New staffing quality indicators introduced

Three new staffing quality indicators are being introduced by the federal government to aged care facilities.

These indicators will be added to the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program in residential aged care, and are focused on enrolled nursing, allied health and lifestyle assistants.

Quality indicators measure critical areas of care that can affect the health and wellbeing of aged care residents. This helps the government and residential aged care providers to monitor and improve the quality of services for older people.

The new staffing indicators recognise the crucial role of staff in providing high-quality care.

“These new quality indicators recognise the value nurses, allied health and lifestyle officers bring to aged care residents,” said Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells.

“While it’s great to see improvements across the sector, our work continues to lift the quality of residential aged care in Australia. The new staffing quality indicators put the focus on key roles that support health and wellbeing.”

Providers will start collecting data for these new indicators from 1 April 2025 and report the data by 21 July 2025. Residential aged care providers must report on quality indicators for each resident every three months.

Their introduction will expand the number of indicators for residential aged care from 11 to 14. This approach helps to ensure the right mix of transparency, accountability and practicality to enable the continual improvement of residential aged care services.

Image credit: iStock.com/olm26250