Reviewing the Quality Standards
The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended an urgent review of the Quality Standards.
To complete the review of the Quality Standards in 2021, we worked with the:
- Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC)
- Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC).
The review included extensive consultation with:
- the aged care sector
- older people, their families and carers
- providers
- workers
- advocates
- experts.
Read the outcomes of the review in the:
Our consultation process
Based on the findings of the initial review in 2022, we updated the Quality Standards which started to be referred to as the ‘strengthened’ Quality Standards from this time. We tested them with a broad range of stakeholders, including through a public consultation.
The public consultation took place over a 6-week period from 17 October to 25 November 2022. It included:
- 18 online focus groups
- an introductory webinar
- a survey and submission process.
We also engaged with stakeholders from peak bodies representing providers and older people to make sure the strengthened Quality Standards were robust and fit for purpose.
Read the Revised Aged Care Quality Standards or the Revised Aged Care Quality Standards summary shared during the public consultation in 2022.
Read about what we heard and how we responded to the feedback from the public consultations.
In 2023, we worked with the ACQSC and the ACSQHC to pilot the draft strengthened Quality Standards to understand how the strengthened Quality Standards would work in practice. The pilot considered whether they were fit-for-purpose with a sample of 40 providers with diverse:
- service types
- sizes
- locations
- people accessing aged care.
Read about the ACQSC’s strengthened Quality Standards pilot program.
The findings of the pilot highlighted some areas where the strengthened Quality Standards could be enhanced to improve usability, auditability and understanding.
Based on feedback received from older people, aged care providers and other stakeholders, and the findings from the pilot, we made changes to the way the standards were written to make them clearer, reduce duplication and simplify the language.
This work resulted in the revised November 2023 draft of the strengthened Quality Standards. This final draft was published in December 2023 to help prepare the sector and inform the legislative drafting process for the new Aged Care Act.
Changes from the legislative drafting process
The process of translating the strengthened Quality Standards into subordinate legislation (the Rules) under the new Aged Care Act continued during 2024. This formed part of the development, consultation and passage of the Aged Care Act 2024 (new Act) on 25 November 2024.
A revised version of the strengthened Quality Standards was published in February 2025. This version reflected wording changes resulting from the Rules drafting process for the new Act. This included:
- making wording changes to reflect language used in the new Act – for example, “older person” has been changed to “individual”
- a stronger emphasis on the role of workers in delivering safe and quality care and services for older people in response to feedback heard at the parliamentary hearings on the Aged Care Bill 2024 in October 2024.
More information on these changes can be found in the supporting consultation document for Release 3 of the Rules under the new Aged Care Act.
Following further consultations on the Rules in the first half of 2025, a final version of the Aged Care Rules 2025 was published on 31 July 2025.
The final strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards was subsequently published on 6 August 2025. This final version contained minor wording changes from February 2025 following the public consultation on the Aged Care Rules and final legislative drafting. These changes include:
- changing the use of “health professional” to refer to “registered health practitioner” and/or “allied health professional” to align with terms used in the Aged Care Service List in the Rules
- clarifying the governing body’s role to ensure providers deliver safe and quality clinical care.
Who we worked with
We were responsible for:
- drafting and revision of the Quality Standards non-clinical parts
- establishing the overall architecture and format of the Quality Standards
- ensuring the Quality Standards are clear, measurable and easy to understand.
We consulted on the strengthened Quality Standards with:
- older people, their families and carers
- providers
- workers
- peak organisations.
We will continue to work collaboratively to develop communication and guidance materials to support implementation of the final strengthened Quality Standards with the ACQSC and the ACSQHC.
Role of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
Under the new Aged Care Act all aged care providers who deliver Australian Government funding aged care services will be required to be registered with the ASCQSC. The ASCQC will audit providers against the strengthened Quality Standards based on requirements set out in provider registration categories, on the services aged care providers deliver.
Role of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
The ACSQHC’s role regarding the strengthened Quality Standards was to:
- set the clinical care components of the Quality Standards
- provide information, publications and resources about clinical care components of the strengthened Quality Standards.
As part of the work to strengthen the Quality Standards, the ACSQHC drafted strengthened Quality Standard 5 – clinical care.