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Aged Care Resource Roundup

Posted on by Tanya Haywood

Now that the Aged Care Act 2024 and Aged Care Rules 2025 are in effect, we thought it would be helpful to summarise all of our aged care related self-assessments and key resources, to remind you of the many ways SPP can help you transition into the new framework! 

Our Aged Care Self-Assessments

Over the last year or so we’ve added and updated a range of detailed self-assessments to help providers: 

  • Get on top of all of the new requirements 
  • Undertake gap analysis and create automatic improvement plans 
  • Access hundreds of comprehensive templates 
  • Package up compliance reports and required evidence 

Here’s a quick snapshot of the self-assessments available in SPP:

Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards

Track compliance with all Outcomes and Actions of the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, with our related templates, policies and info sheets linked throughout.  You can automatically transpose compliance reports and evidence straight into the Commission’s Audit Evidence Collection Tool (AECT). 

Aged Care Financial and Prudential Standards

Contains all requirements of the three new financial and prudential standards, with links through to our templates for: 

  • Financial and prudential management system 
  • Liquidity management strategy  
  • Investment management strategy 

Aged Care Act 2024 – Provider Obligations

We’ve built a comprehensive series of modules to help you understand and monitor your compliance with all of the core obligations and conditions of registration of providers within the Act and Rules.  

There are too many to list here, but our modules cover topics including: 

  • Responsible persons and suitability matters 
  • Governance requirements 
  • Workforce vaccinations 
  • Restrictive practices 
  • Incidents 
  • Complaints, Feedback and Whistleblower Disclosures 

Associated Provider Compliance Attestation

Associated Providers can use this self-assessment to confirm their understanding of their core obligations under the Act and Rules – as well as provide registered providers with required information and evidence of compliance. 

Registered providers can evidence their due diligence by having Associated Providers answer the questions in SPP or the Q&A report spreadsheet. 

AECT and CDECT Supporting Documents

Providers are using the self-assessments we’ve built for the AECT, as well as Care Delivery Evidence Collection Tools (CDECTs), to package up their Required Supporting Documents.  Of course, we’ve linked all of our relevant resources to each Required Supporting Document. 

Our members with multiple facilities are using these self-assessments to ensure that each of their facilities understands what documents they need to provide.  Each facility can then package up the appropriate mix of corporate documents together with facility-specific documents. 

Our Huge Range of Aged Care Quality Standards Resources

Did you know that we have over 165 resources in our Reading Room that are specifically linked to individual Actions under each Outcome of the Aged Care Quality Standards?

That long list includes templates, policies and checklists to meet requirements of the Act and the Quality Standards, including relating to: 

  • The Governing Body and Responsible Persons 
  • The Quality Care Advisory Body and the Consumer Advisory Body 
  • Associated Providers 
  • Person-Centred Care 
  • Choice, Independence and Decision-Making 
  • Partnering with Individuals 
  • Clinical Governance 
  • Comprehensive Care 
  • Safe and Quality Use of Medicines 
  • Reportable Incidents 
  • Feedback, Complaints and Whistleblowing 
  • Risk Management 
  • Safeguarding 
  • Safe Service Environment

Interested in learning more?

Reach out to us if you’d like to learn more about how SPP is helping hundreds of aged care providers transition into the new quality and safety framework! 

Please contact us at team@bngonline.com.au or call us on 02 9569 1704.  

Need help with Aged Care Compliance?

Sign up to SPP for everything you need to help you transition to the new framework.

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From Risk to Readiness: Managing Associated Providers under the New Aged Care Act

Posted on by Tanya Haywood

The new Aged Care Act, commencing 1 November 2025, introduces comprehensive reforms that place greater emphasis on transparency, accountability and governance.  

One significant change is the requirement for Registered Providers to take responsibility for the conduct and compliance of their Associated Providers.  

Associated Providers – whether allied health professionals, transport operators, catering companies or cleaning contractors, are often central to the delivery of aged care services. Under the new Act, providers can no longer treat these third parties as ‘separate’.

Registered Providers’ Responsibility

Section 11(6) of the Aged Care Act makes it clear that Registered Providers remain accountable for ensuring that services delivered by Associated Providers meet all applicable obligations.  

This includes compliance with the Aged Care Quality Standards, the Aged Care Code of Conduct and requirements relating to screening, training, incident management and record keeping.  

The Act also introduces a Statement of Rights, which outlines the entitlement of people accessing aged care services. These include the right to independence, choice, safety, respect and culturally appropriate care. All providers must ensure that all services delivered are consistent with these rights. 

In practice, this means that Registered Providers must establish robust systems to monitor, support and verify Associated Providers. Without strong oversight systems, Registered Providers face risks – including non-compliance, regulatory penalties, reputational harm and most importantly, compromised safety and wellbeing for older Australians.  

The Compliance Challenge

Managing compliance across a diverse range of Associated Providers can be complex. Associated Providers are subject to a broad range of legislative and regulatory requirements under the new Act, including: 

  • Workforce screening, training and supervision 
  • Feedback, complaints and whistleblower protections  
  • Incident management protocols and escalation pathways  
  • Record-keeping obligations, including vaccination data and worker credentials 
  • Notification requirements to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission 
  • Pricing transparency for user-sourced services  

Clear legal requirements are the starting point, but building a cohesive culture of shared responsibility and continuous improvement is where lasting change happens. Registered Providers should view Associated Providers as partners in delivering safe, high-quality care – moving beyond mere compliance to build a culture of shared accountability. 

Practical Tools for Oversight

To assist Registered Providers in navigating these reforms, we have developed a package of new resources: 

 

1. For Registered Providers – Associated Provider Compliance Checklist 

This is a high-level checklist designed to help Registered Providers undertake due diligence about the compliance position of each of their Associated Providers.  

It clarifies the systems and processes each Associated Provider must have in place and acts as a communication bridge, fostering shared responsibility and continuous improvement. 

It helps you to record that you’ve made enquiry and satisfied yourself about the processes each Associated Provider has put in place covering the topics summarised above in our self-assessment.  

We’ve included hyperlinks to the relevant requirements of the Act and Rules throughout the checklist, to help you understand the context of each item. 

2. Self-Assessment: Associated Compliance Attestation: 

To make this process even easier, we have also developed an SPP module specifically for Associated Providers to complete. The module mirrors the Associated Provider Compliance Checklist and is designed to: 

  • Help Associated Providers assess their own compliance and confirm that they understand the core requirements under the Act and Rules directly within the SPP platform 
  • Enable structured self-assessment linked to relevant evidence and documentation 
  • Generate a compliance report and package up copies of core compliance documents, that can be submitted to Registered Providers, supporting transparency, consistency and ease of oversight 

Our self-assessment contains the following modules: 

  • Associated Provider Details 
  • Workforce Requirements 
  • Incident Management 
  • Feedback and Complaints Management 
  • Whistleblowing 
  • Monitoring and quality assurance 
  • Record-Keeping 
  • Compliance Documents 

We’ve included hyperlinks to the relevant requirements of the Act and Rules throughout the modules, to help you understand the context of each item.

3. Associated Provider Agreement 

A practical contract template that formalises the relationship between Registered Providers and Associated Providers. It ensures: 

  • Clear articulation of roles, responsibilities and compliance expectations 
  • A contractual basis for monitoring feedback and corrective action 

Towards Best Practice

Associated Provider management is no longer a secondary issue – it is now an integral part of aged care governance. The reforms make it clear that providers are accountable for every part of the care ecosystem, even when delivered through third parties. 

By adopting the available resources, providers can shift from risk awareness to risk readiness – strengthening not only their governance but also the safety and quality of care for older Australians.  

You can find the new self-assessment for Associated Providers in SPP under the Standards tab > Aged Care – towards best practice or just search “Associated Provider” in the search bar. 

You can find the Checklist and the Template Agreement resources in SPP’s Reading Room by searching the name of each resource – or just search “Associated Provider” to find both. 

 

Please contact us at team@bngonline.com.au , or phone 02 9569 1704 if you have any queries. 

Spotlight on 2024

Posted on by Tanya Haywood

With 2024 coming to an end, it’s a great time to look back at some of the biggest changes and developments of the year in the community and health services sector. 

Aged Care

Following the release of the final draft Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards in December 2024, this year the focus was on preparing for implementation, which will commence in July 2025.  We worked hard over the 2024 Christmas break and then released an updated self-assessment for those Standards in early January, to help providers understand and prepare for expected changes and new requirements. 

Throughout the year, we’ve been reviewing our suite of resources against the draft requirements to ensure they’ll be ready to support providers’ compliance when the new Framework comes into effect. From revising 19 resources to cover new evidence-based care requirements, to updating our safeguarding resources in light of SIRS changes, to releasing a new policy template on Personal Property, and using Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Clinical Alerts to guide the development of a new Extreme Heat policy template, we’ve been working to ensure we’re ready to support your organisation.  We’ve also just recently updated and added to our Medication Management resources.

Disability

The findings and themes of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability have continued to inform changes in the disability sector (and beyond) throughout 2024. Following on from our work in 2023 to revise and update our safeguarding resources to reflect the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission, this year we worked to create new resources and review our existing resources to reflect other recommendations. Some highlights include our new Policy: Human Rights and Policy: Disability Access and Inclusion. 

We also updated our NDIS Code of Conduct self-assessment to reflect changes to the legislation, and built a new self-assessment designed for Disability Employment Service (DES) providers to help them comply with the DES Quality Framework. 

More recently, we published a blog post on the NDIS regulatory reforms and some of the changes in the Disability sector, summarising the themes of focus, the changes already made and expectations for changes yet to come. 

We will be closely monitoring the release of the consultation draft of the new NDIS Practice Standards and Rules in early 2025.

Healthcare

This year we’ve had an increased focus on building self-assessments under the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards umbrella. We worked in collaboration with some of our members to develop self-assessments for three of the Clinical Care Standards, to help healthcare providers meet their NSQHS obligations when delivering specific care supports in the following areas: 

  • Antimicrobial Stewardship; 
  • Delirium; and 
  • Psychotropic Medicines in Cognitive Disability or Impairment. 

Following their launch in late 2023, we also released new self-assessments this year for the National Consensus Statement for End-of-Life Care and National Safety and Quality Cosmetic Surgery Standards. 

State and Territory Self-assessments

The States and Territories have also been busy in 2024. Updates to major social services standards in Victoria (Victorian Social Services Standards replacing the Human Services Standards) and Queensland (Human Services Quality Standards) have resulted in changes to our self-assessments, while we’ve also been building self-assessments for more specialised state and territory Standards, such as the: 

  • ACT Children and Young People (Care and Protection Organisation) Standards, 
  • NSW Point to Point Safety Audit Tool, and the  
  • SA Injury Management Standards for Self-Insured Employers.  

Many of our specialised state and territory self-assessments have been built in consultation with, or following requests from, our members, directly supporting their compliance. If there’s a self-assessment for a particular set of Standards you’d like to see in SPP, let us know! 

A key area of focus for the States and Territories this year has been child safety and protection, with both Tasmania and Queensland introducing their Child Safe Standards to join the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, and the Victorian and New South Wales Child Safe Standards in the platform. We’ve built self-assessments for all of those jurisdictions, and will be watching closely for the release of child safe standards in other jurisdictions in the year to come! 

Workplace Reforms

Another priority this year relates to working conditions for staff. Updates to the Fair Work Act 2009 have changed the way organisations assess a person’s status as a contractor or casual employee, and work to protect work-life balance through new right to disconnect provisions. We’ve updated our Policy: Contractor Management in response to these changes, and will be working on resources about the right to disconnect in the new year. 

In addition, we’ve continued work on expanding and improving our suite of Workplace Health and Safety resources, including a new Manual Handling Policy, reviewed Whistleblower Management resources for added requirements in the new Aged Care Act 2024, and a helpful spotlight on workplace safety covering key areas in WHS. 

Extra Features in SPP

We also made some exciting changes to the SPP platform during the year. In addition to our Board Governance Toolkit which launched late last year, we’ve now added an in-platform Risk Register tool, with an integrated Heat Map, to help providers manage risks across their organisation. 

We’ve also made improvements to our document search system, allowing members to search for resources in the Reading Room that match particular Standards, and in many cases individual requirements within those Standards, to streamline the search process and help providers match resources that are going to be of most assistance to the requirements they need to meet. 

Looking Forward to 2025

2024 was a busy year in the community and health services sector, and 2025 is already shaping up to be the same. Major legislative developments in both the Disability and Aged Care sectors have recently passed, heralding significant changes to these areas in the new year- and we will be here to help you navigate all the changes you need to know about in 2025.  

We’ll be taking some time to celebrate the holidays and the New Year, so our last day in the office for the year will be Friday, December 20 and we’ll be back on Monday, January 6, but if you need urgent assistance over that time, we’ll still be monitoring our inbox and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! 

All of our best wishes over the holiday season!

Spotlight on Antimicrobial Use in Aged Care

Posted on by Aaron Banick

A recent report on the use of antimicrobials in the community published by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care found that, while the overall use of antimicrobials in the Australian community has reduced over time, the dispensing of antimicrobials for residents of aged care homes and people over 65 is actually trending up.

What are antimicrobials?

Antimicrobials are medicines that are used to treat, prevent, and control a broad range of infections and infectious diseases, by inhibiting or destroying the bacteria, viruses or fungi that cause the infection.

The risk with over-use of antimicrobials is that antimicrobial resistance can occur. This happens when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to the antimicrobial medicines, lessening their effectiveness at fighting infections and therefore increasing the risk of severe illness, disability and death.

Antimicrobial resistance is accelerated when antimicrobials are unnecessarily or improperly used. This can result in negative effects across the entire health system, by increasing the likelihood of resistant infections and increasing the risk of other important health procedures including organ transplantation, major surgeries, and chemotherapy.

Enhanced risk for older people in care homes

Older people residing in care homes are at advanced risk off microbial infections, due to a few factors including:

  • They may have more than one medical condition affecting them (i.e. comorbidity);
  • Compromised immunity; and
  • The increased risk of exposure to infections due to frequent contact with staff, visitors and other residents.

Because older people are more at risk of infection, there is an enhanced risk that they may be prescribed antimicrobials inappropriately or unnecessarily. 

The Report

The Commission’s report, Antimicrobial use in the Community: 2023, draws from national prescription records between 2015 and 2023. The report found that the number of antimicrobial prescriptions in the general community between 2022-2023 remained roughly steady, at about 24% of the amount in 2015. However, this general downwards trend has not been reflected among older people, particularly residents of aged care homes.

Between 2022-2023, there was an 11.1% increase in overall antimicrobial prescriptions among residents of aged care homes. Nearly three quarters of residents received at least one antimicrobial prescriptions, which is well above the average of one-third for the general community. Older people living in care homes were also much more likely to be given broad-spectrum antimicrobials, even when they were not recommended for common infections.

Antimicrobial Stewardship

The report notes the critical importance of curbing the unnecessary or inappropriate use of antimicrobials through a dual strategy — preventing infections through minimising risk of transmission, and through promoting antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). 

AMS represents an ongoing effort by a provider to implement policies and processes which optimise and minimise the use of antimicrobials, to reduce the risks associated with increasing antimicrobial resistance.

AMS in the context of standards

Instituting best-practice AMS policies and procedures is a requirement of several sets of standards within the health and aged care sectors:

  • Health Services:
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has included antimicrobial stewardship provisions within Standard 3 (Preventing and Controlling Infections) of the National Safety and Quality Health Services Standards, as well as within the related Antimicrobial Stewardship and Sepsis Clinical Care Standards.
 
AMS is also a requirement within the National Safety and Quality Mental Health Standards for Community Managed Organisations (Action 3.35), and the National Safety and Quality Primary and Community Healthcare Standards (Action 3.14). 
 
And AMS policies are relevant to compliance with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Standards for General Practice (Criterion GP4.1), which includes RACGP guidance for general practitioners on reducing risk of infections. 
  • Aged Care:

 The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has included antimicrobial stewardship within Standard 3(g) – (Minimisation of infection-related risks) of the Aged Care Quality Standards, and AMS also features prominently in the new Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards under outcome 5.2 (Preventing and Controlling Infections).

The Commission advises aged care providers to implement best-practice processes and systems for monitoring antimicrobial use, to identify when prescriptions fall outside of recommended guidelines, and ensure that staff are educated on antimicrobials, including their responsibilities regarding antimicrobial stewardship. Additional information and resources can be found on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s website, including their antimicrobial stewardship self-assessment tool.

SPP Resources

Self-assessment modules to track compliance 

SPP provides a range of self-assessments for the standards mentioned above, to help you understand and track your compliance with their particular indicators or requirements regarding antimicrobial stewardship.

Policy templates to help implement procedures 

In addition, in SPP’s Reading Room you can find our Policy: Antimicrobial Stewardship, which is a valuable introductory resource for developing effective antimicrobial stewardship procedures. Antimicrobial stewardship should be developed alongside strong medication governance procedures. Our Policy: Medication Management will assist in outlining some key considerations.

These resources are complemented by our information and policy documents regarding Clinical Governance, and our self-assessment based on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s guidance for Clinical Governance.

We are also hard at work preparing for the upcoming changes in the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards so we can continue to support your efforts to deliver high quality aged care.

How is your organisation supporting AMS?

Sign up to SPP and let our antimicrobial stewardship resources guide you towards compliant processes!

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Tracking compliance with the Aged Care Quality Standards

Posted on by Tanya Haywood

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s recently published Sector Performance Report for the March 2024 quarter provides some key insights into a number of areas of focus for the sector, where targeted improvement will result in improved experiences of older people receiving aged care.  

Overall, while 84% of residential aged care providers were found to be fully compliant with the current Aged Care Quality Standards, only 64% of home care providers were compliant with all eight of the Standards. The two lowest levels of compliance were for Standard 2 – Assessment and Planning and Standard 8 – Organisational Governance, and the Commission also signposted an increased focus on the food and nutrition component of Standard 3 – Personal Care and Clinical Care.  

Whether your organisation is compliant or not, it’s helpful to stay up to date on areas of focus, and regularly review your processes to ensure that older people are receiving the best possible care from the services you provide.  

Preparing to deliver care – Standard 2

Assessment and planning requirements make up a large proportion of non-compliance with the Quality Standards, across both home care and residential aged care services.  

Compliance with Standard 2 is a particular issue of concern in home care. Over one-third of home care providers were found to have compliance issues relating to Standard 2, particularly in the area of assessment and planning. Assessment and planning processes are especially important for home care providers, as the provider and staff have less control over the service environment, and may only provide services to, or even have contact with, each older person at limited times. Working with each older person and their family to put in place a care plan that works for them within their home environment is essential forhigh-quality home care.  

Other issues of concern to the Commission across both residential and home care providers relate to risk management, especially failures to consider risks to safety and wellbeing when planning services, and failures to reassess and review risks when circumstances change or an incident occurs.  

For those interested in risk management, we’ll be publishing a more in-depth look at how risk management can support your organisation’s processes soon. 

Governance processes supporting compliance – Standard 8

Three of the ten lowest levels of compliance with the Quality Standards fall under Standard 8, which is concerned with organisational governance requirements.  Compliance with Standard 8 is a continuing major focus area for the Commission, as organisation-wide governance systems, risk management systems, and clinical governance frameworks underpin the delivery of quality and safe care to older people.  

Governance requirements do not exist in isolation. Careful consideration of governance requirements feeds into other important areas such as continuous quality improvement, demonstrating how reviewing and improving compliance in one area can lead to higher levels of compliance in many others. For example, low compliance with the safe and effective clinical care requirement could be linked back to an ineffective clinical governance framework that does not establish effective procedures for the delivery, review and improvement of clinical care. 

The Commission’s provider governance reforms from December 2023 are designed to improve governance in aged care leading to greater levels of compliance with the Standard.

Food and nutrition in focus – Standard 3

The Commission’s Report also called out food and nutrition as a key area of continuing focus, in particular highlighting that high quality food, nutrition and dining can meaningfully improve older people’s quality of life.  

Many of the complaints made to the Commission relate to the service of food and nutrition. In particular, residents of aged care facilities commonly raise concerns about the quality and variety of the food they receive, query whether their food meets their nutrition and hydration needs, or question the availability of food to suit specific dietary needs, including for medical reasons and religious or cultural requirements.  

The impact of food and nutrition is so key to high quality care in aged care that it will be addressed with its own Standard in the forthcoming Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. We’ve recently updated our food and nutrition resources to reflect changed requirements in the the proposed Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, as well as best practice.  

Improvements in other areas with low compliance can in turn work to aid food and nutrition services. For example, improving planning systems that partner with older people to fulfil Standard 2(3)(c) could include co-design or feedback mechanisms to help older people have greater input into menu and mealtime planning. 

Monitor your compliance with SPP!

It’s important for providers to regularly review their compliance with all eight of the Aged Care Quality Standards. Even if your organisation was compliant at its last audit, regular review of processes can ensure that day to day operations remain consistent with Quality Standards requirements.  It’s also a very important part of the continuous improvement process.

We have a full package of modules in SPP to help providers with their Quality Standards compliance, as well as policy and process reviews.  If you have a detailed grasp of all requirements, you might choose to use our Self-Assessment Tool module to prepare for audit.  Or you might choose our more detailed Educative module to take your team through each itemised requirement of the Quality Standards.  That module presents a series of questions for each requirement, drawn from the Commission’s examples of actions and evidence.  We also have a range of Best Practice modules that focus on other key areas including Clinical Governance, Governance Reforms and Spiritual Care.  All of our modules have integrated links to recommended SPP resources to help you put in place the right policies and procedures. And all of them allow you to generate gap analysis reports and improvement plans.

You can also search our Reading Room for other resources to help improve their processes, either by searching by topic or by standard. For example, searching for ‘planning’ brings up 44 resources that can assist with planning in our resource library, while searching for ‘ACQS2’ brings up all 34 resources that we’ve linked to Standard 2 of the Aged Care Quality Standards.  

Have you reviewed your Quality Standards compliance recently?

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Changes to nutrition in aged care are coming… are you ready?

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

The Royal Commission’s Recommendation

One of the major changes coming to Aged Care is the strengthening of the Aged Care Quality Standards based on the findings and recommendations of the Aged Care Royal Commission. A key area of focus of the Royal Commission was the nutrition, hydration and dining experience of residents in aged care.

The Royal Commission recommended:

“…imposing appropriate requirements to meet resident nutritional needs and ensure meals are desirable to eat, having regard to a person’s preferences and religious and cultural considerations”. 

New requirements

Following the review of the Quality Standards, the Pilot Draft of the Revised Quality Standards now contains Standard 6: Food and Nutrition. This is a completely new standard, which will apply only to residential aged care services.

Standard 6’s expectation statement for older people is: 

“I receive plenty of food and drinks that I enjoy. Food and drinks are nutritious, appetising and safe, and meet my needs and preferences. The dining experience is enjoyable, includes variety and supports a sense of belonging.” 

Standard 6 notes that access to nutritionally adequate food is a fundamental human right, and draws attention to the fact that food, drink and the dining experience can greatly impact a person’s wellbeing. The Standard sets out a number of new concepts for aged care providers, including new or enhanced actions and requirements to: 

  • Partner with older people on how to create an enjoyable food drinks and dining experience;  
  • Monitor and continuously improve food services in accordance with the feedback of older people;  
  • Regularly assess the nutritional and dining needs of each older person;  
  • Review menus in partnership with both older people and health professionals;  
  • Promote choice about what, when, where and how older people eat and drink;  
  • Offer and enable access to snacks and drinks at all times;  
  • Ensure sufficient workers are available to assist in the dining experience;  
  • Ensure that the dining experience promotes belonging and enjoyment; and 
  • Offer older people the opportunity to share food and drinks with their visitors.  

New resources from the Commission

The Commission has recently released some new resources to help providers better understand the importance of choice in food and drink in aged care, as well as the dining experience.  The full list of the Commission’s resources includes information for providers, staff and consumers, and can be found here. Some of the key new resources are:

How SPP can help

To assist providers get up to speed with the new food and nutrition requirements that will be in Standard 6, we’ve recently summarised all necessary information into a helpful information sheet. We have also incorporated the new and enhanced actions and requirements of Standard 6 into our comprehensive policy document.  

  • Info: Nutrition, Meals and Hydration 
  • Policy: Nutrition, Meals and Hydration (Aged Care) 

Other resources for service providers

New to SPP?

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Get ready for the revised Aged Care Quality Standards

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

Reforms to the aged care sector continue, with the recent release of a consultation draft of the revised Aged Care Quality Standards (‘Quality Standards’). The new Quality Standards have some key differences compared to the existing standards – they are significantly more detailed, and represent a move away from the higher-level approach of the existing standards. There is definitely a lot for providers to take in, so let us help you get up to speed with our overview of the key changes.

Why are the Quality Standards changing?

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety found that the existing Quality Standards are not sufficiently ‘comprehensive, rigorous and detailed’.

The Royal Commission identified specific areas of improvement for the Quality Standards, including the need to:

  • reflect the needs of people with dementia;
  • better recognise diversity and improve cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
  • strengthen requirements in relation to governance and human resources;
  • describe more detailed requirements relating to food and nutrition; and
  • improve clinical care.

The revisions to the Quality Standards were also informed by engagement with the sector, an independent review, and comparison with existing standards for health care and disability support – the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, and the NDIS Practice Standards.

What will the new Quality Standards look like?

Standard 1: The Person

Standard 1 focuses on important concepts including dignity and respect, older person individuality and diversity, independence, and culturally safe care.

The new Standard 1 remains fairly similar to existing Standard 1: Consumer dignity and choice in the current Quality Standards, with a focus on the older person.

Outcomes

  • Person-centred care
  • Dignity, respect and privacy
  • Choice, independence and quality of life
  • Transparency and agreements

Standard 2: The Organisation

Standard 2 is intended to hold the governing body responsible for fulfilling the requirements of the Quality Standards and delivering safe and quality care. Standard 2 goes into more detail than the current standards by itemising more requirements for systems that providers should have in place (including requirements regarding partnering with older people, accountability and quality systems, workforce planning, and emergency and disaster management).

Outcomes

  • Partnering with older people
  • Quality and safety culture
  • Accountability and quality systems
  • Risk management
  • Incident management
  • Feedback and complaints management
  • Information management
  • Workforce planning
  • Human resource management
  • Emergency and disaster management

Standard 3: The Care and Services

Standard 3 describes the way providers must deliver care and services. It sets out more detailed requirements regarding how providers assess each older person’s needs, goals and preferences, document this in a care plan and use this to inform the way care is delivered. Standard 3 includes a new requirement that providers implement a system for caring for people living with dementia.

Outcomes

  • Assessment and planning
  • Delivery of care and services
  • Communicating for safety and quality
  • Coordination of care and services

Standard 4: The Environment

Standard 4 focuses on the physical environment, which must be clean, safe and comfortable and enable freedom of movement for older people. Standard 4 also sets out requirements regarding infection prevention and control systems.

Outcomes

  • Environment and equipment at home
  • Environment and equipment in a service environment
  • Infection prevention and control

Standard 5: Clinical Care

Standard 5 describes the responsibilities of providers, with respect to the delivery of clinical care. Standard 5 articulates more detailed and technical requirements for clinical care compared with the existing standards, including in areas such as technical nursing, advance care planning, continence, falls and mental health. This standard was developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, and aligns with the NSQHS Standards.

This standard will apply to providers delivering clinical care, whether it is in an older person’s home or a residential environment.

Outcomes

  • Clinical governance
  • Preventing and managing infections in clinical care
  • Medication safety
  • Comprehensive care
  • Care at the end life

Standard 6: Food and Nutrition

Standard 6 sets out requirements regarding what older people can expect of the food and drink they are provided in residential care services. It includes the requirement that food and drink is appetising, nutritious and safe, and that the dining experience is enjoyable. Having a dedicated standard for food and drink is a new development, and represents a greater focus on this area.

Standard 6 will apply only to residential care services.

Outcomes

  • Partnering with older people on food and nutrition
  • Assessment of nutritional needs and preferences
  • Provision of food and drink
  • Dining experience

Standard 7: The Residential Community

Standard 7 is about the residential community, and focuses on continuity of care, security of accommodation, and strategies to help older people maintain relationships.

Standard 7 will apply only to residential care services.

Outcomes

  • Daily living
  • Planned transitions

Other noteworthy changes

  • Use of the phrase ‘older person’/’older people’ – The term currently used to refer to a person receiving services under the existing Quality Standards is ‘consumer’, however the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission acknowledges that this term is not generally well-received by older people. The new term used throughout the revised Quality Standards is ‘older person’.
  • More requirements, that are more detailed – The current Quality Standards are outcomes-focused and consist of eight standards, which include a consumer outcome, an organisation statement and a number of requirements. The new Quality Standards describe more detailed expectations for providers, with an increase from 42 requirements to 31 outcomes with 142 supporting actions. This may look like an increase in the regulatory burden for providers, but the intention is to provide greater clarity to providers, by being more specific about how to achieve the outcomes laid out in the Quality Standards.

Similarities with NDIS Practice Standards

The updated Quality Standards will align structurally with the NDIS Practice Standards, by following a ‘modular’ format and using outcomes and actions (called ‘quality indicators’ in the Quality Standards). The two sets of standards don’t have identical content, but there are plenty of similar themes, and the same pieces of evidence may be used by a provider to satisfy outcomes across both sets of standards. For example, an organisation’s incident management policy may be used to demonstrate compliance with the incident management outcome across both sets of standards.

Government is also considering regulating providers through a registration model, similar to the NDIS Practice Standards. Employing a registration model means that, “requirements for market entry and ongoing provider responsibilities would be applied proportionately, based on the provider’s registration category. A provider’s registration category would be determined based on the types of care and services the provider is seeking to deliver and the risks associated with them”. This is similar to how the NDIS Practice Standards currently operate.

What does the rollout look like?

There will be some time before the new Quality Standards are up and running.

Currently, the Department of Health Aged Care is holding a public consultation process for the Quality Standards, and providers are invited to take part.

Following the public consultation, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will conduct a pilot of the new Quality Standards, to test an updated audit methodology for the Standards.

Providers can expect guidance materials and further updates on the revised Quality Standards in early 2023.

Looking for more information?

The Commission has released a number of helpful resources for the new Quality Standards, including both a summary as well as a detailed Consultation Paper, and a summary and detailed document setting out the new Quality Standards themselves.

To understand the intention behind the new Quality Standards, as well as what all of the requirements are, you might like to take a look at the Commission’s Summary Consultation Paper, as well as the Summary draft of the Quality Standards.

Do you need assistance meeting the Aged Care Quality Standards?

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Lessons from the pandemic: how Standards have evolved

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

We’re now two years into the pandemic, and the care and support sector has had to make some major adjustments to their service delivery in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

A number of standards have been amended or updated with significant new changes, to provide guidance on improving and standardising infection control processes, as well as ensuring that there are processes to manage workforce capacity and disaster readiness.

We’ve updated our self-assessments in SPP to reflect these changes, and thought it would be helpful to summarise the core themes that have emerged across the different major standards.  

Core infection control and disaster response themes

The core themes that have appeared consistently in standards updates include:

  • ensuring the workforce has the capacity, skills, training and equipment to implement infection prevention and control systems,
  • planning for and sourcing an alternative workforce in the event of disruptions,
  • developing, testing and reviewing an emergency and disaster management plan,
  • reporting to the governing body on infection control processes and implementation/testing of the emergency and disaster management plan,
  • testing, fitting and training in the use of PPE,
  • training in hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette,
  • implementing stringent processes for communicating relevant information to family, patients and carers,
  • undertaking routine environmental cleaning,
  • ensuring workplace policies and procedures are in line with the relevant state or territory public health requirements,
  • managing movement of staff between areas and supporting staff required to isolate, and
  • procedures for waste management including safe storage and disposal of clinical waste.

These are some key areas that service providers should be addressing to ensure they are on top of their compliance requirements. Providers should check that they are familiar with any updates to standards that apply to their organisation. SPP can assist you with this, as we always update the modules on our platform in response to changes to standards.

Here are the main standards that have been updated to incorporate infection control requirements so far:

The updated Standards

National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS)

Changes to the NSQHS were introduced in May 2021 and include requirements to:

  • plan for public health and pandemic risks,
  • ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills, training and equipment to implement infection prevention and control systems,
  • test, fit, train workers and use PPE, and
  • ensure policies and procedures are in line with the relevant state or territory public health requirements.

NDIS Practice Standards

In November 2021 the NDIS Commission released a number of changes to these standards, to address:

  • planning for alternative workforce arrangements in the event of disruptions,
  • developing, testing, and reviewing emergency and disaster management plans,
  • implementing infection prevention and control precautions throughout all settings,
  • ongoing training on and supplies of PPE for workers, and
  • waste management including safe disposal of clinical waste.

QIC Health and Community Service Standards

In February this year, an updated version of the QIC Standards was released, with updates addressing infection control requirements including:

  • staff training in hand hygiene,
  • infection prevention management program aligning with state and territory guidelines,
  • regular cleaning of the environment, and
  • waste management.

Australian Community Industry Standard

The Australian Community Industry Standard was also updated towards the end of last year to include the following infection prevention and control requirements:

  • workplace preparation for pandemic,
  • workforce response to pandemic consistent with advice from health authorities, and
  • implementing and documenting an outbreak management plan.

RACGP Standards for General Practitioners

The RACGP Standards have seen a number of updates throughout 2021 and more recently in 2022, with the most recent update being in February 2022. The updated requirements address:

  • increased requirements around telehealth consultations (e.g. ensuring privacy etc.),
  • managing the risk of cross infection during a home visit,
  • updated processes for isolating patients and traceability processes for identifying patients who have used instruments,
  • establishing protocols for managing outbreaks of infectious disease in line with local, state and national guidance, and
  • environmental cleaning.

Aged Care Quality Standards

While the Aged Care Quality Standards haven’t been updated with new infection control requirements, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has released a number of resources to guide providers in their implementation of infection control requirements. 

Resources to help you

We’ve developed and updated a number of resources in our platform to assist providers to manage infection control requirements under the standards that apply to them, as well as implement best practice processes. Here are some examples of how we can help:

  • a module for the “First 24 hours – managing COVID-19 in a residential aged care facility”,
  • a module to guide organisations to implement COVID-safe operations based on recommendations from Safe Work Australia,
  • a module to guide organisations through the components they should address in developing infection control / respiratory outbreak plan based on recommendations from various sources including the Department of Health, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission,
  • resource templates including:
    • an outbreak management plan checklist,
    • an information sheet for employers on staff vaccination against COVID-19,
    • first 24 hours – managing COVID-19 in a Residential Aged Care facility checklist,
    • an emergency and disaster management plan,
    • emergency and disaster management procedures,
    • working from home policy,
    • working from home agreement,
    • client risk assessment.

Want to take a closer look at our Covid-19 resources?

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2021 – that’s a wrap!

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

It has certainly been a busy year for service providers and compliance professionals in our sector. Providers have been truly tested by the challenges of the pandemic and a changing regulatory landscape. We invite you to reflect with us on the key developments of this past year.

Child safety

In the child safety space, progress has been underway over the last couple of years to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. We published a blog post on this topic in March of this year.

On 1 July 2021, the new Victorian Child Safe Standards were released, bringing these standards into alignment with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. Our mapped self-assessment for the Victorian Child Safe Standards is available on SPP.

NSW followed in a similar vein and in November 2021, legislation passed in NSW Parliament mandating compliance with the NSW Child Safe Standards by certain ‘child safe organisations’. The NSW Child Safe Standards, which also map to the National Principles, can be accessed in SPP.

At present, Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd is finalising the Second Edition of the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, and we expect to be providing assessment modules of these standards early in the New Year.

Aged care

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was the focal point for aged care this year, with some regulatory changes already implemented and others underway.

The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) brought in new compliance requirements for residential aged care providers in April. Our Incident Management Procedures (Aged Care SIRS) Policy can help get you up to speed on this. In correlation with SIRS, the Aged Care Quality Standards were updated to include a requirement on incident management, and our ACQS self-assessments have been updated accordingly.

Rules around use of restrictive practices changed, with shift in terminology from ‘restraints’ to ‘restrictive practices’, bringing aged care into alignment with disability regulation. Our updated Use of Restrictive Practices (Aged Care) Policy reflects this.

This year we released an educative version of the Aged Care Quality Standards on SPP, based on the Commission’s Guidance and Resources for Providers document, and which walks providers through their requirements in greater depth. We have also released the Board Governance Toolkit, a comprehensive suite of resources designed specifically to support board members to fulfil their responsibilities under the Aged Care Quality Standards.

Disability

In late 2021, the NDIS Practice Standards saw their biggest overhaul since their inception. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission identified emergency and disaster management and mealtime management/swallowing problems as key focal areas for additional guidance and regulation, and brought in three new Practice Standards to reflect this. In addition, a number of Quality Indicators were added and amended, reflecting a focus on infection control, staff training, individualised risk assessments and insurance requirements. Our blog post will flesh this out for you.

All changes to the NDIS Practice Standards are available for completion in SPP, and you can choose from mapped or stand-alone modules, depending on your organisation’s needs.

Health care

The National Safety and Quality Healthcare Service Standards (Second edition) were updated in 2021, to include new requirements around infection control. We added two new modules to our NSQHS self-assessment on SPP to address the new Standard 3 – Preventing and Controlling Infections.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has also begun releasing a number of new standards, aiming to ensure a consistent approach to safe and high-quality health care across different service environments. In 2021, we added self-assessment modules for the National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards and the National Safety and Quality Primary and Community Healthcare Standards to SPP, and we will be closely tracking the development of the National Safety and Quality Mental Health Standards for Community Managed Organisations.

During 2021 we also released three new modules for the RACGP Standards for general practices (5th edition). We worked closely together with the RACGP to ensure that all of the standards, criteria and indicators in each module are reflected in detail in SPP’s self-assessments.

ISO

ISO standards are popular accreditations amongst our users, and this year we were pleased to add ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems to SPP. ISO 27001 is an internationally recognised standard that requires organisations to implement an Information Security Management System (ISMS). The Australian federal government requires ISO 27001 certification for all providers of employment skills training and disability employment services, and a number of health and community service providers also choose to follow this standard.

All the best for the holiday period!

The past 12 months have definitely been jam-packed, and we expect 2022 will be just as busy.

We thank you all for your continued collaboration, and from everyone in the BNG team, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

See you next year!

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