What the Star Ratings represent
Aged care homes receive an Overall Star Rating of between 1 and 5 stars, and a rating across each of the 4 sub-categories.
The more stars an aged care home receives, the better the quality of care.
The 4 sub-categories
Residents’ Experience
This sub-category represents the experiences of residents at their aged care home captured through the face-to-face annual Residents’ Experience Survey with at least 20% of residents at each home surveyed. Residents are asked about their:
- experiences of safety
- treatment from staff
- food
- feelings of independence and belonging.
Compliance
This sub-category is based on compliance information from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the System Governor (representing the department).
From 1 November 2025, the Compliance rating incorporates:
- graded assessment against the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (strengthened Quality Standards)
- new regulatory decisions and powers from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, as the System Governor, in relation to providers’ obligations and requirements.
Regulatory decisions may impact the Compliance rating of a specific aged care home, multiple aged care homes or all aged care homes owned by a provider based on evidence of whether non-compliance is related to specific aged care homes.
The Compliance rating is calculated by identifying the lowest rating the aged care home qualifies for across both the regulatory decision and graded assessment columns in the table below.
If an aged care home receives a Compliance rating of 1 or 2 stars, the Overall Star Rating will be capped at that number of stars.
It will take up to 3 years for all aged care homes to transition to the redesigned Compliance rating, once each home has been assessed against the strengthened Quality Standards as part of the provider's registration renewal. A home’s Compliance rating will be updated earlier if, for example, the Commission or System Governor make certain regulatory decisions.
Until a home has been assessed against the strengthened Quality Standards, the Compliance rating will be determined by:
- the presence of any regulatory decisions
- the period since a regulatory decision was resolved i.e. 1-3 years
- the period of ownership of the home by the provider.
- Each home on the Find a Provider tool on the My Aged Care website will display how the Compliance rating has been calculated.
The Compliance rating is updated daily once information is received from the decision maker in response to:
- regulatory decisions, and
- graded assessment against the strengthened Quality Standards.
Table: Redesigned Compliance rating, incorporating regulatory decisions and graded assessment against the strengthened Quality Standards
The Compliance rating is calculated by identifying the lowest rating the aged care home qualifies for across both the regulatory decision and graded assessment columns in the table below.
| Star Ratings | Regulatory decision* | Graded assessment |
| 1 star (significant improvement needed) |
|
|
| 2 stars (improvement needed) |
|
|
| 3 stars (acceptable) | - |
|
| 4 stars (good) | - |
|
| 5 stars (excellent) | - |
|
*Regulatory decision against the registered provider of an aged care home impacts the Compliance rating of the aged care home if it relates to the delivery of funded aged care services by the registered provider in the aged care home. **The exceeding grade is awarded by the Commission following a separate process after the completion of an aged care home’s graded assessment against the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. This is only if the aged care home has achieved full conformance with all of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. If an aged care home has a 5 star Compliance rating and receives a regulatory decision, the exceeding grade is removed from publication on the My Aged Care website. | ||
What is graded assessment against the strengthened Quality Standards?
Each aged care home will be assessed through an audit against the strengthened Quality Standards by the Commission at the time of provider’s registration renewal.
The graded assessment findings are:
- conformance
- minor non-conformance
- major non-conformance.
How does an aged care home receive an ‘exceeding grade’?
Homes can be given an overall exceeding grade if conformance is found for each of the strengthened Quality Standards and the home demonstrates it also meets all of the following ‘exceeding’ criteria:
- excelling in active partnerships with older people and workers for better outcomes
- excelling in governance and clinical governance systems
- excelling in the dining experience.
What does ‘resolved non-conformance' mean?
An aged care home may receive major or minor non-conformance during their audit against the strengthened Quality Standards and will receive a Compliance rating of 1 or 2 stars respectively. Homes will then have the possibility of achieving a 3-star Compliance rating once the non-conformance is resolved.
An aged care home’s graded assessment will impact a home’s Star Ratings that are published on the My Aged Care Find a provider tool.
The graded assessment against the strengthened Quality Standards aims to encourage excellence in aged care service delivery.
Find out more on graded assessments, at the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s audit guidance webpage.
Staffing
This sub-category measures the average amount of care time – compared with minimum average care targets – that residents at each aged care home receive. Care time is based on care delivered by:
- registered nurses
- enrolled nurses
- personal care workers
- assistants in nursing.
The average minimum care minute targets for each aged care home vary depending on the specific care needs of their residents. An independent assessment under the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model determines resident care needs.
The Staffing rating shows whether an aged care home has met or exceeded both of its care minutes requirements:
- total amount of nurse and personal care time, from a registered nurse, enrolled nurse, personal care worker and assistants in nursing
- care time from a registered nurse only, which can include care time from enrolled nurses for up to 10% of the registered nurse care minutes target.
Star Ratings transitioned to a redesigned Staffing rating on 1 October 2025.
From 1 October 2025, to achieve a Staffing rating of 3 stars or more, aged care homes must meet both of their mandatory registered nurse care minutes and total care minutes targets.
Additionally, the thresholds for ratings were adjusted (see table below).
This change was reflected in Star Ratings published from the May 2026 quarterly update on the My Aged Care website.
More information about the Staffing rating changes including the redesigned rules-based matrix is available in the Star Ratings Provider Manual.
| Total care minutes (inclusive of registered nurse minutes) | |||||
| Registered nurse care minutes (inclusive of up to 10% of registered nurse target contributed by enrolled nurse care time) | Well below target (<90%) | Below target (90 – <100%) | Meets target (100 – <105%) | Above target (105 – <110%) | Well above target (≥110%) |
| Well below target (<90%) | 1 star | 1 star | 2 stars | 2 stars | 2 stars |
| Below target (90 – <100%) | 1 star | 1 star | 2 stars | 2 stars | 2 stars |
| Meets target (100 – <105%) | 2 stars | 2 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 4 stars |
| Above target (105 – <110%) | 2 stars | 2 stars | 3 stars | 4 stars | 5 stars |
| Well above target (≥110%) | 2 stars | 2 stars | 4 stars | 5 stars | 5 stars |
Quality Measures
This sub-category describes the quality of care provided to residents across 5 quality indicators under the National Aged Care Quality Indicator Program. These are:
- pressure injuries
- restrictive practices
- unplanned weight loss
- falls and major injury
- medication management.
We risk adjust the data for pressure injuries, falls and major injury and unplanned weight loss when calculating the Quality Measures rating to account for differing levels of resident needs. This ensures a fair comparison between aged care homes.
Risk adjustment uses AN-ACC classification and assessment data to understand variation in the care needs of residents in each aged care home. We adjust:
- pressure injuries data – using residents’ Braden Scale scores (a validated tool used to measure elements of risk that contribute to pressure injuries) and their mobility (from their individual AN-ACC assessment)
- unplanned weight loss data – using residents’ AN-ACC classification, and their frailty status (from their individual AN-ACC assessment)
- falls and major injury data – using residents’ mobility data (from their individual AN-ACC assessment).
Restrictive practice and medication management are not risk adjusted.
How Star Ratings are calculated
Star Ratings uses a combination of rules to determine the Star Ratings for each aged care home.
Each of the sub-category ratings carry a different weighting towards the Overall Star Rating. This was decided through consultation with older people and providers during the design process, based on:
- the degree of importance
- the quality or maturity of the data at the time.
Sub-category weightings
- Residents’ Experience – 33% weighting towards the Overall Star Rating
- Compliance – 30% weighting towards the Overall Star Rating
- Staffing – 22% weighting towards the Overall Star Rating
- Quality Measures – 15% weighting towards the Overall Star Rating.
For more information about the rules and calculations used for Star Ratings, see the:
Star Ratings updates
We update Star Ratings for each quarter, and publish them on the ‘Find a provider’ tool.
We update the sub-categories at different intervals:
- Residents’ Experience is updated quarterly for aged care homes that have recently finalised their annual Residents’ Experience Survey.
- Compliance is updated daily once information is received by the decision maker in response to:
- regulatory decisions, and
- a residential care home’s graded assessment outcomes against the strengthened Quality Standards.
- Staffing and Quality Measures are updated quarterly.
The Overall Star Rating automatically recalculates when new data is available.
How to search for Star Ratings
Step 1
Visit the My Aged Care website and click on the ‘Find a provider’ tool located under the ‘Set up your services’ tab to search for a provider.
Step 2
Select ‘Aged care homes’
Search by either entering a:
- postcode or suburb, or
- aged care home by name or features that are important to you.
Step 3
If you are searching for a provider by location:
- enter the suburb or postcode
- select the correct suburb
- enter distance from location
- click the ‘Search’ button.
Results can be further refined by selecting other options such as specialised care, availability or Star Rating.
If you are searching a provider by name:
- type the provider’s name in the search bar
- click the ‘Search’ button.
Results can be further refined by selecting other options such as specialised care, availability or Star Rating.
Step 4
If you have searched by postcode or suburb, scroll down to see the search results.
Click on the provider title to see the Overall Star Rating and further information about the provider listed on the Summary page.
Scroll down on the Summary page to see sub-category ratings.
Click on the sub-category ratings for further information about the provider.
If there is no rating
In some cases, an aged care home may have a ‘No rating’ displayed.
This may be because it:
- is a new home
- is operating under new ownership
- has recently reopened after major repairs or renovations
- is experiencing technical (data or IT) issues
- has received a temporary exemption for extenuating circumstances – for example, due to significant health or weather-related circumstances
- Failed to report care minutes and/or Quality Indicators information to the department prior to publication of the related Star Ratings quarterly update on My Aged Care, where these homes have not been granted an exemption
- chose not to participate in the annual Residents' Experience Survey. These homes have not been granted an exemption.
The Overall Star Rating shows only once data across all 4 sub-categories have a rating. However, if the provider receives a 1 or 2 star Compliance rating the Overall Star Rating will be updated immediately.
For new homes, homes with new owners or recently reopened homes, it will take up to 12 months before there is enough data to calculate the Overall Star Rating. These homes will be exempt from Star Ratings until the data used to calculate each sub-category rating is available. The Overall Star Ratings will display once all 4 sub-categories ratings have been calculated.
If a provider receives a regulatory decision which applies to a home or homes, the Compliance rating of one or more of their homes will be updated once received by the issuing authority.
If there is a 1-star rating
A 1-star rating generally means that significant improvement is needed.
If there is no survey response data
To ensure the Residents’ Experience Survey results are anonymous, participants’ identities are removed from their responses. Smaller providers might not have enough participants to enable adequate de-identification. In this case, the result will show a Residents’ Experience rating, but not the survey response data.
Learn more
See our Star Ratings resources for more information.
Contact
My Aged Care older people and carers helpline