Service continuity and emergency events in aged care

Continuing services during an emergency event

Aged care providers must maintain quality care to older people during an emergency. This is required by the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (the Strengthened Standards) and the Aged Care Act 2024. It might also be required for your grant or aged care funding agreement.

All aged care services must have an emergency management plan. Your plan will include roles for aged care workers before, during and after an emergency.

Provider obligations – be risk ready

Poor or slow responses to an emergency increases risk to older people, your aged care workers, visitors and volunteers. The Strengthened Standards require you develop emergency and disaster management plans that describe how you and your aged care workers will respond to an emergency or disaster and to manage risks to the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals and aged care workers These plans ensure you can manage high-impact risks to the care of older people during an emergency.

In preparation for and in response to an emergency event, you must:

• Plan for staff shortages. Staff travel to and from work is likely to change because of an emergency event.
• Undertake appropriate assessments and planning. Set up plans for the immediate, medium and long term after an emergency. Explain how you will provide care and services during an emergency. Focus on those at highest risk.
• Plan for power failures and other critical infrastructure issues. This includes road access, internet, phone services, and water and sewerage systems.
• Identify, support and monitor affected people and situations. Be aware how the emergency event continues to affect older people.
• Adapt service delivery to accommodate restricted access to essential supply chains.

Support at Home providers should make welfare checks on older people in their care. You can make welfare checks by phone if you cannot visit in person. Issues found during welfare checks might require immediate action. Call 000 for an emergency response.

You must address all issues found during a welfare check. This might mean working with another provider to deliver care or services.

Who to contact in an emergency

You should always contact your local emergency services or 000 in an emergency first if there is actual or immediate danger to anyone receiving your services. This includes your staff, volunteers or visitors on site.

We cannot provide the following services during an emergency:

• physically preparing your service for an anticipated emergency
• evacuation support such as transport
• recovery support such as clean-up or repairs.

Higher-risk weather season

Higher-risk weather season runs from October to April every year. This means flooding, bushfire, tropical cyclones, storms and heatwaves are more likely. High-risk weather poses a serious risk of damage, injury and loss of life.

During the higher-risk weather season, aged care services and aged care homes are more likely to experience:

• evacuations
• worker shortages
• power and system failures
• restricted access to essential supplies.

Preparing an emergency and disaster management plan

An emergency and disaster management plan ensures safe service delivery continues during an emergency. Providers must have an emergency management plan in place.

Your funding or grant agreement may also require an emergency and disaster management plan. Additionally, local government authorities may require you to assess risks and report on threat levels.

An emergency and disaster management plan allows you to consider risks to residents and staff, and the steps required to reduce those risks. Planning helps you to assess the impacts of identified risks to staff, family and older people at all stages of an emergency.

Review and update your emergency management plan every year. Safe Work Australia provides advice on how to prepare an emergency management plan, including a template.

We developed checklists of activities to help you prepare:

• Preparing for an emergency event – residential aged care
• Preparing for an emergency event – home care services.

Local agencies and emergency management groups can also help you to prepare.

Costs during and after an emergency

Providers are responsible for the costs of planning for an emergency. You are also responsible for costs incurred during an emergency including relocation costs. The Australian Government and/or state or territory governments may make emergency funding available following extraordinary events.

We will continue to pay providers subsidies if they have to relocate residents to a different aged care home due to an emergency.

Providers will continue to collect the resident's aged care fees during an emergency. If residents are relocated, the relocating provider is responsible for paying back any costs incurred by the aged care home the residents are moving to.

You can use Home Care Package funding to cover transportation and accommodation costs in emergencies if it ensures continuous care.

Our temporary relocation of residents in emergency situations fact sheet is for residential aged care providers who must temporarily relocate residents in an emergency. This fact sheet covers how funding works and what providers should do when temporarily relocating residents in an emergency.

Preparing for extreme heat 

Extreme heat poses a risk to health. Heat-related illness can cause mild conditions such as a rash or cramps. It can also cause serious conditions such as heat stroke. 

You can check for heatwave information with the Heatwave Service for Australia. 

View our resources to help you recognise and prepare for the risks during hot weather: 

• Caring for older people in heatwaves – residential aged care
• Caring for older people in heatwaves – home care and CHSP services.

Preparing for a flood event

Find out where you can get health supports after a natural disaster.