Non-compliance
What is non-compliance?
Non-compliance is where a residential aged care home is found to not meet the requirements of one or more of the expected outcomes of the Accreditation Standards.
Residential aged care homes are required to comply with the Accreditation Standards at all times and to ensure a high standard of care and services are provided to residents.
At any stage of the accreditation process – during the course of an accreditation site audit, support contact or review audit – the Agency may identify areas of non-compliance with the Accreditation Standards.
The Agency may also identify evidence of serious risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of residents.
What happens when non-compliance is identified?
Where non-compliance in the provision of care is identified, the Agency may put a residential aged care home on a timetable for improvement (TFI). A timetable for improvement sets out the improvements and maximum time allowed to address issues of non-compliance identified by the Agency.
The Agency monitors the residential aged care home’s progress in achieving compliance.
If the residential aged care home does not comply by the end of the timetable, the Agency may:
- conduct a review audit which may vary or revoke the residential aged care home’s accreditation
- recommend to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Ageing that sanctions be imposed.
What is serious risk?
Serious risk is simply defined as a ‘serious risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of residents’. It can therefore take many forms including in relation to care issues, resident rights and the physical environment.
When serious risk is identified, the Department of Health and Ageing is informed, and daily visits are conducted by the Agency to ensure progress in resolving the serious risk is occurring.
The identification of serious risk may also result in a residential aged care home not being granted accreditation, or having its accreditation revoked.
What are the penalties for not maintaining compliance?
If a residential aged care home has serious risk or major non-compliance, or if it does not remedy non-compliance in the set period, the Agency may recommend to the Department of Health and Ageing that sanctions be placed on the approved provider (owner of the residential aged care home).
If the Department of Health and Ageing agrees with our recommendation, specific sanctions are imposed for a set period.
The sanctions imposed will depend on the action required to address the areas of resident care and service deficiency. These sanctions may include action such as not allowing further residents to move into the residential aged care home, or the approved provider appointing at their own cost a nurse administrator to assist with care planning.
How are residents involved when non-compliance or serious risk is identified?
Residential aged care homes should inform residents and their representatives when serious risk or non-compliance has been identified. Residents and representatives should also be informed when sanctions have been imposed, and of any the processes the residential aged care home has in place to resolve the deficits in resident care and services as soon as possible. This assists residents to make informed decisions about the services they receive.
In the case of serious risk, a meeting is usually held with the residents, resident representatives, management staff, and representatives from the Department of Health and Ageing. Representatives from the Agency do not always attend these meetings.
How can I find out which residential aged care homes have sanctions?
When the Department of Health and Ageing imposes sanctions on a residential aged care home, we place a statement of the front page of the residential aged care home’s accreditation report on our website stating sanctions have been imposed. This includes a link to the sanctions page of the Department’s website.
Go to reports on homes to review a report on a residential aged care home. For information on current and archived sanctions go to the Department of Health and Ageing’s website.
