Completing the application form

The application form assesses your suitability to be an aged care provider. We need to know details about:

• what you'll do
• how you'll do it
• who'll be involved.

To help us assess your suitability, your responses in the application form should:

• be clear
• relate to the question asked
• relate to the relevant legislative responsibilities.

The application form should be completed by key personnel who have knowledge of the organisation.

If you use a consultant to help prepare your application, you're responsible for the information provided.

The responses must be your own.

Tips for completing the application form

You should:

• use the current form on our website at the time you submit your application
• give your own responses and information - not that of another provider or consultant
• be specific in telling us how your policies and procedures will operate in practice
• specify which part of the policy is relevant to the question being asked
• make sure your responses make sense and are supported by any documents you submit
• attachments need to be in PDF, Word or Excel format, with a maximum file size of 10 MB per email.

You shouldn't:

• use an old form, or alter the current form in any way unless instructed by us
• copy and paste excerpts from:
  • legislation
  • guidance materials from us, the Department of Health and Aged Care, or any other aged care organisation
• rely on a third party's documentation or understanding of aged care legislation
• give responses that are not descriptive, are intangible or contain aspirational statements of intent
• cite legislation if it isn't relevant to the question asked, or relates to other care and services you provide
• provide copies of your policies or procedures, then reference them in response to a question, without telling us which part of the document you want us to read
• give generic documents that:
  • aren't tailored to the environment you intend to operate in, or
  • don't reflect your organisation's governance or systems
• give responses that don't relate to the care type you're applying for
• give links to cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

Important requirements for all applicants

Your application won't be successful unless you can show us you meet all the following requirements:

Incorporated bodies

Your organisation must be incorporated under:

• Commonwealth
• state, or
• territory law.

This means you must be an incorporated company or an incorporated association.

Skills and experience in care services

Your Board or Governing body is legally accountable for the delivery of services in line with the Aged Care Quality Standards.

You need to show that members of your Board or Governing body have experience in leading an aged care service or similar service.

Every member of your Board or Governing body is key personnel. They all need to meet the mandatory key personnel requirements.

Executive team experience

You need to describe the responsibilities of each member of the Executive team. You also need to show how their skills and experience match those responsibilities.

If you're applying for residential care and or in-home care, your Executive team must include a person who'll have responsibility for the delivery of clinical care. To legally practice in Australia, that person must be registered with AHPRA and operate within that registration and associated scope of practice.

There's a definition for practice on the AHPRA website.

The people in your organisation are key personnel if they:

• have duties that include responsibility for making executive decisions
• have authority, responsibility or significant influence over:
• -organisational planning
• - directing or controlling how you operate whether they are employed by you, are volunteers or contractors.

Meeting the Aged Care Act and Quality Standards

You need to describe your organisation's governance framework. This means the:

• systems
• policies
• procedures
• monitoring, and
• improvement mechanisms you'll use to manage the delivery of services.

You need to show how your arrangements ensure the services you deliver meet the requirements of aged care regulation, the Quality Standards and the Financial and Prudential Standards.

Governing body responsibilities must also be followed and can be found in the Aged Care Act and the Accountability Principles. The quality standards are under the Act and Quality of Care Principles.

Funding & financial viability

You need to give evidence of commitment for any capital investments or loans.

You need to give evidence that organisations or individuals who are funding loans or capital investments have the necessary funds. 

If applicable, you need to show the method you use to set prices.

You need to give us information that shows how you will fund an aged care service.

If your company is operating when you apply you must give us evidence of your financial capacity, including any capital investments or loans.

We will assess your how you plan to obtain the necessary funding to meet your start up and operating costs.

There are many financial responsibilities for an approved provider, the following list is only an example of what you must explain to us:

• the financial obligations an approved provider has, depending on the care type you want to be approved to provide
• reporting obligations
• what you must do to meet all the applicable Prudential Standards
• what you must do to manage Commonwealth subsidies and care recipient's fees

You need to show that you maintain a financial management system that will support you to meet financial obligations with the Commonwealth.

You need to show that you maintain a financial management system that captures the data you're required to regularly report on.

Subcontractors & the Quality Standards

You're legally accountable for the delivery of services through subcontractors.

You need to give us a copy of the service agreement you'll use with subcontractors. If you can't give us a copy, you need to give details of the intended content of your agreement/s, any terms and conditions you consider relevant for the purposes of delivering compliant aged care services and any other content that establishes how these arrangements will operate in practice.