When telling us about key personnel changes in your organisation, you need to provide specific information and supporting documents so we can make sure you have met your responsibilities.
You can use the digital notification form to change provider key personnel or to add service key personnel. To update, cease or notify us about the suitability of service key personnel, you need to use the Approved Provider Service Key Personnel Notification form on our website.
The information below is for both the digital notification form and Approved Provider Service Key Personnel Notification form, unless specified.
We use the information you give us about key personnel to assess key personnel suitability. These are set out under s8C of the Commission Act.
How we use key personnel information
The personal information of key personnel is protected by law, including the Privacy Act 1988, the Australian Privacy Principles, the Commission Act and the Aged Care Act. The Australian Privacy Principle 3.1 states that we can only ask for and collect personal information that is necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities. Under 3.3, we can only ask for and collect sensitive information if the person agrees.
If we have any concerns about the suitability of key personnel, we may ask you for a copy of your records held about what you considered about their suitability. You need to keep records up to date in line with section 63-1A of the Aged Care Act.
If we need more information, we will let you know by:
- calling your authorised representative
- emailing your authorised representative
- requesting information through a formal notice under section 9-2 of the Aged Care Act.
When a notification form is finalised, any new, ceased or updated key personnel information is recorded in GPMS. You will be able to view it in the notification table on the Manage Your Organisation page.
Forms not submitted in GPMS won’t show in the notification table. This includes the Approved Provider Service Key Personnel Notification form.
We may send key personnel information to other areas in the Commission, if it relates to their regulatory functions.
Add as a new key personnel
When you notify us about a new key personnel, a contact record is created in GPMS when the form has been finalised.
You can use the digital notification form to add new provider and service key personnel. See the Notification form guide for guidance about making any other changes to service key personnel.
Your new key personnel need to be suitable to be involved in aged care. We will assess whether the person is suitable. Your notification won’t be processed straight away if we need to ask you for more information or documentation about the person’s suitability.
Remember, you need to have consent from each key personnel to provide the personal information we ask for in the form.
Ask your key personnel to read the Commission’s Privacy policy and Notice of collection before you submit the digital form. Make sure they know how we will handle their personal information.
The digital form has mandatory fields for each type of key personnel notification. There are also mandatory documents that you need to upload to show that you have taken the steps in the Accountability Principles 2014. In the form, you will need to include reasons and statements to explain the change you’re reporting.
Some key personnel may already have a record in our database. For example, if they have had a key personnel role with another organisation or have had a key personnel role with your organisation in the past.
If the person has had a key personnel or point of contact role with your organisation in the past but the role ended, the search in the digital form won’t find a match for them. You must add them as a new key personnel.
Position title of key personnel
When completing the digital form, you can only add one key personnel record for an individual. If a key personnel holds more than one position, you can indicate this when entering their Position title.
For example, if a key personnel is the Interim CEO and the CFO you can enter their position details as ‘Interim CEO, CFO’. When their position as interim CEO ends and you need to update this information, you can simply submit the change in a digital notification form and enter the position title ‘CFO’.
Principal purpose of key personnel position
This question helps us understand the purpose of the key personnel’s position. This relates directly to the definition of key personnel set out under section 8B of the Commission Act.
For provider key personnel choose either:
- Executive Decision Maker
- Significant Influence
- Executive Manager.
For service key personnel choose either:
- Aged Care Service Manager
- Senior Nursing Staff.
For key personnel who are employed by another organisation, but their role involves decision making in your organisation, choose from:
- External Entity Executive Decision Maker
- External Entity Manager
- Management Company Director
- Management Company Employee.
Duties of the key personnel position
You are required to tell us about their duties of position so we can assess their suitability for the key personnel role. This field in the digital form is not mandatory now, but this will change in the future. You need to tell us:
- the duties the key personnel performs on a day-to-day basis
- the decision-making responsibilities they have in their role
- if the role is at one of your services and, if so, the service ID (i.e. SRV-1234).
Your response must not be obscure or only repeat the role title. We need to know about their role to understand how their qualifications, experience and skills are relevant to assess against the suitability matters and other approved provider responsibilities.
Add individual screening check details
The form asks for information about screening checks to show that, as an approved provider, you have considered the suitability matters for key personnel under section 8C of the Commission Act.
The screening checks you are asked to tell us about in the digital notification form and the service key personnel form are only a few of all the considerations that you must take. Read the suitability matters to make sure you have appropriate policies and processes to meet your key personnel suitability responsibilities.
Criminal history checks and NDIS Worker Screening Checks
All approved providers must get a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check or NDIS Worker Screening Check for all staff and key personnel. You must also make sure they are regularly updated. This is contained in Part 6 of the Accountability Principles 2014.
We need a copy of one of these documents when you’re notifying us about a new key personnel.
If you are providing a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check, this must be the full document that contains the person’s full name and date of birth to ensure validity and to confirm that the appropriate check was obtained. Refer to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission website for more information.
If your new key personnel is already an employee and you have promoted them into a key personnel role, you still need to provide a copy of their most recent Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check or NDIS Worker Screening Check.
Add insolvency check details
You should do an insolvency check as soon as you employ a key personnel. You need to give us a copy of this document to show that you met this responsibility. The insolvency check should be less than 60 days old when you submit your notification.
For more information on how to get an insolvency check, go to the Australian Financial Security Authority website’s Bankruptcy Register search.
Director banning and disqualification
The form contains a section to add disqualification information. This means whether the key personnel is, or has been, disqualified from managing corporations under Part 2D.6 of the Corporations Act 2001. You need to have checked this as part of considering the suitability of the key personnel. We will check your response with ASIC.
Add AHPRA registration details
A person responsible for nursing services must be appropriately qualified for the role they’re doing. The person you employ must:
- have qualifications that match their duties
- be adequately trained
- have recent and relevant nursing experience.
Their registration must be ‘within their scope of practice’ according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) registration type they have.
In our notification forms, you need to select the registration type that matches their current registration certificate. For example, a person whose AHPRA registration is in dentistry, no matter what the practitioner division is, couldn’t perform nursing services or have oversight over the registered nurses delivering nursing services.
Add membership of governing body details
Some approved providers have responsibilities related to their governing body.
The notification form asks if the key personnel you’re adding to your organisation (or promoting into a key personnel position) is a member of your governing body or your quality care advisory body.
The form also has a question about whether the key personnel is an independent non-executive member of the governing body.
To work out if these responsibilities apply to you, refer to s63-1D of the Aged Care Act or this guidance document Provider responsibilities relating to governance - guidance for approved providers.
Add qualifications
You have several legal responsibilities about key personnel and staff in general:
- the experience of your key personnel is a suitability matter under s8C of the Commission Act
- under s54-1(1)(b) of the Aged Care Act you need to maintain enough appropriately skilled staff to make sure that the care needs of people receiving care are met
- under the Quality Standards for staff expertise and competence, the governing body must make sure that staff:
- have the right qualifications, skills or experience to provide the care or other services you provide
- are given opportunities to develop their ability to provide that care or other services you provide.
We ask you to tell us about your key personnel’s qualifications and employment history so that we know how this relates to their role. This helps us to see if they’re suitable to perform the duties of that role.
You need to consider what aspect of their qualification is relevant so that you can give us the necessary information.
Your responsibility for making sure your people have the right skills and qualifications includes any person who you:
- employ
- hire
- retain
- contract to provide care or other services.
Adding a new position for an existing key personnel
If you’re adding a new role for an existing key personnel and their existing role is continuing you won’t see their name in the list when you search for them in the digital form. This is so that the information about the existing role isn’t overwritten.
If you’re adding a new role for a key personnel but their existing role is ending, you can use the Cease key personnel option in the form to cease the role.
Make sure the responses you give in the form show how you have considered the suitability of the person under section 8C of the Commission Act and why you are satisfied that they are suitable.
Documents you need to provide
Below is a list of documents we need when you submit the digital form or the Approved Provider Service Key Personnel Notification form:
- Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check and/or NDIS Worker Screening Clearance
- AHPRA Registration certificate
- Insolvency Check.
Update key personnel details
Maintaining existing key personnel information is important because it means we can contact the right person. We want to be certain that we update the right record and that the information originally recorded is correct.
Review your key personnel list regularly in GPMS and make updates when there are any changes.
The first time you review your key personnel list in GPMS, you may see errors, like the incorrect spelling of a person’s name. You can fix this for provider key personnel by using the Update key personnel option in the digital form, or for service key personnel, using the service key personnel form.
You can’t update your key personnel’s principal purpose. If this has changed, you need to cease them in their current key personnel role and add them to their new key personnel role.
When to use the digital form to update
Use the digital form to update an existing provider key personnel record. This can include updating a phone number, email address, fixing the spelling of a name or fixing their date of birth.
If the provider key personnel has a new role, either permanently or for longer than 3 months, you need to follow the Adding a new position for an existing key personnel process for the digital form.
When to use the service key personnel form to update
Service key personnel can only be updated using the Approved Provider Service Key Personnel Notification form.
If the person moves from a service key personnel role to a provider key personnel role, read the Adding a new position for an existing key personnel section of this guide and then add them in the digital form to tell us about the new role.
If a person is acting in a service key personnel role for at least 3 months, you will need to complete the Adding a new position for an existing key personnel section in the digital notification form.
Documentation for key personnel updates
If you’re updating a provider or service key personnel’s information, including changing roles from one key personnel position to another, you need to submit documents to show their suitability.
It’s your responsibility to consider the suitability of key personnel once every 12 months. You need to keep records that detail the decisions you made (refer to s63-1A of the Aged Care Act and the Accountability Principles).
You can upload these records to the digital form or you can attach them to the service key personnel form.
Update insolvency check details
You will be asked to enter the date of the insolvency check when entering insolvency check information into the digital notification form. You can only enter a date less than 60 days from the date you’re submitting the notification.
This is because of validation rules in the digital form. These will be further improved in future updates.
Cease key personnel
Complete this part of the form when a key personnel stops being a key personnel. This includes whether they have left the organisation or moved to another role that is not a key personnel role.
Make sure you complete the ‘Reason for cessation of key personnel’ to tell us why your key personnel left your organisation. Or if they haven’t left, the role they have moved to and why they are no longer a key personnel.
You need to give us a ‘date of cessation’. Depending on why the person is no longer key personnel, this will be the date that the key personnel stopped being employed or the day they started in their new non-key personnel role.
Remember that board members are key personnel, so you need to also use this part of the form to notify us when you have a change in board membership. Make sure you also tell us about these changes in the Organisation detail change section of the digital form.
Report on suitability as key personnel
Use this section of the form to tell us when there’s been a change to a key personnel’s suitability.
There are steps set out under 9-2A(2) of the Aged Care Act that you need to take to comply with your key personnel suitability responsibilities, including:
- providing details of the change in circumstances that affects a person’s suitability
- considering the suitability matters related to the person and the situation
- after considering those matters, deciding whether you’re satisfied that the person is still suitable to provide aged care (this includes making decisions about the delivery of aged care)
- explaining what, if any, action you have taken, or plan to take, related to the person.
