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The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards have been updated

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has recently released an updated draft of the strengthened Quality Standards. This version reflects insights and feedback received during consultation in October and November 2022. This Draft is for the Pilot - March 2023 onwards.

• Standard 1: The Person
• Standard 2: The Organisation
• Standard 3: The Care and Services
• Standard 4: The Environment
• Standard 5: Clinical Care
• Standard 6: Food and Nutrition
• Standard 7: The Residential Community

A Consultation Summary Report has also been released with details on how we sought views on the Standards and what we heard. Consultation included more than 900 people across 18 focus groups; 1069 webinar attendees; 873 survey responses and 119 submissions. Some main points:

• 24% of feedback came from Queensland
• 55% of people thought that the strengthened Quality Standards are an improvement on the current Quality Standards
• There were some opposing views on the application of the Quality Standards and the Level of prescription
• Based on the feedback the Assistant Commission will develop, implement and lead a sector education and capability uplift campaign; focus initially on corporate governance, clinical governance to improve sector leadership and capability, and drive cultural change to transition providers from minimal compliance to continuous improvement and excellence
• Next steps - Undertake a pilot to test the practical application and audit of the Quality Standards

The strengthened Standards are now being tested through a pilot program conducted by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. The pilot will test how the Standards work in practice and involves a sample of 40 providers representing diverse service types, sizes, locations and people receiving aged care. The pilor commenced in April with 5 providers and an additional 35 providers have been selected in May.

Read the latest news on the department’s Review of the Aged Care Quality Standards webpage.