Now is the time to start preparing for the upcoming Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. The tentative start date for the new Standards is 1 July 2025, but this could change, and the Standards could start earlier. Providers need to be ready.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) has issued some draft guidance to help providers prepare, including a draft evidence framework that offers valuable insights to help the sector understand the evidence needed to demonstrate compliance with the Strengthened Standards.
In today’s article, we summarise some of the key information from the ACQSC guidance and arrange into steps that you can follow in sequence.
Step 1: Understand the Strengthened Standards
Your first step is to get familiar with the Strengthened Standards and their practical implications. As a starting point, it’s useful to understand that the Strengthened Standards are categorised into 21 themes that correspond to 33 outcomes, including:
- Person-centred care
- Dignity, respect, and privacy
- Choice, independence and quality of life
- Agreements, fees, pricing, invoicing and statements
- Corporate and clinical governance
- Accountability and quality system
- Risk management system
- Incident management
- Feedback and Complaints management system
- Information management system
- Workforce and human resources management
- Emergency and disaster management
- Assessment and planning
- Delivering comprehensive care and services
- Clinical safety
- Care coordination and transitions
- Environment
- Infection prevention and control
- Medication management
- Food and nutrition
- Palliative and end of life care
To demonstrate you’ve achieved these outcomes you will need to show evidence. Evidence requirements are divided into categories at both the organisational and provider levels:
- Documents and records
- Governing body feedback
- Management feedback
- Worker feedback
- Third party feedback
- Experience of older people
- Observations
- Care outcomes
For more information, refer to the ACQSC’s draft guidance.
Step 2: Review Current Practices
Compare your current practices against the new requirements to identify gaps or areas for improvement and include these in your continuous improvement plan.
Step 3: Develop An Action Plan
Based on the review, develop an action plan to address the identified gaps, which might involve policy changes, staff training, or system enhancements.
Step 4: Collect and Organise Evidence
Start gathering and organising evidence to demonstrate your compliance with the Strengthened Standards. This includes documents and records, feedback from various stakeholders, along with observations and care outcomes.
Step 5: Implement Changes
Implement the changes identified in your action plan. This could involve a phased approach, starting with the most critical areas first.
Step 6: Set up a Plan for Review, Engagement and Continuous Improvement
Although you won’t be able to fully monitor and review your actions until they’ve been implemented, the ACQSC will want to see that you have a plan in place to monitor and review once things are running. You’ll need to plan for regular monitoring and review with the goal of identifying improvement opportunities.
Similarly, you will need a plan for how you will engage with stakeholders, including older people, their families, staff, and third parties, to get their feedback and input on the new Standards. This will help ensure that the services are truly person-centred and meet the needs and expectations of older people.
Finally, you will need to plan for continuous improvement. Treat the Strengthened Standards not as a one-off compliance exercise, but as a tool for continuous improvement. Explain how you will continually review and update your practices with the goal of delivering care and services that align with the definition of high-quality care (keeping in mind the current definition within the Draft Aged Care Act is yet to be finalised).
Final Thoughts
Preparation is key. The better you, your workforce, and the older people you serve understand the Strengthened Standards and their implications, the better positioned you'll be to meet these new requirements. This is a continuous journey towards providing high-quality, person-centred care for older people.
