New aged care regulatory model – provider obligations and rules – Webinar

[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health and Aged Care’, ‘New Regulatory Framework – Provider Obligations webinar’, ‘8 May 2025’, ‘agedcareengagement.health.gov.au’]

[The visuals during this webinar are of each speaker presenting in turn via video, with reference to the content of a PowerPoint presentation being played on screen]

Amy Laffan:

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s webinar on provider obligations and rules within the new regulatory framework. My name is Amy Laffan and I’m the First Assistant Secretary of the Quality and Assurance Division at the Department of Health and Aged Care. It’s a pleasure to be with you all today.

I’d first like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the many lands on which we meet today and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. I’d also like to extend that acknowledgment and respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples joining us today.

So thanks for joining us on this webinar on rules and obligations. I’m pleased to introduce my colleagues and their topics for today. So first up we have Robert Day. He’s the Assistant Secretary of the Harmonisation and Regulatory Strategy Branch and he’ll speak to the journey we’ve been on since the Royal Commission in Aged Care in 2021, the different types of compliance and an update on deeming. Simon Christopher, Director of Harmonisation and Regulatory Strategy Branch will speak to conditions of registration under the new regulatory model, Statement of Rights, Code of Conduct, rules and requirements and the strengthened Quality Standards. And if the technology assists we’re also pleased to have Christian Hesse, the Acting Executive Director of the Quality Assessment and Integrity Group from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to join us to inform us on their upcoming webinar and to be part of our Q&A panel.

We have allocated time at the end of the presentation for questions. So thank you to all of those who have already submitted a question. And please use Slido if you’ve got any further questions throughout the webinar. I’ll now hand over to Rob Day.

Robert Day:

Thanks very much everyone. Thanks Amy for the introduction. Really great to have the opportunity to speak with you all today. As Amy said I’m going to sort of run you through the types of obligations that the new Aged Care Act sets out and then towards the end of the webinar I’ll come back and give you an update on the deeming process.

But let’s start by thinking about the journey that we’ve been on over the last few years since the Aged Care Royal Commission. And the Royal Commission found that the Aged Care Act itself and some of the related legislation weren’t fit for purpose any longer and that the sector needed new laws and policies that are fit for purpose and more appropriate and rights based first and foremost.

So I’d like to take an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come in that journey following the release of the final Royal Commission report and how close to implementation we are thanks to a huge amount of work that’s happened right across the aged care sector. So consultation commenced in 2022 on the in-home aged care services and 2022 also marked the first consultation on the new regulatory model for aged care. And in terms of the regulatory model that was followed by a second consultation in 2023 and then a significant period of consultation around the Exposure Draft of the new Aged Care Act.

We also published late last year in 2024 a detailed document unpacking the regulatory model for aged care providers and all the consultation on all of those elements was managed through surveys, submissions, webinars, workshops and round table discussions. And lastly this year – and those of you in the sector will know this and have been living this with us – the focus has been the consultation on the rules to support the Act. There’s one tranche left that is out for consultation and that closes next week on the 13th of May. If you haven’t already please scan the QR code on the screen or visit the Department’s website for more information if you’d like to make a submission on that set of rules.

We understand that you’ve been waiting for information regarding provider obligations prior to the implementation of the Act in July. Some of that will have come out in the rules. Some of that will have come out in some of the booklets that I’ve mentioned previously. But that’s the reason we’re here today, to talk you through some of those obligations and conditions in more detail.

So I’m going to start by expanding on conditions, obligations and duties under the new Act and rules and what that all means. Currently under the 1997 Aged Care Act providers delivering Government subsidised aged care services must meet hundreds of responsibilities spread across several pieces of legislation. And this is partly the result of requirements being developed over 30 years sometimes in response to specific issues that have arisen in the sector. And so while the range of things that obligations for providers cover won’t necessarily change – there will still be rules around governance and fees and payments and reporting – one of the things we’re trying to do with the new regulatory model is to provide a clearer, better targeted, more streamlined way of structuring your obligations and starting to group those up at a provider level to make it easier to understand and comply with.

The new Aged Care Act has three different types of requirements for registered providers. There are conditions of registration and these cover things such as the Code of Conduct, the Statement of Rights, delivery of funded services, financial and prudential standards, aged care workers, access to information, governance, incident and complaint management as well as the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

Most of the conditions of registration that are specified in the Act will have more detailed expectations spelled out in the supporting rules and you’ll have seen those in the drafts of the rules that we’ve been making available this year.

Some conditions are applicable to all aged care providers whereas others are prescribed in the Act to what are classed as certain providers of a kind. And the rules will then provide clarity around which providers of a kind those conditions apply to.

The Commissioner can also apply a condition to an individual provider’s registration and this might be to address a specific risk that the Commissioner has identified or perhaps an area of non-compliance that they’ve identified in their engagement with that provider.

Obligations are another set of requirements that provide more specific provider expectations either for all providers or for providers of a kind. And these sorts of things are often again detailed more in the rules beyond what’s in the primary Act.

Obligations cover things like reporting requirements, suitability of responsible persons, aged care worker requirements and particularly the aged care worker requirement to comply with the Code of Conduct and how to deal with refundable deposits.

And finally there are statutory duties. All provider organisations must ensure that their actions or inactions do not result in harm or injury to the person receiving care to the extent possible. And then responsible persons of provider organisations need to exercise due diligence to ensure that their organisation meets that duty.

And there’s a really clear link I think between the conditions of registration and obligations and statutory duties. The conditions and obligations are designed to help providers in meeting that fundamental duty to avoid doing harm to the people that we’re caring for.

And all providers must meet their conditions and their obligations and their duties even when you’re delivering your services in a subcontracted way. This means that you can’t contract out your regulatory requirements. If your organisation receives the subsidy for service directly from Government then you’re going to be responsible for meeting the relevant obligations with that service even if you engage another organisation to assist in delivery.

Now I know it can be complex to read through all of the Act and all of the rules and so I just want to talk to you in a little bit more detail about how the two work together to frame the obligations that a provider needs to meet. The most common way of doing this will be that the rules will specify that a condition or obligation will apply to certain types of providers. That might be providers in a certain registration category or other kinds of providers, for example Government entities. And that’s what we mean when you see those words providers of a kind in the Act. Let me give you a couple of examples to demonstrate.

All registered providers must comply with the requirements in the Act on the Code of Conduct or cooperating with any person who is performing functions or powers under the Act. Complaints management is another example where there is a requirement on all providers with more detail of what is required from providers to manage complaints set out in the rules. The Aged Care Quality Standards is an example where obligations apply to only some providers. In this case those that are delivering services under registration categories 4, 5 and 6. There are also some obligations where the rules will specify different obligations for different kinds of providers. For example with reporting obligations there will be different obligations based on different provider types.

I’m now going to hand over to Simon who’s going to talk through some of these major obligations in more detail. I know I’ve given you a lot already. And spoiler alert. Simon will also talk to you about a tool we’re developing that will make it easier for you to see all of your obligations in one place. Thanks Simon. Over to you.

Simon Christopher:

Thanks Rob. I’d like to kick off by spending some time talking through a few of the conditions, obligations and duties that apply to registered providers in more detail and then continue to unpack how to navigate their application as a registered provider. As Rob mentioned there are requirements that apply to all registered providers as they do now like the Code of Conduct and worker screening requirements which I’ll go into more detail in just a moment.

The details of some of the rule requirements are still being finalised as Rob mentioned through the rules consultation process. As Rob stressed earlier we understand the importance of finalising this information and making guidance available to you as soon as possible. The list of requirements on the slide is not exhaustive but provides useful examples including the condition relating to rights and principles that applies to all providers. All providers need to be able to demonstrate that they understand the rights of individuals under the Statement of Rights. They must also have in place practices to ensure services are delivered compatibly with the Statement of Rights. Other conditions include the worker screening requirements I mentioned, complaints and whistleblower system requirements and access to an individual and records of the individual by supporters and independent aged care advocates.

Obligations include to report changes in circumstances to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, protect personal information in relation to the suitability of responsible persons, and as Rob mentioned cooperation with persons performing functions or exercising powers under the Act and provide facilities and assistance to those persons. There are also reporting obligations and reporting will be variably applied depending on the service you deliver and the kind of provider you are. For example there’s the quality indicator data, financial and prudential matters and workforce vaccine status and care minutes. Other reports will be in response to incidents and managed via the Serious Incident Response Scheme such as reportable incidents.

A registered provider also has a statutory duty to ensure so far as reasonably practicable that their conduct when delivering services does not cause adverse effects to the health and safety of individuals.

I’d like to talk more now about requirements that apply to all registered providers that I referenced earlier. These are integral to the new regulatory model which seeks to improve outcomes and protections for older people. The Statement of Rights is essential to the change the Act is seeking to achieve hence the phrase a new rights based Act. The Statement of Rights replaces the Charter of Aged Care rights which has been in place since 2019. The Statement of Rights is now listed within the Act which supports independence and dignity for older people receiving aged care.

To demonstrate the importance of the Statement of Rights in action I’ll give an example of Mrs Jones. Mrs Jones is an older person who has requested that a specific aspect regarding her care not be passed on to her daughter Sarah. After Mrs Jones’ request is made Sarah contacts the aged care provider asking for an update on her mother’s care including details on the specific issue Mrs Jones had raised. The provider refuses Sarah’s request explaining that the notes in Mrs Jones’ care plan indicate that this information is to be kept private. Though Sarah insists to the contrary the provider has a duty under the Statement of Rights to keep Mrs Jones’ information private and stays firm. Upholding the Statement of Rights is everybody's responsibility and should change the way we think about how we interact with older people at all points of the aged care system.

Just as the Statement of Rights is everyone’s responsibility the Code of Conduct for Aged Care describes how aged care providers, responsible persons of those providers, workers and volunteers alike must behave to ensure the kind of safe, respectful and person-centred aged care experience that is every older person’s right. There is no change to the Code of Conduct under the new Aged Care Act however the language has been updated about who it applies to. Under the new Act all providers and aged care workers including CHSP and NATSIFAC funded providers must comply with the Code. As happens now the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will monitor compliance with the Code and take enforcement action as required in a proportionate way against providers, workers and responsible persons for breaches.

The Department’s working to introduce a new worker screening check for aged care which seeks to both improve protections for older people and make it easier for registered providers and workers to comply. When the new Aged Care Act commences there will be minimal changes to worker screening as there will be an interim period on commencement. Aged care workers can continue to rely on their existing police certificate or NDIS check if their certificate or NDIS check has not yet expired. There will be some changes for CHSP providers when the new Act commences to create better alignment with other providers. There will be changes for all registered providers in the future when the new worker screening check for aged care commences. These changes will not commence before 2026 and information will be provided closer to when those changes will be implemented. You can find more information on worker screening including the offences that will stop a responsible person or aged care worker from working in the aged care sector at the web link on the screen.

In addition to the conditions I’ve outlined I wanted to call out particularly the service delivery rules that apply to all providers variably. And I think this is a really important point to talk to. So for example the rules have expectations that will apply to all providers to take reasonable steps for example to prevent damage to an individual’s property by the provider or worker when they’re delivering those services. The rules will also place specific expectations on services within a registration category such as requirements for meal services within the registration categories of home and community services and personal and care support in the home and community. Accordingly this requirement would only apply where the provider was delivering this service. 

We’re often asked how do registration categories connect with the services in the service list. So I think it would be worthwhile to unpack the answer to that question now. Within the aged care service list in the rules you’ll find all of the service types available in aged care and detail on all of the services within those service types along with the description of what must be delivered for that service. These service types are the link to those listed in the registration categories providing that link between the two sets of rules. Please be aware the service delivery rules require that you must deliver aged care services in accordance with the descriptions of each service in the service list. The QR code on the screen will take you to that service list.

Let’s now move on to the application of the strengthened Quality Standards. One of the key differences of how Quality Standards are applied in the new regulatory model compared to the existing framework is that audits will test a provider’s conformance or ability to conform with the Quality Standards. This test will then inform a registration or renewal of registration decision and in certain circumstances a variation of registration decision. Under the new registration model only providers registered in categories four, five and six will be audited against the Standards. This doesn’t mean providers registered in categories one and three are not expected to deliver the type of high quality care set by the Standards. It’s simply reflective of the proportionate approach of the new Act. All providers will have their performance including compliance with conditions and obligations considered in registration and renewal of registration decisions.

In practice there will be some cases where providers registered in categories one to three will be required to meet rules that reflect similar concepts to those within the Quality Standards but these rules will only be applied where relevant. For example within the Quality Standards, Standard 4 talks to the environment which contains the following requirement on equipment. Where the provider uses equipment in the delivery of any funded aged care services to individuals or provides equipment to individuals the equipment must be safe and must meet the needs of the individual. This requirement is necessary for all providers not just those for whom the Standards apply. It’s appropriate to impose a specific rule that states that where a provider in categories one, two and three uses equipment in delivering the service the provider must ensure the equipment is safe and meets the needs of the individual. This common sense approach seeks to minimise unnecessary regulatory burden by targeting rules and obligations where they are most relevant. This example is an excellent example of the value the strengthened Quality Standards will have for all providers as a resource to inform best practice, what quality looks like and continuous improvement. I encourage you all to read the Quality Standards guidance available on the Commission’s website for more information.

At this point of the webinar I’m hopeful that we’ve started to unpack some of the complexities of how to navigate the conditions of registration, obligations and duties relevant to your registration and the services you provide. To support you to understand these requirements on commencement of the Act and to assist parties interested in becoming providers we’re building an interactive online web tool that will compile the obligations from the Act and the rules into one place. When we use the term obligations in this context we are using it generally to include the conditions of registration, obligations and duties that we’ve talked to under the new Act and rules. You’ll be able to navigate the tool using filters and specific search criteria to produce a list of all the obligations relevant to your individual circumstances and download the output for later use. Similar to a website where you can get a quote based on the selections this tool will ask the user to choose from a list of options and relevant obligations will be shown dependent on the options selected.

Key filters will include registration categories, program types such as CHSP or Support at Home, to see any obligations based on the funding or the particular registration category. There will be pop up links referencing the Act and rules on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments allowing the user to validate their findings against the original source information as needed. Additional resources on obligations will become available on the Department’s website. The tool will link to these including education and guidance material and relevant web pages with more detailed information on the obligation and related requirements.

Thanks very much for your time and attention this afternoon. We have worked through a fair bit of detail and I trust you have found this useful. Back to you Rob.

Robert Day:

Thanks Simon. Look we can’t have this conversation around obligations and conditions without just touching quickly on the deeming process that we’re taking all providers through for the transition from your current state as a grant funded provider or an approved provider to the new state under the Act as a registered provider. As a quick reminder deeming is a legal process that will happen automatically on the 1st of July to take you from that current state to that new state. But we’ve been working through an iterative process to make sure that the way we represent that in our data systems is accurate and reflects your business correctly. 

And so since the start of April we’ve been going through a provider registration preview and your provider organisation should have got one of two emails from us, either on the 1st of April a provider registration preview which is a PDF with key details about your organisation, or on the 2nd of April a request for consent and nomination for contact details for us to send that preview document to. I did notice that one of the questions that popped up was what are the implications of the new Act for providers that have been recently accredited? And that preview document has a number of details about how your organisation will be set up under the new Act including what your initial registration expiry date will be. It will also show you what registration categories we anticipate deeming you into, where we’ve combined multiple records because you’ve been operating in multiple parts of the aged care system. It will show you what we’ve brought together. It will list the services that we understand you deliver, the aged care homes that are associated with your registered provider status, and any specialist programs and any grant funded programs that you deliver.

So really important that if you haven’t seen this you’re checking your organisation to see whether any of your peers have received that and if not reach out to my team on the email address agedcareregmodel@health.gov.au and we’ll find out where it’s gone and get it to you if we need to. The really important callout is we’ve got the rest of May. We’ve got until 5:00pm on the 1st of June to identify whether there’s anything in that preview that we need to update and to start the process of making that update. And then between the 2nd of June and the 30th of June we and colleagues in the Commission will be actioning any of those notifications of change that you send us and getting the data ready to do the switch over on the 30th of June.

I am hopefully going to hand to my colleague Christian Hesse from the Quality and Safety Commission if tech issues have resolved themselves. Are you there Christian?

No. It doesn’t look like it.

Amy Laffan:

It doesn’t look like it.

Robert Day:

All right. Well look I’ll just quickly jump in. I don’t like to speak for the Commission but I’ll do my best. It’s a fairly simple message today. The first is to promote for you another webinar that’s coming up on the Commission’s approach to compliance and enforcement under the new Aged Care Act. We very much see that as part two of the conversation we’re having with you today. And that’s on the 20th of May from 2:00 to 3:00pm. Those of you that subscribe to the Commission’s alerts should have received an invitation to register on Monday and if not you can find details on the Commission’s website.

Christian was also going to highlight that there’s a number of other webinars that they’ve held over the course of this year to help you understand some of the obligations in greater depth and you can see those listed on the screen there. There are recordings of all of those available if you need.

And finally highlight that there are a number of resources the Commission has already published to help aged care providers get ready for the new Act and the QR code on the screen will direct you to all of those resources. So hopefully there’s some valuable information for you there as there is on the Department’s website in terms of from the policy side things you can do to get ready for the new Act.

Thanks very much Amy. I’ll hand back to you to take us through Q&A.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks very much Rob and also thanks to Simon for those presentations. As Rob said we’ll now head to the Q&A. Just so people understand how I’m going to be doing this I am going to try to go to those questions that are the most popular, so those that have been upvoted the most. And we will go – I mean this is a webinar that’s on the new Aged Care Regulatory Model and provider obligations so I will try to focus our questions there. If we can’t answer your questions we will be putting answers on our website after this. So some of it we’re just not able to answer today or we just don’t have the right people. Doesn’t mean we’re ignoring them. We will be finding answers for you and publishing those.

The most popular question I have to begin with is:

Q:        Will there be a delay in Support at Home given the rules have not been finalised? We do not have enough information for agreements. How do we support clients to understand the rules and get them to sign an agreement by July 1st? The time this takes to implement is enormous.

So thank you for that question. So any kind of decision on timing or delay for the new Aged Care Act is a matter for Government. So that’s not something that I’m able to answer. What I will say is that while the rules aren’t finalised all of the rules are out there at the moment for people to view. And that includes those rules and the ones that are on our website at the moment do include those that have information about what’s to be included in Service Agreements. So that is out there. And what you’ll see when you look at those rules is that there’s very little new information in comparison to the information in the current Home Care Program that’s required in those Service Agreements.

What I would also say is that we’re working really closely with the Transition Taskforce and we’re working on issues exactly like this one so that we can understand where the pain points are and provide the best information we can to the sector. So we are looking at options for example draft or template Service Agreements or addendums or things like that which would help providers. So instead of constructing your own you’ll have one that already meets the new Aged Care Act requirements.

The next one is about providers being delayed with transition because you’re waiting for documents to be finalised.

Q:        We as providers understand we have to meet obligations but how are you meeting yours?

So we treat our obligations very, very seriously but I acknowledge your comment there about the pressures and the timing. In terms of waiting for documents to be finalised I would say don’t. We have information and drafts out there for a reason and that is so that you can prepare as far as possible on the basis of those drafts. I know for example with the rules there may be some minor changes and tweaks but the policy is already set. So you can largely rely on those draft rules that you’ve been seeing since the end of last year.

There’s another one here that says:

Q:        If we must have ongoing changes to guidance materials why can we not be provided with very clear change register each time? It’s impossible to keep our workforce up to date and a huge waste of resources printing, reprinting, updating and sourcing new material for updates.

I think that’s a very valid point and certainly we’ll provide that information to our communications area. Perhaps we can produce kind of what’s new and what’s different documents to go along with updated documents that we put out. So thank you for that comment.

The next one is – and sorry. Just things are moving round in terms of popularity and so that means they move on my screen.

And they’re continuously moving. There is one question here on when we can expect the rules to be released. So the making of the rules is a task for the new Government and obviously we’re waiting for Ministerial positions etcetera to be settled. But they will be released as soon as possible and finalised as soon as possible. But as I said before please do use the rules that are currently on our website. They will largely be unchanged as part of the Act implementation.

Sorry. I’m just trying to find questions that go beyond comments and are questions. So there is a question about:

Q:        What’s being done to support providers to ensure transition doesn’t impact everyday operations? We have clients asking us for information and cannot confirm due to information missing.

Rob just wondering if you’re able to talk about some of the communications material we have available?

Robert Day:

Yeah. Thanks Amy. And look I completely understand the pressure people are feeling under this close to a major reform. I know there’s a particular focus in those conversations around Support at Home and the transition that happens there. And the Department has written out or is in the process over the next couple of weeks of writing out to all Home Care Package providers to explain the change to them and provide some points of contact that they can reach out to. My understanding is also that this week we’ll be publishing some frequently asked questions and some guidance for providers to support those conversations around Service Agreements under Support at Home for the new Act. And as Amy said there’s a really active process of negotiation discussion with the Transition Taskforce around what other support we can provide to make that particular transition as smooth as possible.

I think more broadly the other thing that I’d note is as well – as Amy has said the draft rules are now all out there and published and you can expect to be fairly sound as guidance – a range of different materials that both the Department and the Commission have published to help you understand elements of that change in greater detail. So whether that’s a booklet on what the new Aged Care Regulatory Model looks like, the Support at Home Manual, specific guidance that we’ve produced for CHSP providers for example on what it means to transition from their current status of grant funded providers to registered providers under the Act. Lots of resources on the Commission’s website too around the Quality Standards and the Prudential Standards and the like. 

So I know that there’s a lot. I know sometimes just the volume of what’s out there can be challenging. But we are doing the best we can to get as much information out to you as possible to support that change and that transition.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks Rob. And apologies for my moving there. I just had the lights go out on me. There’s a question here about:

Q:        Are contractors/vendors expected to complete the new worker screening check for their staff?

So I might just say a few words before I hand over to you Simon. So the new worker screening check, the one that aligns with the NDIS screening, as Simon said in his presentation that won’t commence until at least 2026. So what we have at the moment is police checks and the same sorts of requirements will apply to police checks as they have been under the current legislation with some new updates I think for NATSIFAC and other services. So we do have a fact sheet about that on our website and encourage you to look at it. But there’s not huge changes in the worker screening space. As I said the worker screening that aligns with NDIS is a future reform.

Simon is there anything you want me to add there?

Simon Christopher:

No. I think that covers it Amy. Really I think it’s important that people understand that dependent on the role that’s being undertaken by the worker will determine the level of screening that they’ll need to do. So where it’s more than incidental contact in that service delivery provision then that’s when a worker would need to engage with the screening requirements. So there is some proportionality again applied to each worker depending on the role that they’re undertaking. But the website does give some great information and clarity around that.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks. And I think kind of the general thing is if someone has a valid police check in June that will carry over and be suitable come 1st of July. So there’s no need to rush on some of those things there.

Thanks very much.

So there is a question here that says:

Q:        Will you be collecting all of these questions and will you be producing a new frequently asked question document addressing each one of them? That would be helpful.

Yes. We’ll definitely be doing that for you. And as I said we’ll be able to answer some of those things that we haven’t come across today, so those things that kind of are where we have other experts in the Department.

There’s a question here or some sort of comment that says:

Q:        Why has the consultation on the rules been left to the 11th hour given such high density? Is this a strategic move to cause burnout or so that we miss details? How will the recommendations from the consultations be rolled out in time to align with the new Aged Care Act to go out to date?

So while I understand that there is a delay in terms of finalising the rules they have been out for public consultation. We have been delivering those consultations since November last year. So they have been progressively put out publicly. And we understand the issue of there being a high density and a lot of them which is why we went with providing them out in tranches so that people could focus on each of those tranches rather than getting a big massive long list.

And sorry. I’ve just lost the rest of the question. But we are working very hard on that. And I think the other question was about finalising the rules. As I said we’ve received some really useful comments as part of our consultation. So some of those are actually kind of editorial things. So when we make those changes to the rules they won’t impact much of your business. They are editorial changes. Some of them are changes about policy and those sorts of changes are requirements for Government to make a decision and some of those things are a policy that’s already been set through the legislation and is not subject to change. There are another kind of subset of changes that we’re currently looking through and we’ll be providing advice to Government as to whether there needs to be any tweaks or changes to the rules. But that’s actually quite a limited area. So as I said before we expect the rules to be significantly the same as those that have been published as part of our consultation process.

Q:        So what are some of the risks that typically get considered in the changes to the new regulatory model?

Robert Day:

I’m happy to have a first crack at that one Amy and then throw to Simon if he’d like to add anymore. Look I think there’s probably two parts of the answer to that. One is the Royal Commission’s made some fairly stern findings around the regulatory model that we had previously and it talked about among other things needing to be stronger in the way we protect older people from harm but also recognising that the best way to protect older people from harm is to incentivise continuous improvement and excellence in the sector. And so we’ve deliberately in the new regulatory model been trying to strike that balance between clear protections, stronger enforcement powers for the Commission when things don’t go right but also some measures including things like graded assessment against the Quality Standards, the option for longer registration periods that go to recognising and rewarding providers that do consistently do the right thing and go above and beyond.

The Royal Commission also talked quite a lot about the fact that we had different ways of bringing providers into the aged care system for different programs and that for some parts of the program once you’re in you seem to be always in unless you did something really, really bad. And so that’s where the new approach to registration and renewal has come from. And this is I think where the question is going. We’re also alert to what are some of the risks in terms of perverse outcomes. And so hopefully it’s encouraging for the people watching to know that we are developing a specific tool to monitor and evaluate from the first day that the Act starts to operate, what is the impact of the new regulatory model and is it having the intended consequences. And we’re looking at a range of measures there. So some of them go to what does the evidence and the data tell us about the experience of older people. Are they feeling like their rights are respected and are central to the way their care is delivered? Is their care safe and high quality? But also what is the provider experience? Have we delivered on what our intent is around streamlining the obligations, making sure that they’re consistent and easy to understand having those incentives in the system for continuous improvement and excellence. So trying to strike that balance and having some deliberate database monitoring to be able to advise Government on whether we’re achieving that or not.

Simon is there anything you’d add to that answer?

Simon Christopher:

No. I think that was really comprehensive Rob. Probably actually one piece is I think we’re also very alive to the fact that we are introducing a new set of requirements and a new structure around the regulatory framework and part of that data that Rob’s mentioned will also be making sure that what we introduce is having the desired impact and not having unintended consequences so that if that does occur that we can capture that information and respond to it rapidly. So that’s probably all I’d add. Thanks Rob.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks. Simon this might be one for you given the tool that you displayed during your presentation.

Q:        When will the new obligations tools be available?

Simon Christopher:

Thanks Amy. We’re working as quickly as we can as the rules are finalised. And I think as Amy has mentioned encourage providers to look at those consultation drafts as close to final excluding some final commentary that may come through the consultation process. So we’re working on developing and building that tool as we speak. We’ve been kind of needing to wait for those component parts to drop so that we can incorporate that into how you would navigate the particular obligations and rules and the Act and so forth. So we are working as fast as we can. We do hope to have that released in time for commencement of the new Act but if it’s not prior to 30 June it will be very shortly after to help providers navigate what those obligations mean for them.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks Simon. And I’m seeing a couple of questions coming through actually about that tool so looks like people are very interested in that.

And someone has asked:

Q:        Isn’t the purpose of consultation for rules that feedback may technically mean a change or amendment to the draft rules?

Absolutely and we have absolutely conducted the consultation in good faith. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that my team has been looking through all of the consultation feedback received. We’ve assessed that and we’ll be providing advice to Government. And as you can appreciate the draft rules have to fit within kind of the broader policy set already by the aged care legislation. So what I’m saying is that the changes that we’re expecting as a result of that consultation we don’t expect to be significant changes that will change your operations significantly because they still sit within that policy that’s been agreed by Government. But as I said we’ve also got lots of really helpful editorial things that have been picked up by people. We’ll absolutely be making those changes. And we also hope to provide a document as someone suggested earlier about what’s new and what’s different. So we’re not expecting you to pore through the rules and look at what may have changed since consultation. But that consultation has been very genuine and we appreciate everyone who’s participated in that.

Sorry. I’m just trying to find questions that relate to the regulatory model and to provider obligations. There is a question about when the final audit framework will be available. I know that’s probably a question for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Rob do we have any indication or is that the sort of thing they’ll talk about at their upcoming webinar?

Robert Day:

I think it is a question for the Commission I’m sorry Amy. I’m definitely expecting it shortly. I know they’ve been working on it hard as well as some of the other questions that have been around the forms for registration and renewal. But I don’t have a specific date that I can give you unfortunately.

Amy Laffan:

No worries. And we’ll pass that question on to the Commission.

There is a question here.

Q:        Will there be consideration to move personal care that will attract a consumer contribution to clinical care where there will be no fee?

 From a kind of funding perspective Government has made a decision on that. So any change to that will be a matter for Government. But I wonder if Simon or Rob you have any kind of words to say about where we’ve placed clinical care and personal care in terms of categories of registration?

Simon Christopher:

Yeah. I’m happy to take that one if you like Rob and you can add anything additional. So during the consultation on the reg model we did consult heavily around the construct of the registration categories and the services within it and we had a lot of feedback around the differentiation of clinical care to personal care, and hence why personal care landed in category four which is still then subject to the Standards and the needing for oversight of how that personal care is delivered. But some of the people on the call would be familiar with work of the Commission of Quality and Safety and Healthcare who undertook a review of the clinical elements of the Quality Standards so that there was a greater focus on the delivery of clinical care and the expectations around it. So that’s a long way of saying that pretty clearly the feedback was that they were quite different and they needed to sit differently and the expectations for them to be applied differently. So that’s why we’ve got personal care in four and clinical care in five with a different set of expectations and standards being applied to them.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks Simon.

Q:        Do allied health practitioners have to register as providers for Support at Home at this stage?

Robert Day:

I think no would be my one word answer to that. And so under Support at Home under the new Aged Care Act generally allied health professionals can still be engaged in the aged care system either as employees of aged care providers or as contractors delivering a particular service, whether that’s under the Support at Home Program or residential aged care. I think there is a theoretical possibility in the new regulatory model that an individual or a partnership can become a registered provider. That is a possibility. But really where that will come into its own is if Government decides in future that it wants to open up to a multi-provider model for Support at Home like you’ve got in the NDIS at the moment. So certainly now no obligation for an allied health professional to become registered in their own right if they want to operate as a contractor or an employee of an aged care provider. And really only worth considering becoming a registered provider under Support at Home for the next couple of years if you’re able to offer the full range of services because that’s the expectation under Support at Home.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks Rob. Here’s one specifically on deeming.

Q:        Under the deeming process we have a new extended registration end date. How close can we now expect our audit to be to our registration end date? 

That’s part one of the question. I’ll leave that with you to answer.

Robert Day:

Thank you. And it’s a shame we had the technical difficulties with Christian because he’s exactly the man to give you the answer. But the way the new Act is set out is that the Quality and Safety Commission will send you an invitation to apply for renewal as you get closer to your end of registration date. That will be no more than 18 months beforehand but it will depend on how big an organisation you are. So if you’re a really large provider with multiple aged care homes it might be out closer to that 18 month mark. If you’re a small CHSP provider that’s only offering one service type it probably is only a few months before you come up to that registration date.

If you’re part of a larger organisation or an organisation where there’s an audit requirement my understanding is that once you’ve confirmed with the Commission that you do want to apply for renewal one of the first steps is that they will set up a meeting. They will have a dedicated officer who’s your contact point for that renewal process. And in that meeting they will map out for you this is the timeframes you can expect and when we’re planning to do the audits for each of the aged care homes and the home care service. So that’s broadly speaking what the process will be. I think one of those previous webinars Christian talked about that in a little bit more detail but hopefully that’s a helpful answer for people.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks Rob. And there was a second part to the question but unfortunately it’s now disappeared from my screen. 

Robert Day Laffan:

I think it was that timeframe bit of the process.

Amy Laffan:

Okay. Great. Thank you. And sorry to the person who asked that question. A new question about:

Q:        What happens when you haven’t received the email to update information?

Robert Day:

Yeah. Really good question. Thanks for asking. So just to give you a little bit of clarity we sent those emails out either to the nominated point of contact from the data validation survey that we conducted late last year or to the nominated contact in GPMS. And if you’re a CHSP only provider and we didn’t have one of those two, to the contact nominated in your Funding Agreement. And so if you haven’t personally received the email and you can think who it is in your organisation that might fit those three categories go and have a conversation with them in the first instance. But if you do that and you’re still not sure then email my team directly. And that email address is agedcareregmodel@health.gov.au. Agedcareregmodel@health.gov.au. And we will track down who we contacted and where we’re up to in terms of getting that preview out to you.

Just to be clear I would rather hear from you than not over the next month so please feel free to send an email through.

Amy Laffan:

If you’re in that position maybe worth double checking. I think that’s the message. Sure. There’s a statement here or a comment about:

Q:        It feels like there are so many different pages of information and so many different versions and more coming out just about every day. Could you please provide an index or something so that we know we’ve got the right information?

I think that’s a really fair comment and a good suggestion. We’ll certainly pass that on to our Comms area. So anything that we can do to make the information easier to get through or easier to find we’re happy to do. So I’ll pass that on.

Q:        Do you have a presentation that can be delivered to governing boards to inform and outline their new responsibilities?

I don’t know that we have that at the moment. That might be something that the Commission is working on. And if it’s not then it’s something we’ll take as an action from this webinar. So thank you.

Someone’s just asked for a link to the Service Agreement information. I hope my team can hear me now and see if we can find that information in time for this webinar. If not we will put it as part of our frequently asked questions. I think someone also asked a question about – and sorry I’m just going from memory here. The fact that they’re very similar, does that mean you can continue to use your current Service Agreement? The answer to that is no. You do need a new agreement or an addendum or a variation. What I was trying to get at, and sorry if I wasn’t clear, is that there’s very few new obligations in terms of the new Service Agreements. But the Service Agreements will have a number of kind of factors that are already covered in the Home Care Agreements. So there is some new information but the amount of that new information to be covered in those agreements is relatively limited.

Robert Day:

And I think Amy just to add a point of nuance to that answer I think for CHSP Service Agreements specifically the Department has indicated we will as part of our advice to an incoming Minister talk about how we can manage the transition from current state to new state and possibly use some of the transitional rules to help there. And in terms of the negotiations with the Transition Taskforce for the Support at Home Agreements that is one of the active conversations, is how can we make that change from current to new as small as possible for the first round to manage the workload for providers.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks Rob.

And sorry. I’m just again going through the list of things and some things have already been answered and discussed.

Q:        With respect we can read the Statement of Rights. We can read the Code of Conduct. When will those documents be finalised?

I think in terms of the Statement of Rights that was a legislative requirement so that’s not something that’s changed through the rules. The Code of Conduct, I don’t think there’s any changes made to the Code of Conduct that are beyond what’s already in place at the moment. So the Code of Conduct currently exists and there’s no changes to that. I think the only changes Simon might be about who that Code of Conduct applies to.

Q:        So will there be clear guidelines as to what the new requirements are? The supporting guides for rules are not very clear.

I wonder maybe if we narrow the requirements there to things about provider obligations.

Robert Day:

Yeah. And look I think that’s right. And just as there is under the current Act there is now and there will be more detailed guidance that comes out to support that. I think a really good example at the moment is the Quality Standards where there is some detailed supporting information available. And both we and the Commission through things like program manuals and other resources are building out that guidance around what’s in the rules themselves.

Amy Laffan:

Thanks. And I’m very sorry everyone but we’re approaching three o’clock so I’m going to have to call time on the answering of questions. Thank you to everyone who has attended and thank you to everyone who has provided those questions. 

As a reminder you can find out more information about the new regulatory model on our website. And please also keep an eye out for our video series on the new regulatory model. Those already released include a video on provider preview as well as one on registration and the new regulatory model. Among this series will be a short video dedicated to associated providers which include an explanation of how allied health practitioners can continue to provide services under the new model. We also encourage you to stay up to date with issues across the aged care sector and subscribe to our aged care newsletters and mailing list. And I think we’ve got the QR code on the screen there. As I said for those questions that we weren’t able to get to we will be publishing our answers to those as soon as we possibly can. 

So that now concludes our webinar. Once again thank you. When this webinar concludes there will be a short survey that will pop up on your screen with I think four questions. So hopefully it will only take a minute. If you’re able to do that we’d really appreciate it. It will help us improve our webinars into the future. And please also note that a recording of this webinar will be available in coming days. So once again thank you all very much.

[Closing visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health and Aged Care’, ‘More information’, ‘You can find more information on the department’s website: www.health.gov.au/our-work/new-model-for-regulating-aged-care’, ‘Contact us at: AgedCareRegModel@health.gov.au’, ‘Subscribe to our aged care newsletters and mailing list’, ‘Sign up for regular updates on aged care changes, consultations, training, grant opportunities and more’, ‘health.gov.au/aged-care-newsletter-subscribe’, with an image of a QR code]

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