Program will continue to be allocated places.

Why these changes were introduced

The Act has introduced a new way to manage places. Previously, older people could only choose a residential aged care provider that had enough places from an Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR). This limited the choice for older people and restricted a provider’s ability to grow and innovate.

These changes benefit older people by providing:

higher quality of care, through more competition in the sector
more opportunities and choice of providers that best meet their needs.

By no longer having allocated places, new and existing residential aged care providers benefit from:

greater freedom to adjust and expand their service offerings to meet demand
a stronger and sustainable residential aged care market, focused on delivering quality care.

What providers need to know

Provider places

All residential aged care places allocated from the former Aged Care Approvals Rounds, or through the bed-ready process have ceased to exist as of 1 November 2025.

Existing residents were automatically allocated a place to ensure continuity of care. New residents will be assigned a place when assessed and approved for care.

Total number of beds

Aged care providers and residential care homes must registered through the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission). As part of your registration, the Commission decides the total number of beds at each approved residential care home.

The total number of beds must be equal to or less than any maximum number of people that can live in the residential care home.

Any changes to total beds at a residential care home will be overseen by the Commission. You will need to vary registration with the Commission when:

increasing the total number of beds
reducing the total number of beds (i.e., taking beds offline for more than 2 years).

For more information about changes to the number of available beds.

Reporting of offline beds

As a registered provider, you are required under the Aged Care Rules 2025 (sections 167-5-70) to notify the Commission when beds in your residential care home are offline and not available for use:

for services in Modified Monash (MM) 1-5 regions for a period of at least 3 months
for services in MM 6 and 7 for any period of time.

Until further notice, our Local Network will assist you to record beds as offline or to make offline beds available for use.

The Local Network will update the Government Provider Management System on your behalf and share with the Commission to meet your reporting requirements.

Please detail your request in an email to the Local Network office where your residential care home is located: