With the introduction of the new Aged Care Act in July 2025, the residential and home care sectors are set for a major overhaul.
This legislation is expected to drive transformative change, reshaping how care is delivered and managed nationwide.
While it’s a welcome reform that aims to improve care and update a system created decades ago, providers and their employees will need to navigate changes as smoothly as possible while maintaining a high quality of care.
Technology will play a key role in easing this transition, helping to reduce administrative burden, ensure compliance, and make the transition smoother and more enjoyable for everyone.
Impact on residential care providers
The Aged Care Act will bring significant changes to the residential care sector, reshaping operations, compliance, and client expectations. We’ve already seen some of these changes come into effect, and providers will have to continually monitor the new requirements and regulations to ensure they remain compliant in 2025.
Like any major change, there may be some teething issues. However, technology can help take away some of the tension points to support staff and providers to save energy, money and all-important care minutes.
Trusted software can ensure you remain compliant, reduce human error, and automatically manage new systems. Instead of spending hours each week completing this manually, specific tools can help you navigate the greater emphasis on compliance and governance.
Workforce planning tools will also help providers to meet the mandated care minutes. This will be particularly critical as care delivery efficiency intensifies in 2025 as providers balance increased demands with staffing shortages.
New laws aimed at protecting older Australians will give regulatory bodies enhanced powers to investigate breaches and enforce civil penalties. Providers must demonstrate proactive risk management and compliance across their operations, which can be monitored and reviewed with the support of targeted software.
Support at home
We are already seeing providers prepare for changes the Support At Home will bring from 1 July this year, the entire home care landscape will change. This will create new challenges and opportunities for providers who can no longer charge package management whilst case management funding is reducing from 20 to 10 percent. With the Department deciding to allow providers to set their own unit costing for year one of Support at Home, a significant amount of analysis and review is required to ascertain what these rates should be to ensure the provider can run a viable business.
Efficiency is going to play a key role in being competitive in the market place. Providers will need to analyse what percentage of care worker time is billable and what the cost of administrative overheads is. They will also need to consider what can be done to make this as efficient as possible such as growing the business and implementing new practices to improve efficiency.
Technology can play a role in finding efficiency and supporting growth. We are also experiencing a tipping point of AI into the mainstream, being implemented across many industries to save time.
If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we are incredibly resilient and that technology can be relied on to quickly and efficiently pivot to a “new normal”.
For home and residential care, relying on technology to do the heavy lifting will pay off as the industry navigates these changes. Providers must consider reliable technology providers to keep data secure, keep up with compliance, and stay connected.
Our team is working closely with the sector and government officials to stay ahead of legislative changes so our customers can focus on what matters: delivering quality care with peace of mind.
To stay up-to-date with these changes and how they impact providers, you can visit our Aged Care Act blog post here.
