The Charter of Aged Care Rights

safe and high-quality care and services be treated with dignity and respect have my identity, culture and diversity valued and supported live without abuse and neglect be informed about my care and services in a way I understand access all information about myself, including information about my rights, care and services have control over and make choices about my care, and personal and social life, including where the choices involve personal risk family, friends, carers and staff can help your provider to give you the care and services that best meet your needs.

As an aged-care consumer, you should give your provider the information they need to properly deliver your care and services. You should understand and comply with the conditions of your care agreement and pay any fees outlined in the agreement. You should respect the rights of aged-care workers to work in a safe environment. Any kind of violence, harassment or abuse towards staff or others is not acceptable. Your expectations of your provider should be reasonable. You should discuss your needs, goals, preferences and priorities with your provider, and they will work with you on how you can get the care and services you need within the resources available.

Australian Government-funded aged care-providers also have other legal responsibilities. These include responsibilities around the fees they charge and that the care and services they deliver have control over, and make decisions about, the personal aspects of my daily life, financial affairs and possessions my independence be listened to and understood have a person of my choice, including an aged-care advocate, support me or speak on my behalf complain free from reprisal, and to have my complaints dealt with fairly and promptly personal privacy and to have my personal information protected exercise my rights without it adversely affecting the way I am treated meet the Aged Care Quality Standards.

The eight Standards are:

Standard One: consumer dignity and choice

Standard Two: ongoing assessment and planning with consumers

Standard Three: personal care and clinical care

Standard Four: services and supports for daily living

Standard Five: organisation’s service environment

Standard Six: feedback and complaints

Standard Seven: human resources

Standard Eight: organisation governance. For more information on your rights, you can: talk to your aged-care provider; talk to an aged-care advocate on 1800 700 600; visit the Older Persons Advocacy Network website, opan.com.au/charter; visit the Department of Health website, agedcare.health.gov.au; visit the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission website, agedcarequality.gov.au; or visit the My Aged Care website, myagedcare.gov.au. ACG

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Aged Care Reform Quarterly Updates

On 26 February 2021, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s final report – Care, Dignity and Respect – was handed to the Governor-General, His Excellency, the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd). It was tabled on March 1 2021. The Australian Government is committed to meeting the challenges set out in the final report by making positive changes to create better agedcare services and a higher standard of care for older people in Australia.

What we’ve actioned

Below are just some of the recommendations the government has actioned:

Aged Care legislation passed

The following two pieces of legislation were passed in 2022 to deliver the government’s commitments to fixing aged care:

• The Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) Act 2022 enabled a new funding model: the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC). AN-ACC provides more equitable funding for providers that better matches the costs of delivering care, supporting a more efficient, transparent and sustainable system. The Act also legislated a number of other important reforms including the Star Ratings system as a comparison rating for all residential aged-care services (see below); an extension of the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) to all in-home care providers; and a new Code of Conduct for approved providers, their workforce and governing persons.

• The Aged Care Amendment (Implementing