Promise check: Lift minimum care for aged care residents to 215 minutes per day by October 2024

At the 2022 election, Labor promised to lift minimum care for aged care residents to 215 minutes per day by October 2024. Here's how that promise is tracking.

(Image by ABC News: Glyn Jones)

Coming off the heels of a royal commission that brought to light harrowing stories of neglect of some of Australia's most vulnerable people, the state of the residential aged care system loomed large in the 2022 election.

In its final report, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Safety and Quality identified "unacceptably high levels of substandard care" across the sector, with residential facilities in particular failing to deliver adequate routine care.

It recommended setting minimum standards for the amount of time carers spent with aged care residents, citing 2019 research suggesting that, on average, residents received just 180 minutes of care per day, with 36 minutes provided by registered nurses.

In response, the former Coalition government committed to an initial mandatory minimum, due to commence in October 2023. Its 2021 budget allocated funding for 200 minutes of care per resident, including 40 minutes with a registered nurse.

Labor went to the election promising to "raise the standard of aged care across the board".

"We will mandate that every Australian living in aged care receives an average of 215 minutes of care per day, as recommended by the Royal Commission," it said.

"That means more care for every resident, every day. Not just for essential medical treatment — but basic, important things like helping people take a shower, get dressed or eat a meal."

Labor reiterated its commitment in other policy documents, saying it would "maintain" the Coalition's October 2023 measure and pledging to lift "the average care time for each resident to 215 minutes per day, including 44 minutes with a registered nurse".

"This improved care-time standard will commence in October 2024," it said.

Assessing the promise

Labor's references to "average" care time could be interpreted two ways.

It could mean every individual resident receives 215 minutes of care over a period of time (taking into account day-to-day fluctuations).

Or it could refer to an average calculated across the facility or sector as a whole (meaning some residents receive more and others less than the average).

Before the election, however, the Department of Health released the details of a new funding model called the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC), which would determine the care and funding requirements for individual residents.

This would include new care-minute standards, which according to a departmental fact sheet, would be "an 'average' target across the sector".

"In practice, each residential aged care facility will have its own care minute target reflecting the AN-ACC casemix of residents in that facility. For example, a facility with mainly higher needs residents will have a higher average care minute target than a facility with mainly lower needs residents."

Labor pledged to "maintain" this model and its targets. It also said it would "mandate" 215 minutes of care per resident, meaning these care-minute targets will be enforced.

Finally, while Labor spoke of standards for "every Australian living in aged care", the royal commission recommendation only referred to care providers that receive federal subsidies and are thus subject to regulation.

This covers most residential facilities, which are largely operated by not-for-profit and private providers. There are, however, some entirely private providers which receive no subsidies and fall outside this framework.

This promise will be considered delivered if the government provides funding equivalent to 215 minutes of care per resident, on average across the sector, via the AN-ACC framework. This must include funding for 44 minutes of care provided by a registered nurse.

Individual residential facilities must also be required to deliver the number of care-minutes for which they have been paid, with the rules to take effect by October 2024.

Here's how the promise is tracking:

19 May 2023

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Promise check: Lift minimum care for aged care residents to 215 minutes per day by October 2024