Following recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety to improve the transparency and reliability of the My Aged Care Find a Provider Tool, the Department of Health and Aged Care is changing the way that specialised aged care services have their information verified.

What Are Specialised Aged Care Services?

According to the Department of Health and Aged Care, specialist aged care providers are those who:

• provide care and services that are sensitive to the needs of individuals with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and characteristics or who identify with certain groups having special needs
• go beyond the minimum obligations of the aged care quality standards.

The types of specialised services offered by aged care providers include services for:

• First Nations peoples
• people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds
• people living in rural or remote areas
• financially or socially disadvantaged people
• veterans
• people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
• care-leavers
• parents separated from their children by forced adoption or removal
• LGBTI people.

Publicising Your Specialised Service

It is important that providers delivering these kinds of services have this information publicised on their profile, both to show that they go above and beyond the minimum standards of care and to help connect people in the community with providers that best understand their needs.

What Will the Changes Mean?

The new rules mean that aged care providers that publicise themselves as providing a specialised service must receive independent verification to display this information on My Aged Care. This must be completed by 27 February 2023, after which the specialisations will no longer appear on the provider’s profile unless it is verified.

In order to become verified, aged care providers must provide evidence that they meet certain requirements relating to the type of specialisation that they are claiming. Providers can review the Specialisation Verification Framework to see the types of evidence required for each specialisation.

Aged care providers who wish to verify their specialisations can do so through the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal. Applications will be verified by Australian Healthcare Associates, who are providing an independent assessment service for the Department. Once verified, specialisations will remain valid for three years.

Key Dates

Aged care providers who currently promote themselves as specialised providers have until 27 February 2023 to provide evidence of specialisation and have their status verified.

More Information

• My Aged Care Provider Specialisation Verification - Aged care provider guidance manual
• Specialisation Verification Framework
• Information about Specialisation Verification