New 'commencing' homes - overview
What is a commencing home?
A commencing home is a residential aged care home where an approved provider has been allocated resident places but which have not been previously used for delivering residential aged care. This does not apply to existing residential aged care homes which have had an increase in bed numbers.
A commencing home must be accredited before it is eligible to receive Australian government subsidies and therefore residents are not usually living at the residential aged care home at the time an application is made.
What is the process for accrediting a commencing home?
A brief summary of the process is as follows:
- an assessment team reviews the application for accreditation of a residential aged care home which includes a self-assessment and makes a recommendation
- a decision-maker, separate from the team, makes a decision.
As residents are not yet living at the residential aged care home, no site assessment is undertaken.
What does the decision include?
All accredited commencing homes receive one year’s accreditation.
The decision includes any information about areas the residential aged care home needs to improve in order to achieve compliance with the Accreditation Standards.
What information is publicly available?
Decisions about commencing homes are available on our website. Go to reports on homes.
What other information is available about commencing homes?
Click here for more information about commencing homes.
