What changed on 1 July 2025
Three major changes took effect on 1 July 2025:
1. Aged Care Act 2024 commenced
The Aged Care Act 2024 replaced the Aged Care Act 1997. The new Act is built around a Statement of Rights for people receiving aged care, places enforceable obligations on approved providers, and provides the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner with stronger regulatory tools. The shift from a provider-centred to a rights-centred framework has direct implications for how providers document and demonstrate their obligations.
2. Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages
The Support at Home program replaced the Home Care Packages (HCP) program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme from 1 July 2025. Support at Home operates across 8 service groups with separate price caps for each. Providers deliver services and claim from Services Australia at the approved rate.
Important: The Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) was not replaced on 1 July 2025. CHSP transition to Support at Home is scheduled for 1 July 2027. Providers delivering CHSP services continue to operate under that program until then.
3. Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards commenced
The Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards replaced the previous 8 standards with a revised framework of 7 standards. The new standards place greater emphasis on person-centred care, governance, and the workforce. Standard 5 (Organisation's Workforce) has direct implications for how providers manage rostering, staff qualifications, and workforce capability.
Aged care vs NDIS: key operational differences
Providers operating across both sectors need to hold two compliance frameworks in parallel. The table below summarises the key differences for rostering and workforce management purposes.
| Aspect | NDIS | Aged care |
|---|---|---|
| Primary legislation | National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 | Aged Care Act 2024 (commenced 1 July 2025) |
| Regulator | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission | Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission |
| Quality standards | NDIS Practice Standards (Core Module + supplementary modules) | Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (7 standards, commenced 1 July 2025) |
| Worker screening | NDIS Worker Screening Check (national, managed by state/territory screening units) | National Police Check. No NDIS Worker Screening required for aged care workers. |
| Home-based funding model | Participant plan with support categories and price limits | Support at Home program (from 1 July 2025): 8 service groups, provider claims via Services Australia |
| Funding administration | Plan-managed, self-managed, or agency-managed (NDIA pays) | Provider delivers and claims; Services Australia pays approved provider |
| Worker pay floor (home care) | SCHADS Award MA000100 (predominantly) | SCHADS Award MA000100 (predominantly for home care) |
| Incident reporting | NDIS reportable incidents to NDIS Q&S Commission | Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) to Aged Care Q&S Commission |
| Assessment and planning | NDIA planning process, support coordination | Aged care assessment (ACAT/RAS), My Aged Care, classification level |
Worker screening: a critical difference. Aged care workers do not require an NDIS Worker Screening Check. Requiring aged care workers to obtain NDIS Worker Screening is both unnecessary and inappropriate. The screening requirement for aged care is a current National Police Check. If your organisation provides both NDIS and aged care services, workers who work across both sectors need an NDIS Worker Screening Check for their NDIS-funded shifts. Workers who work only in aged care do not.
The award landscape for aged care workers
The award that applies to an aged care worker depends on the setting:
Home care workers: SCHADS Award MA000100
Most workers delivering Support at Home services are covered by the SCHADS Award (Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010). The same award that applies to NDIS disability support workers. Classification levels, penalty rates, allowances, and the broken shift and sleepover rules apply in the same way.
Residential aged care workers: Aged Care Award MA000018
Workers in residential aged care facilities are generally covered by the Aged Care Award MA000018, not SCHADS. This is a separate award with its own classification structure and rate schedule. Nurses in residential care may be covered by the Nurses Award MA000034.
Aged Care Work Value Case: rates above SCHADS minimums
A series of Fair Work Commission decisions under the Aged Care Work Value Case progressively lifted wages for direct care workers in aged care above the standard award minimums. Stage 3 of those decisions flowed through in 2024-25.
The practical result is that aged care direct care workers are paid above the base SCHADS or Aged Care Award minimum rates. Providers who benchmark their aged care workers against the base award rates are almost certainly underpaying. The Fair Work Commission's published determinations for the Aged Care Work Value Case set the operative rates.
The Aged Care Work Value Case wage increases were separate from the Annual Wage Review and were designed to address long-standing undervaluation of aged care work. They apply to direct care roles in both home care and residential settings. Administrative and non-direct-care roles in aged care organisations are not covered by the work value determinations and remain at the award minimum.
Incident reporting: the Serious Incident Response Scheme
The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) requires approved aged care providers to identify, record, manage, resolve, and report serious incidents. SIRS has applied to residential aged care since 1 April 2021, and to home care (including Support at Home) since 1 December 2022.
SIRS is administered by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, not the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. The incident categories and reporting timeframes under SIRS differ from NDIS reportable incidents.
| Incident type | Priority level | Reporting timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Unexpected death | Priority 1 | Within 24 hours |
| Serious injury | Priority 1 | Within 24 hours |
| Abuse or neglect (severe) | Priority 1 | Within 24 hours |
| Unexpected serious injury or other Priority 2 incidents | Priority 2 | Within 30 days |
| Other reportable incidents (abuse, neglect, unlawful sexual contact, unauthorised chemical restraint) | Priority 2 | Within 30 days |
Indicative timeframes. Refer to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission for current SIRS reporting obligations and category definitions.
For rostering purposes, the key implication of SIRS is that incident records must be linkable to the shift during which the incident occurred. A shift record that cannot be traced to an incident report, or an incident report that cannot be traced to a shift, creates an audit trail gap that the Commission may view unfavourably during a compliance assessment.
Rostering considerations specific to aged care
Continuity of care is a quality indicator
Consistent worker-client relationships are as important in aged care as in disability support, particularly for clients with cognitive impairment, dementia, or psychosocial complexity. The Strengthened Quality Standards explicitly recognise person-centred care and relationships. Rostering systems that do not surface continuity-of-care history make this harder to demonstrate.
Support at Home has 8 service groups with separate price caps
Under Support at Home, services are grouped into 8 categories including clinical care, independence and everyday living, social support, and transport. Each service group has a separate maximum price that providers can charge. Billing must align with the correct service group for the service delivered, which requires shift records to carry enough clinical context to support the claim.
Residential care has 24/7 RN requirements; home care does not
Residential aged care facilities are required to have a registered nurse on duty at all times (24/7 RN requirement). This obligation applies to residential facilities only. Home care and Support at Home do not carry a 24/7 RN requirement. Staffing rosters for residential facilities must be built to satisfy the RN coverage requirement, which adds a layer of complexity not present in home care scheduling.
Worker classification requires sector-specific care
If your organisation employs workers across both aged care and NDIS, the same worker may be covered by different classification structures depending on the shift they work. A worker on an NDIS shift is classified under SCHADS. A worker on a residential aged care shift may be classified under the Aged Care Award. Payroll systems and rostering tools need to handle this distinction, or the risk of misclassification is high.
Regulatory references
- --Aged Care Act 2024 (commenced 1 July 2025)
- --Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (7 standards, commenced 1 July 2025)
- --Support at Home Manual (published by the Department of Health and Aged Care)
- --Serious Incident Response Scheme: Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission guidance
- --Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018)
- --Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034)
- --SCHADS Award 2010 (MA000100)
- --Fair Work Commission: Aged Care Work Value Case decisions (2022-2025)