Aged Care Reforms

To improve consumer understanding of the quality and safety of care of individual residential care homes, Star Ratings are being introduced.

Star Ratings provide information about quality of care in residential aged care services through an overall Quality Rating of five stars.

What do the stars mean?
Aged care homes receive Star Ratings between one and five stars.

★ – Significant improvement needed.
★★ – Improvement needed.
★★★ – An ‘acceptable’ quality of care.
★★★★ – A ‘good’ quality of care.
★★★★★ – An ‘excellent’ quality of care.

The sub-categories below contribute to the overall Quality Rating based on preferences of older Australians, residential aged care providers and expert opinion:

• Residents’ Experience
• Compliance
• Staffing
• Quality Measures

Star Ratings will help older Australians and their families make an informed choice about care. Star Ratings will be published on the ‘Find a Provider’ section of the My Aged Care website from December 2022.

Quality Standards
New quality standards have also been introduced for residential care and home care providers.

The National Aged Care Quality Indicators help residential and home care providers to measure and monitor their performance against the quality standards, ensuring providers focus on achieving quality care outcomes for aged care recipients. They describe what people can expect from their provider, and the actions their provider will take to support them to live a quality life they deserve.

The Aged Care Commission regularly assess provider performance against the Quality Standards.

Residential Care
A new funding model called the Australian National Age Care Classification, or AN-ACC, has been introduced, replacing the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI).

Each resident in residential aged care receives Government funding based on their assessed care needs. This can range anywhere from $200 a day up to $350 per day depending on care need.

The AN-ACC price includes additional funding to increase average care minutes to 200 minutes, including 40 minutes with a registered nurse.

Home Care
This year an additional 40,000 home care packages have been released by the Commonwealth meaning that more Australians will qualify to receive support and services to live at home for longer.

In order to improve access to aged care support that remains responsive to the changing needs of older Australians, a new ‘Support at Home Program’ has been introduced.

Using a single assessment tool, the new program will provide independently assessed support plans to older Australians based on their aged care needs and personal circumstances.

This means that people are more likely to remain living safely and independently in the comfort of their own homes for longer.

A workforce that is continually upskilled is critical to ensure the very best of care. That’s why the reforms are supporting and growing an improved, skilled workforce through the Home Care Workforce Plan.

At Southern Cross Care (WA) we are focused on the attraction, recruitment, retention and ongoing development of a highly skilled workforce that provides the very best of care.

Governance of all providers is being strengthened through new legislation and standards keeping all providers accountable to the same high standards that older people should expect.

The star ratings are all about supporting older Australians and their families to make an informed choice about their care. They are based on four assessment categories and provide a rating of a provider’s:

1. Consumer Experience

20% of residents in every residential aged care home have been surveyed to give a rating on the overall client experience of the home.

2. Service Compliance with Accreditation

Care and services of residential aged care homes are then assessed by an independent assessor from the Aged Care Quality Commission according to the Aged Care Safety and Quality Indicators.

3. Care Minutes

Care minutes are assessed by measuring an aged care providers ability to provide an average of 200 minutes of nursing from a registered nurse to each resident per day.

Care minutes are reported by the residential aged care home each quarter and assessed.

4. Quality Indicator Program

The mandatory Quality Indicator Program measures an aged care provider’s ability to deliver quality and safe care to its residents.

The program requires providers to report on a set of quality indicators every three months. This can provide useful information to consumers on the delivery of quality aged care.

From 1 April 2023 it will include the following new quality indicators:

• Activities of daily living: Percentage of care recipients who experienced a decline in activities of daily living.
• Incontinence care: Percentage of care recipients who experienced incontinence associated dermatitis.
• Hospitalisation: Percentage of care recipients who had one or more emergency department presentations.
• Workforce: Percentage of staff turnover.
• Consumer experience: Percentage of care recipients who report ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ experience of the service.
• Quality of life: Percentage of care recipients who report ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ quality of life.

An aged care provider’s total score of the four assessment categories is used to determine their Star Rating.

We’ve put together a short video that will explain the Star Ratings and what it means for you.

We know how important it is for older people to receive quality care and support to live independently in their own home for as long as possible.

That’s why reforms to the Home Care Packages Program are so important.

The Australian Government is working with providers to implement the full suite of Home Care reforms. However, one of the biggest changes this year is to the way providers charge for supports and services. This came into effect on 1 January 2023.

These changes include, capping how much a provider can charge for care and package management, getting rid of exit fees and charging separately for costs associated with third party service providers.

The updated version of the Home Care Packages Program Operational Manual outlines the care and services that can and can’t be included in a Home Care Package and gives a clear explanation of those inclusions and exclusions. What this will mean for Home Care clients is that some care or services provided before 1 January 2023 may no longer be provided.

A copy of the Provider Manual can be found here.

Following consultation with older Australians and their families and carers, the aged care sector and other community stakeholders, a new program and funding model for in-home aged care will be delivered from July 2025. You can view the timeline here,

The discussion paper is available here and you can watch our short explainer video below.