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The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, explained for new providers

In this guideWhy the Standards were rewritten →The seven Standards →Which apply to home services →What an assessor asks →Evidence that works →
The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards took effect with the new Act on 1 November 2025, replacing the eight 2019 Standards with seven that are more prescriptive, more clinical, and written around the older person’s experience. If you register in Categories 4–6 you are audited against them; if you register in Categories 1–3 you are not audited against them but they still describe what good looks like.

Why the Standards were rewritten

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety found the 2019 Standards too high-level to drive consistent care, particularly in clinical areas, food and dementia care. The strengthened Standards respond with explicit expectations on clinical governance, medication safety, deterioration, palliative care, nutrition and the lived environment, and with a stronger emphasis on the older person’s rights, choices and cultural safety – including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural safety and care for people living with dementia – across every Standard.

The seven Standards

Standard by standard

Outcome headings paraphrased from the strengthened Standards. Tap through.

The older person is at the centre: person-centred care; dignity, respect and privacy; choice, independence and quality of life; transparency and agreements. Assessors look for how you find out what matters to each person, how you support decision-making (including supported decision-making and substitute decision-makers), how you communicate prices and agreements plainly, and how cultural safety is built in.
Governance that makes care safe: partnering with older people; quality, safety and inclusion culture; accountability and quality systems; risk management; incident management; feedback and complaints; information management; workforce planning; human resource management; emergency and disaster management. This is where your governing body’s due diligence, your risk and incident registers, SIRS compliance, worker screening, training and continuity planning are tested.
How care is planned and delivered: assessment and planning; delivery of care and services; communicating for safety and quality; coordination of care and services. Assessors read care plans for goals, risks, reassessment triggers, and evidence that the person and their family were involved and informed.
Safe, clean, comfortable environments and equipment: mostly residential, but for home services it covers the equipment you supply and the safety of the places you deliver care – infection prevention, maintenance, hazard identification in the home.
For providers delivering clinical care: clinical governance; preventing and controlling infections; medication safety; comprehensive care; recognising and responding to deterioration; cognitive impairment; palliative and end-of-life care; pain, continence, skin integrity, falls, nutrition and hydration, oral health, mental health, sensory and other comprehensive-care outcomes. A clinical governance framework with a named clinical lead is essential.
Residential care: partnering with residents on food; assessment of nutritional needs; the dining experience; safe, varied, appealing food. Home services delivering meals reference nutrition requirements through Standard 3 and 5 instead.
Residential care: daily living, security of tenure, transitions in and out, and the community life of the home.

Which Standards apply to home services

Provider type Standards assessed
Category 4 – personal and care support in the home (no clinical care) 1, 2, 3 (and 4 for equipment supplied)
Category 4 or 5 delivering clinical care (nursing, medication management, allied health) 1, 2, 3, 4 (equipment), 5
Category 6 – residential All seven
Categories 1–3 Not audited against the Standards; Code of Conduct, SIRS, complaints, worker screening and conditions still apply

What an assessor asks a home-care provider

Tap for the questions, by role

Drawn from Commission assessment practice and the strengthened Standards guidance.

Evidence that works – and evidence that doesn’t

Two providers, same Standard 2 outcome on incident management

Which file would you rather open in front of an assessor?

Weak
  • A 14-page incident policy copied from a residential template
  • An incident register with no entries in six months
  • SIRS mentioned once, no decision tool for Priority 1 vs 2
  • No link between incidents and the improvement register
Strong
  • A 3-page incident procedure written for in-home services, with a one-page SIRS decision tree
  • A live register: near misses, falls, medication errors, each with actions and follow-up
  • Evidence of a Priority 2 report lodged within 30 days and what changed afterwards
  • Quarterly incident trends reported to the owner and discussed in a team meeting

Strengthened Standards readiness – home services

Tick what you can show today.

  • Statement of Rights embedded in onboarding, agreements and worker induction
  • Care plan template capturing goals, risks, preferences, decision-making support and reassessment triggers
  • Clinical governance framework with a named clinical lead (if any clinical care)
  • Incident management system with SIRS decision tool and a live register
  • Complaints procedure with open disclosure and Commission contact details
  • Worker screening, Code of Conduct training and competency records
  • Risk register covering lone working, manual handling, medication, infection control, financial abuse
  • Emergency and disaster plan tested for in-home clients (heatwave, flood, power outage)
  • Feedback from older people captured and reported to the governing body
  • Documented review of the Standards against your practice in the last 12 months

Want it built for you? The Aged Care Provider Setup is a fixed-price, ready-to-run version of everything in this article – documents mapped outcome-by-outcome to Standards 1, 2, 3 and 5. Book a 20-minute call – no pitch, honest answer.
Sources and further reading

  • Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission – Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards and guidance material; Aged Care Quality Standards (2019) for comparison
  • Aged Care Act 2024; Aged Care Rules 2025 (Chapter on Quality Standards)
  • Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety – Final Report (2021), recommendations on the Standards
  • Department of Health, Disability and Ageing – Provider registration categories and obligations

General information only, not legal, financial or tax advice. Rules change; confirm current requirements with the regulator or a qualified professional.

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