Resource library

Joint letter from the Chief Medical Officer Professor Anthony Lawler and Commissioner Liz Hefren-Webb to Board Chairs, Residential Aged Care Providers on winter preparedness in residential aged care.

Letter from the Commissioner – Preparing for the high-risk weather season 2024-25.

The Complaints about aged care services – Year in review (July 2023-June 2024) report explores the complaints we have received about aged care providers in 2023-24.

In this report, we draw attention to clear patterns and trends in the complaints made about residential care and home services respectively.

The report also covers:

A report on the outcomes of our public consultation on draft guidance documents on the new strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

In the lead up to the conference, we hosted a day of pre-conference workshops focused on best-practice approaches to delivering aged care. 

The 9 workshops were an opportunity for providers to come together for an informal conversation with Commission executives and peers on a range of topics. 

Joint letter on Winter outbreaks to Board Chairs, Residential Aged Care Providers from the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly and Commissioner Janet Anderson PSM. 

This report is specifically for people receiving aged care and focuses on the experience of those using home services through Home Care Packages or through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme.

The report aims to help people to understand what to expect from their home services provider and sets out what to do if things are not going the way they want. The report includes information about aged care standards, data collected from thousands of complaints and useful tips for people receiving care.

The strengthened Quality Standards pilot project final report outlines key insights, findings and lessons learnt from the pilot audits. The report will direct future work to be undertaken by the Commission in preparation for implementation of the strengthened Quality Standards and new audit methodology.

This visual abstract presents outcomes from a quality improvement project aimed at reducing low-value urine dipstick testing in aged care services. It included nurse education, implementing clinical pathways for UTI identification, and evaluating urinalysis practices and antibiotic prescribing. The findings demonstrate improved antibiotic prescribing appropriateness for UTIs over a 6-month follow-up period. 

This resource may refer to information that will be updated from 1 July 2025 to align with the new Aged Care Act and Quality Standards.

Letter from Commissioner Janet Anderson PSM and Chief Clinical Advisory Dr Melanie Wroth to residential aged care providers and people living in residential aged care homes on the importance of being up to date with COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

Letter from Ann Wunsch to home services providers who have not reported a serious incident in the first 12 months of the Scheme. This is a follow-up communication to our letter sent to all home services providers on 27 June 2023.

Letter from Commissioner Janet Anderson PSM and Complaints Commissioner Louise Macleod to approved providers of residential and home services on the Commission’s new report on Complaints about Aged Care Services – Insights for providers released on 20 November 2023.

This report uses data, case studies and guided questions to identify learnings about good complaint handling that can be applied by residential and home services aged care providers in their services. The report also includes questions for boards and senior leadership to help guide complaints handling.

A new learning resource for providers, featuring case study insights from unexplained absence from care incidents reported to the Commission is now available. 

Letter from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, Janet Anderson PSM to support your planning and preparation for the high-risk weather season to ensure the continuity of care and services to older Australians.

This document responds to questions put to the Commission at the ‘Compliance in practice’ webinar held on 18 July 2023. The information is current as at 2 August 2023.

Joint letter to approved providers of residential aged care services from the Commission and the Australian Electoral Commission about the 2023 referendum and COVID-19 entry approach for mobile polling staff.

This document responds to questions put to the Commission at the ‘Stronger Standards, Better Aged Care’ webinar held on 20 June 2023 and the National Aged Care Providers Conference session on 9 June 2023. The information is current as at 23 August 2023.

The webinar recording and presentation slides are also available.

Joint letter from the Commission and the Department of Health and Aged Care to approved providers on medication management.