Quality review key changes fact sheet

Part of a fact sheet series related to Key changes under the new Commission Act and Rules

Participating services and programs

Quality reviews will be conducted for home services that provide home care services, home support services and short-term restorative care. Services delivering National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP) services will continue to have their quality review cycle under the Quality Framework. Please see the Language Glossary for a further explanation of these terms.

From 1 July 2019 all services are assessed against the Aged Care Quality Standards (Quality Standards).

Combined quality reviews

If a provider provides different service types in a home care setting, the Commissioner may decide to conduct a quality review of those services at the same time.

Quality assessors

Quality reviews are conducted by registered quality assessors.

Notification of site visit

A quality review must include a site visit to the premises of the home service provider of the service. It may include a site visit to the premises on which the service is provided, for example, where a service is provided by a contractor (such as meal preparation) or the home of an aged care consumer (consumer). The occupier of these premises must have consented to entry before the site visit can occur.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner (Commissioner) will generally provide the home service with notification of the date or dates of the site visit. The Rules do not specify the period of notification (previously at least 28 days) in informing a provider of the site visit.

If the Commissioner considers on reasonable grounds the service is not complying with the Quality Standards there is no requirement to provide notification of the date or dates of a site visit.

This has implications for how providers inform consumers and their nominated representatives of the site visit so that they have the opportunity to talk to the quality assessors if they want.

The provider must take all reasonable steps to use the form of words provided by the Commissioner to tell each consumer and their nominated representatives of the site visit. A provider’s ability to inform consumers/representatives will depend on the circumstances, such as the notification period for the site visit, the number of consumers receiving services and the geographic disbursement of those consumers.

Site visit meetings

On each day of the site visit there is to be a site meeting between one of the quality assessors and the provider to discuss the progress of the visit. This does not preclude all quality assessors on site from attending the meeting.

Interim report

For every quality review of a home service the assessment team must prepare an interim quality review report about the service, which is given to the Commissioner within 7 days after the last site visit is completed.

The Commissioner, as soon as practicable after receiving the interim quality review report, must give it to the home service provider.

The home service provider will continue to have 14 days to provide a written response from receipt of the interim quality review report.

Final report

While the 20 day timeframe will continue to apply to provision of the final quality review report to the provider, the final quality review report will now include:

• a timetable for improvement, where non-compliance with the Quality Standards has been found
• arrangements for assessment contacts with the service.

The quality review process finishes at this point, and any non-compliance is dealt with under the monitoring provisions of the Rules.

For more information about the quality review process visit the quality review page .

National feedback

For support in understanding the Rules and their operational implications, please contact the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission by emailing info@agedcarequality.gov.au or contact your local Regional Office by calling 1800 951 822 (free call).