Aged care quality standards: the seven standards explained

What are the aged care quality standards?

The Aged Care Quality Standards are the rules that set out what good care looks like in government funded aged care. The strengthened version took effect on 1 November 2025, when the Aged Care Act 2024 started. There are seven standards, down from eight, and registered providers are audited against the ones that match the services they deliver.

Each standard is built from outcomes, and each outcome has actions a provider must show it is doing. Across all seven standards there are 33 outcomes and 154 supporting actions. The Department says the update adds specific requirements for people living with dementia, for people from diverse backgrounds, and stronger rules on clinical care and food and nutrition.

The standards are written for providers, but each one comes with a plain statement of what the older person should experience. Those statements are the useful part for families. They give you the words to describe what good care should look like, and what is missing when it goes wrong.

The standards sit alongside the Statement of Rights, which replaced the old Charter. The Statement of Rights says what the older person is entitled to. The standards say what the provider must do to deliver it. Our guide to the Aged Care Act 2024 explains how the pieces fit together.

What are the 7 aged care quality standards?

The seven strengthened standards are: 1 The Individual, 2 The Organisation, 3 The Care and Services, 4 The Environment, 5 Clinical Care, 6 Food and Nutrition, and 7 The Residential Community. The first four cover every audited service. Clinical Care covers nursing and clinical services, and the last two apply only to aged care homes.

The table below uses the official names and summarises the government's own statements of what each standard means for the older person.

The right to take risks in Standard 3 matters more than it looks. A provider cannot refuse a reasonable choice simply because it carries some risk. It must talk the risk through with the older person and support the choice where it can.

Which standards apply to home care and which to aged care homes?

Which standards apply depends on the provider's registration category, not on the type of provider. Aged care homes are audited against all seven. Nursing and transition care providers are audited against Standards 1 to 5. Personal care at home is audited against Standards 1 to 4. Basic home services such as cleaning are not audited against the standards at all.

Under the new Act, every registered provider is registered in one or more of six categories. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's quick reference guide sets out the standards for each.

Providers in categories 1 to 3 still have to meet provider obligations and the Code of Conduct, which apply in every category. They are just not audited against the standards.

In practice, a Support at Home provider that only sends someone to clean or mow may never have been audited against the standards. A provider delivering personal care, care management or nursing will have been. When you compare home care providers, ask which categories they are registered in.

How does the Commission check providers against the standards?

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission audits providers in categories 4, 5 and 6 when they apply to register, when they add one of those categories, and when they renew registration. Each outcome is rated as conformance, minor non-conformance or major non-conformance. Aged care homes can also be rated as exceeding.

For renewal audits at a care location, the Commission's audit process includes interviews with older people and their representatives, as well as staff interviews and observation. If you are asked to speak to an auditor, what you say is part of the evidence.

The Commission defines the ratings this way:

• Conformance: the provider shows it has set up, applies, monitors and keeps improving systems to meet the outcome.
• Minor non-conformance: there are gaps in the provider's systems, but they are not organisation-wide and do not present high risk to older people.
• Major non-conformance: the provider cannot show it has the systems needed to meet the outcome, or has gaps that are organisation-wide or present high risk to older people.
• Exceeding: considered only for a residential home that conforms with all seven standards.

Audit results feed into the Commission's registration decisions, including whether to add conditions to a provider's registration. The Commission also handles complaints and can take regulatory action, such as compliance notices, enforceable undertakings, registration conditions, or suspending or revoking registration.

How do the quality standards affect star ratings?

For aged care homes, audit results against the strengthened standards feed into the Compliance rating, one of four parts of the Star Rating on My Aged Care. The Compliance rating is the lowest level a home qualifies for, based on its regulatory decisions and its graded assessment. A Compliance rating of 1 or 2 stars caps the Overall Star Rating.

This redesigned Compliance rating started on 1 November 2025. The Department's fact sheet sets out how audit results translate into stars:

The Compliance rating is updated daily as regulatory decisions and audit outcomes come in. The Department says it will take up to three years for every home to move to the new rating, because each home is assessed against the strengthened standards at its registration renewal. Until then, a home's Compliance rating is based on any regulatory decisions and how long ago they were made.

How to use the standards when choosing a provider

The standards give you a checklist of what a provider must be able to show. Turn the plain statements into questions, and ask the provider to explain how it meets them. A good provider can answer with specifics. Vague answers about being person-centred, with no example, tell you something.

Questions drawn from the standards:

• The Individual: How do you find out what matters to a new resident or client, and how does that change the care plan?
• The Organisation: How do families raise concerns, and can you give an example of something you changed because of feedback?
• The Care and Services: How do you handle a resident who wants to do something with some risk, such as walking alone?
• Clinical Care: Who is responsible for clinical care overnight, and how quickly is a GP or nurse involved when something changes?
• Food and Nutrition: Can we see the menu, eat a meal, and watch a mealtime? What happens if someone does not like what is served?
• The Residential Community: How do you help residents keep up activities and relationships outside the home?
• Audit history: When were you last audited against the strengthened standards, and were any outcomes rated as non-conformance?

Our full list of questions to ask an aged care provider covers costs, staffing and what to look for on the day. If you are comparing homes, the residential aged care guide explains what else to weigh up.

How to use the standards to raise a complaint

Naming the standard that has been breached makes a complaint clearer and harder to brush aside. Describe what happened, then link it to the plain statement it falls short of. Raise it with the provider first if you feel comfortable, and take it to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission on 1800 951 822 if it is not fixed.

• Step 1: Write down what happened, when, and who was involved. Dates and specifics carry weight.
• Step 2: Match it to a standard. Missed meals or weight loss fit Food and Nutrition. A missed medication or a fall without follow up fits Clinical Care. Being ignored after raising a concern fits The Organisation.
• Step 3: Raise it with the provider in writing, name the standard, and ask what it will do and by when.
• Step 4: If the response is not good enough, contact the Commission. You can complain by phone or online, and you can ask for your complaint to be kept confidential.
• Step 5: For free, independent help at any stage, call the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) on 1800 700 600.

If you are not sure who to call about a particular problem, our who to call page lists the right number for each situation.

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