Priority for access and allocating places

After someone is approved to access services, they need to be allocated a place in the aged care system. Some people will be prioritised for access, depending on certain factors. 

[Chapter 2 – Part 4, Part 5]

Prioritisation

For some classification types under certain programs, the assessor will carry out a prioritisation assessment during the older person’s aged care needs assessment. This rates how urgently the older person needs funded aged care services. 

The assessment considers a number of factors to recommend the priority category for the person. These could be whether someone lives alone, has a mobility impairment or if they may be at risk without immediate care. The Rules set out the criteria for the different priority categories. 

Based on the prioritisation assessment, the department assigns a priority category to the older person. The priority category assigned to the person may affect when they can get a ‘place’ to access services in the aged care system. 

Allocating places

Access to services is organised by allocating places. This process makes funding available to deliver services to the person. 

In most cases, an older person needs to be allocated a ‘place’ to access funded aged care services through a provider. For specialist aged care programs, places are allocated to registered providers rather than the older person.

Each year, the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors (the minister) decides how to work out: 

• the total number of places available to older people in each service group
• the number of those places that are for a particular classification type and classification level
• how many of the places for home support are interim places or full places – interim places allow older people to receive partial funding when they haven’t been allocated a full place yet
• the number of places available to be given to providers to deliver services through specialist aged care programs. 

This is part of supporting a person-centred approach to aged care.

Once the minister decides how to work out the number of places available, the department works out the order for allocating places to people and may allocate places when they are available. The Rules have more information about the process for allocating places.