Providers fail mandatory aged care demands

Aged care providers are getting extra taxpayers’ money to deliver more care under government reforms. However, some of them delivering less care. 

This has attracted the ire of the aged care watchdog, which has launched a crackdown on providers that are not spending the extra dollars on aged care residents, as required under the Federal Government reforms. 

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission says 11 providers operating 27 individual residential aged care homes have failed to reach their legally enforceable care minutes targets across successive quarters. 

The commission has imposed “enforceable undertakings” on those providers, initially focusing on services in metropolitan cities where surrounding services have much smaller – or no – care minutes shortfalls. 

An Enforceable Undertaking is legally binding and sets out agreed actions that the provider will take to meet their care minutes requirements. These include the immediate recruitment of more nursing and care staff. 

The Commission can take the provider to court for failing to implement an enforceable undertaking. Sanctions and financial penalties can be imposed. 

“The Commission is being firm and fair with these providers, and we are using our regulatory powers to hold them to account,” Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, Janet Anderson, said. 

“Failure to deliver mandatory care minutes where there is an absence of tangible effort to achieve these targets could lead to sanctions and financial penalties. 

“All residential aged care providers are on notice as the Commission will continue to actively monitor, engage with and take regulatory action against providers that persistently fall well short of their care minutes requirements.” 

The commission says that, since 1 October 2023, residential aged care homes have had to deliver mandatory care minutes, increasing to a sector average of 215 care minutes per resident per day on 1 October 2024. This includes 44 minutes of registered nurse care. 

In October last year, Aged Care Minister, Anika Wells, put providers on notice, warning of consequences for noncompliance. 

In an open letter to providers, she highlighted the importance of staffing levels, describing mandatory care minutes targets as a “once-in-a-lifetime change” to improve the quality and safety of care of nursing home residents. 

“Therefore, it’s imperative that as an approved provider of residential aged care, you do all you can to ensure that you have the right mix of staff to deliver your required care minutes,” she wrote. 

The letter warned, “The Australian Government expects that you are spending your increased care funding on meeting your mandatory care minutes.” 

The names of those organisations that are currently under enforceable undertakings can be found here. 

Despite substantial staff wage increases, providers are continuing to experience workforce shortages, especially in regional areas. 

A key initiative of the National Seniors Australia (NSA) Better Age Care campaign aims to solve that chronic problem by retaining current aged care workers near retirement and recruiting retired workers back into the industry. 

Older people on the Age Pension would also benefit. Employment income should be exempt from the income test for pensioners working in the care economy (aged, disability, and child care). 

This will give older workers a greater income and retain more people in the care sector, ensuring care services can be delivered. 

This would boost workforce participation, helping to meet growing demand for care workers, especially in the aged care sector. 

We’re also calling for an exemption from the aged care assets test for home care recipients when downsizing to more age-appropriate housing.