Whether you’re receiving aged care services at home or in a residential aged care home, the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards define what quality care looks like.
The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (strengthened Quality Standards) are designed to improve your care outcomes and set clear expectations for providers in delivering quality aged care. Registered providers of government-funded aged care homes are required to meet the strengthened Quality Standards.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) is responsible for monitoring how providers of aged care homes meet the requirements of the strengthened Quality Standards.
This page outlines what the strengthened Quality Standards are, what they mean for you, and how you can use them to see the quality of care a provider offers.
About the strengthened Quality Standards
The Quality Standards have been strengthened to improve the quality of care you receive.
This includes:
- placing older people at the centre of aged care
- better supporting people living with dementia
- being more inclusive of people from diverse backgrounds
- stronger requirements for clinical care, food and nutrition
- more protections for you.
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Providers must involve you in delivering your aged care services
Aged care providers must give you choice in how your care is delivered. They must meet your care needs, goals and preferences. Your rights must also be respected under the new Statement of Rights.
Transition period for the assessment of aged care homes
Over the next 3 years, aged care homes will be assessed against the strengthened Quality Standards which took effect on 1 November 2025. Until those homes are assessed against the strengthened Quality Standards, they will still have results against the previous Quality Standards which can be found later on this page. You can find out if a provider has been graded against the strengthened Quality Standards if they are listed on their profile in the Find a provider tool.
The 7 strengthened Quality Standards
The 7 strengthened Quality Standards in effect from 1 November 2025 are as follows.
Understanding how aged care homes are performing under the strengthened Quality Standards
The way aged care homes are being assessed against the strengthened Quality Standards has changed.
The Commission will audit providers of aged care homes, giving each home a graded assessment against the strengthened Quality Standards. The graded assessments will result in the following grades:
- Conformance
- Minor non-conformance
- Major non-conformance
The Commission may consider giving an exceeding rating when an aged care home conforms with all 7 strengthened Quality Standards and meets the exceeding rating criteria. If a provider wishes for its home to be considered for an exceeding rating, the Commission will ask them to respond to the following extra 3 criteria:
- excelling in active partnerships with older people and workers for better outcomes
- excelling in governance and clinical governance systems
- excelling in the dining experience.
All 3 criteria must be met to be considered for an exceeding rating. The exceeding rating recognises performance at a level above conformance with the strengthened Quality Standards.
The previous Quality Standards
The previous Quality Standards were in effect until 31 October 2025. My Aged Care will continue to show the audit results of aged care homes against the previous Quality Standards until they are assessed against the strengthened current Quality Standards.
The 8 previous Quality Standards are:
Understanding how aged care homes performed under the previous Quality Standards
To learn about how an aged care home performed against the previous Quality Standards, each audit by the Commission is displayed using a 4-bar rating.
If an aged care home meets all the requirements within a Quality Standard, it will have 4 bars (see image below). If their performance is rated at less 4 bars, the aged care home has areas that require improvement, which may be subject to a compliance action. Learn more about compliance.
Where no bars are shown, the aged care home was not assessed against the previous Quality Standards.
Where can I find an aged care home’s performance against the previous Quality Standards?
When you use the Find a provider tool to search for an aged care home, you can find information on their previous Quality Standards performance under the Compliance section of their profile.
Here you can:
- view their performance against each previous Quality Standard
- see a list of the requirements considered for each previous Quality Standard
- download or print the results in a Summary Assessment Report.
When you are looking to choose an aged care home, this information can help with your shortlisting. It also provides information on what to look for and consider when you visit an aged care service.