Support contact decisions
What is a support contact decision?
Decisions about non-compliance, whether to vary support contact arrangements and whether to conduct a review audit are made by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency Ltd. Each decision is made by an authorised decision-maker, on its merits and in accordance with the Accreditation Grant Principles 1999.
Although outcomes of support contacts are not decisions in the same way as accreditation site audit decisions, commencing home decisions and review audit decisions, for convenience, we also use the term ‘decisions’ to refer to support contact outcomes.
What is considered when making a decision?
When making a decision, the following documents and information are considered:
- the residential aged care home’s compliance with the Accreditation Standards (including serious risk)
- the assessment team’s support contact record
- the assessment team’s recommendations
- information (if any) received from the approved provider in response to the support contact record
- information (if any) received from the Department of Health and Ageing
- the residential aged care home’s history of compliance
- whether the decision-maker is satisfied the residential aged care home will undertake continuous improvement, measured against the Accreditation Standards.
Can the decision-maker come to a different view to that of the team?
The decision-maker sometimes comes to a different conclusion to that recommended by the assessment team. Where this occurs it is usually due to changes occurring at the residential aged care home after the assessment team completes the support contact. Generally, the decision-maker also has other information about the performance of the residential aged care home to consider along with the support contact record provided by the assessment team which includes the residential aged care home’s history of performance and additional information from the approved provider.
What happens after the decision is made?
Once the decision is made, a copy of the support contact record and correspondence confirming future support arrangements are sent to the approved provider. This correspondence may include a simple statement that unannounced support contacts will be conducted, or include information regarding announced support contacts.
How are residents informed of the support contact decision?
Residential aged care homes should tell residents/representatives about outcomes of a support contact, including information on non-compliance, serious risk and sanctions.
Can the decision be appealed?
The legislation does not provide for reconsideration or appeal of support contact decisions.
What information is publicly available?
Decisions about support contacts and the assessment team’s support contact record and recommendation are not publicly available. However, if a residential aged care home becomes non-compliant as a result of a support contact decision, or if a residential aged care home does not remedy non-compliance by the end of a timetable for improvement, an update to the residential aged care home’s existing audit report is published. To access a report go to Reports on homes.
