the Aged Care Today magazine featured articles

We produce these reports as part of our commitment to increasing transparency and accountability across the aged care sector, including in relation to the Commission.

This latest report has been redesigned based on feedback providers have given us about what information is most useful to you (and to older people receiving care).

Responding to this input, we have changed the way we present the data to focus on what we see across the sector rather than on what the Commission does.

Our aim is to provide data that is relevant to a range of different providers (by service type, location, number of care recipients, corporate structure) that can be used to identify opportunities for service improvement.

The picture that emerges as we look across the last year is that, overall, there have been improvements in compliance with the Aged Care Quality Standards.

This suggests that providers may be listening more closely to the older people to whom they are providing care, and also to their own workforce – and delivering a better experience of care. This is an encouraging trend and one that we are hoping to see continue.

At the same time, it is clear that the observed improvements are not uniform. Although compliance with Standard 8 (Organisational governance) has improved overall in the last year, it now has the lowest compliance across both residential care and home services.

On a positive note, we are of course happy to see improving compliance rates across the other seven Standards. But it does tell us that there is still more work to be done in lifting governance capabilities across the sector.

This finding should galvanise providers.

As documented in the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (March 2021), governance directly impacts all aspects of aged care. Deficiencies in governance and leadership result in shortfalls in the quality and safety of care.

The Commission uses the Sector Performance reports as a tool to identify where we need to look more deeply to understand performance and where we should focus.

The reports enable both the Commission and providers to identify the areas requiring uplift and gain insights into the required path to improvement of care.

We are calling on providers to harness these insights in relation to their own services and the outcomes they are achieving, in order to take the steps necessary to deliver better care.

There is other help available for providers on this journey. Our workshops, suite of tools and online learning modules are shaped directly by what we see in our data and what we hear when we speak to participants – including the Commission’s Governing for Reform in Aged Care Program.

What we have learned delivering the Program is that governance doesn’t start and end with governing bodies. All staff need to understand and lead change so that the expectations of people receiving care are met.

To this end. we have made our Governing for Reform in Aged Care Program available to all people involved in or interested in leadership and governance in aged care.

There are many ways that you can participate in the Program. The webinars and workshops provide a forum to discuss your ideas, ask questions and seek suggestions directly from your peers.

We also have podcasts for your commute and flip sheets for those who are time-challenged. And of course, we have an extensive online library of learning modules, templates and fact sheets.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to consider the program for yourself, your management, future leaders and board members.

You can find more information on our website.