Accreditation overview
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is the arrangement established by the Australian Government to verify that residential aged care homes provide quality care and services for residents. All residential aged care homes must be accredited in order to receive funding from the Australian Government through residential care subsidies. Click here to download the Accreditation Standards fact sheet.
What is the accreditation process?
The process of accreditation is outlined in the Accreditation Grant Principles 1999. Other information such as rights and responsibilities of approved providers is outlined in the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Accountability Principles 1998.
It is the responsibility of the approved provider to demonstrate the residential aged care home complies with the Accreditation Standards. Please be aware that providing false or misleading information is a serious offence under the Criminal Codes Act 1995.
The main elements of the accreditation process are:
- self-assessment by the residential aged care home
- submission of an application
- assessment by a team of registered quality assessors – this includes both desk and site audits
- a decision about accreditation by an authorised decision-maker from the Agency (not part of the assessment team)
- issuing of an accreditation certificate
- publication of the decision
- monitoring of ongoing compliance and continuous improvement through support contacts and review audits
- reapplication prior to expiry of the residential aged care home’s existing period of accreditation.
Accreditation is not a one-off event. Once a residential aged care home is accredited, the approved provider is required to maintain ongoing compliance with the legislated standards of care for residents and to undertake continuous improvement. Each home receives at least one unannounced visit each year.
If the residential aged care home is a new, commencing home, the approved provider will need to apply for accreditation before any residents are admitted. The application must identify how the new residential aged care home will meet the Accreditation Standards when it is operating, and give the Agency an undertaking that the new home will undertake continuous improvement.
