Commission publishes three years of sector data
The latest performance review shows the sector has improved in compliance but also notes a steadily increasing rate of serious incident notifications, which only stabilised or dropped in Quarter 4 2024-25.
A special edition of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s Sector Performance Review has been published, with an overview of performance trends since 2023 included alongside the usual Quarter 4 data.
Since 2023, there has been an 8 per cent increase in people accessing home care services and a 9 per cent increase in the number of people accessing residential aged care.
Residential aged care has also experienced consistently higher rates of compliance, the commission noted, with a compliance rate of 58 per cent in Q1 2022-23 to 81 per cent for Q3 2024-25. Home care compliance rates have also improved, going from 46 per cent to 64 per cent in the same period.
But there has also been an increase in Serious Incident Response Scheme notifications since its introduction in 2022, with the rate of notifications in residential aged care dropping for the first time in the most recent quarter.
The commission attributes the rise to the increase in Priority 2 notifications each quarter but also noted that the drop in notifications in Q4 2024-25 does not necessarily mean that the incidents themselves are declining. Rather, it could be an indication that not all notifiable incidents are being reported.
Complaints have increased in residential aged care too, but have historically varied from quarter to quarter. The top issue has been medication administration and management, followed by personnel numbers and sufficiency.
Recently there has also been an increase in the number of people making falls-related complaints.
Neglect in home care most commonly reported incident
Rates of SIRS reporting have been lower in home care than residential aged care but still grew steadily from Q2 2022-23 until 2024-25, when it started to level out.
Neglect has been the most reported incident for home care – accounting for 60 per cent of the 1,529 reported incidents.
The commission said close to half of the neglect notifications were related to clinical and personal care, while a quarter was due to missed shifts.
Stealing or financial coercion by staff was the second most reported incident, and made up just over 20 per cent of reported incidents.
For the last three years home care complaints have been centred on the lack of communication and consultation but there has also been a consistent number of complaints made about fees and charges.
The full performance report can be read here.
Comment on the story below. Follow Australian Ageing Agenda on LinkedIn and Facebook, sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter and subscribe to AAA magazine for the complete aged care picture.
