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This course has been developed to provide learners with an understanding of the scope and purpose of the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standard 5: Clinical Care, and is aimed at leaders, managers, and other staff members responsible for delivering care and services to older people.
Let me take you back for a moment - picture this. It’s 2018, and the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has just been announced. There are reports of neglect, substandard care, and heartbreaking stories from residents and families. The system, which was meant to protect and care for our most vulnerable, was failing. And the Commission’s findings were stark: the aged care sector needed a complete overhaul.
Fast forward to today - things are changing. The Australian Government has introduced the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards in response to those findings. These new Standards are more than just regulations; they’re about improving the culture of care. They’re designed to shift the focus toward person-centred care - where the dignity, safety, and well-being of every older person are the priority.
From 1 July 2025, new Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards will take effect, setting a higher benchmark for the care and services provided to older Australians. These updated Standards reflect the community’s expectations for safe, respectful, and high-quality aged care. Providers of Commonwealth-funded aged care services will be required to meet these Strengthened Standards and demonstrate their compliance through regular assessments by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. The focus remains on delivering positive outcomes for consumers, ensuring their dignity, choice, and wellbeing are at the heart of every service.
The new Quality Standards cover key areas essential to quality care: Consumer dignity and choice, ongoing assessment and planning, personal and clinical care, services and supports for daily living, the service environment, feedback and complaints, human resources, and organisational governance. Each Standard outlines clear expectations for providers and sets measurable outcomes for consumers, giving older Australians and their families confidence in the care they receive. These strengthened standards aim to create a more transparent, responsive, and person-centred aged care system.
This course has been designed to introduce you to the delivery of safe, effective and quality clinical care to older people.
Standard 5 is intended to apply to registration categories 5 and 6 service types. It also applies to category 4 providers if they provide clinical care.
But here’s the thing - it’s not enough to have new Standards on paper. For real change to happen, care workers need to understand why these Standards matter and how they apply in day-to-day care. That’s where education comes in.
Our new courses on the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards are designed to equip care workers with the knowledge and skills to meet these new expectations. They’ll learn how to provide care that is not only clinically sound but also respectful, compassionate, and culturally appropriate. It’s about helping care workers feel confident - not just to comply with the rules, but to build a culture of care that values every individual they support.
Education isn’t just about ticking boxes for compliance - it’s about changing mindsets and behaviours. When care workers understand the why behind the Standards, they can create environments where older people feel safe, respected, and truly cared for.
Standard 5 describes the systems and processes that need to be in place so we can deliver safe, high-quality clinical care that meets the older person’s needs. This care needs to be based on evidence, coordinated, and multidisciplinary.
Standard 5 requires you to:
Standard 5 aims to support providers to improve the quality and safety of clinical care delivered through Commonwealth subsidised aged care services. It provides a nationally consistent statement about the quality of clinical care older people can expect when receiving aged care services.
The health needs of people receiving aged care are, on average, greater and more complex than those of the general population. Complex needs require a coordinated, multidisciplinary response involving both the health and aged care systems.
Standard 5 describes the responsibilities of providers to deliver safe and quality clinical care to older people. The governing body has overall responsibility to ensure a clinical governance framework is implemented and to monitor its effectiveness. Aged care providers operationalise the clinical governance framework and report on its performance.
To meet Standard 5, aged care organisations must achieve seven outcomes. Each of the outcomes for Standard 5 will be looked at in turn through-out this course.
This course covers the purpose and scope of Standard 5, including:
