Compliance

What is compliance? 

Every aged care provider is required to meet government regulations and standards. This is to protect and maintain the safety, health, wellbeing, and quality of life for people using aged care services. 

‘Compliance’ is the process of ensuring providers meet these requirements, and taking actions when they do not. 

Compliance can be checked through a mix of quality assessments, reviews and consumer feedback. If an aged care provider fails to meet its obligations, the Aged Care Safety and Quality Commission will take action. Depending on how serious the issue is, the provider will be given one of the following actions and agree to a plan and a timeframe to fix the issue. 

• Areas for improvement, where some improvements are needed
• a Non-compliance notice, where significant improvements are needed
• a Sanction or Notice to Agree, where the service is inadequate

You can read more about the difference between these compliance actions further down this page. 

How can I see if a service provider has any issues?

There are a few ways to check if an aged care home or Home Care Package provider has been identified as non-compliant. You can get this information by using the non-compliance checker or the Find a provider tool.

The Service Compliance Rating for aged care homes

From July 2020, there is a new, simple way to check the performance of aged care homes. The Service Compliance Rating is based on activities such as quality assessments and meeting quality and safety obligations. 

The performance of each home has a dot rating out of four. This shows if it is meeting its compliance requirements for quality and safety. Four dots means there were no areas for improvement identified in the most recent quality assessment. They are given a rating based on the following criteria:

Where can I find the Service Compliance Rating?

When you use the Find a provider tool to search for aged care homes, you will see the Service Compliance Rating for each aged care home in the search results. 

You can find more detail by clicking on the aged care home to view its profile. Go to the Compliance section to:

• view the overall Service Compliance Rating 
• see how the provider currently performs
• compare ratings across different aged care homes 

When you are looking for an aged care home, this information can help with your decision making. It also provides valuable insights for you to consider when you visit an aged care home. 

Types of compliance actions

Areas for Improvement

Where a provider doesn’t meet the Aged Care Quality Standards, the Commission can give them a Direction to make improvements. They will check in later to monitor and assess if these have been addressed. The provider must also revise their plan for continuous improvement.

Non-compliance notice

If a provider does not meet requirements and is not providing the care and services required by the law, they may receive a non-compliance notice. The notice indicates there are significant problems that they need to fix. If they don’t take action within the agreed timeframe, they may be given a sanction. 

Notice to Agree

Where an aged care home’s non-compliance has resulted in the Commission considering revoking their approval to deliver aged care through a sanction, the Commission may – in certain circumstances – first issue the provider a Notice to Agree (NTA). These circumstances include where:

• the aged care home has failed to give an undertaking to remedy their non-compliance 
• the aged care home has failed to comply with an undertaking to remedy their non-compliance
• the aged care home has made submissions in response to a non-compliance notice that are unsatisfactory, or 
• the Commissioner is satisfied the provider’s non-compliance poses an immediate and severe risk to the safety, health and well-being of those receiving care.

Sanction

Where there is continued non-compliance, the Commission may impose a sanction. 

Some examples of continued non-compliance include: 

• a provider who does not remedy the non-compliance within the specified period, or 
• where there is an immediate and severe risk to the safety, health or well-being of those receiving care.

A sanction revokes the provider’s approval to deliver aged care. 

What happens when my aged care service receives a sanction?

In this situation, you will receive a letter explaining the problem(s) and what the sanction means. 

Within 24 hours of being notified, you can also read the details of the sanction online. You can use the non-compliance checker tool or the Find a provider tool.

Your service provider is expected to arrange a meeting with you and family members. They should explain the problem(s), and how they will address them by a certain date. 

The Commission will take regulatory action based on: 

• the issues
• the risks to consumers, and 
• the evidence that the provider is taking action to fix the problem.

Once the Commission has determined that the issues are addressed and the sanction period has finished, a further decision is published. Once that happens, the Service Compliance Rating will be updated.