INFORMATION AGED CARE REFORM

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner (the Commission) and the Australian Government are implementing changes to improve the safety and quality of aged care services.

The Australian Government is focussing on key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Changes from 1 December, 2022 include:

• Improving the way aged care services are run. The Commission will have increased powers to ensure organisations are meeting their governance responsibilities.

• The introduction of a new Code of Conduct for most providers of aged care services. It does not currently apply to providers of CHSP service providers.

• A Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) now applies to all providers of aged care services including providers of CHSP services.

All providers will need to show that they have a systematic approach to minimising the risk of things going wrong and can respond quickly and effectively if they do.

Home care providers now have to report serious incidents to the Commission and take action to make sure they don’t happen again.

Further reforms will be implemented in 2023.

For further information about the Australian Government Aged Care Reforms go to: www.health.gov.au and search for Aged Care Reforms.