The Aged Care Act 2024: new duties for aged care providers

The Aged Care Act 2024 requires a provider to be registered, to meet the conditions of its registration category, to uphold the Statement of Rights, and to keep the records and make the reports that show it did. The Act started on 1 November 2025 (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, as at November 2026).

In short

• The Aged Care Act 2024 started on 1 November 2025, at the same time as the Support at Home program.
• The Act requires a provider to hold registration, meet its conditions, uphold the Statement of Rights, and keep records that show both.
• Record-keeping duties are the backbone. A regulator sees most other duties only through the records behind them.
• The detail sits in the Act and the Aged Care Rules 2025, and the Rules are still being amended.
• The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission publishes the provider guidance on registration, conduct, standards, governance, and compliance and enforcement.

What the Aged Care Act 2024 requires providers to do

The Aged Care Act 2024 requires a provider to be registered, to meet the conditions of that registration, to uphold the Statement of Rights in the care it delivers, and to keep records and make reports. The rest of the Act is detail under those four headings.

The useful way to read it is as a chain. A duty is written in the Act. The Aged Care Rules 2025 say what meeting that duty looks like in practice. A record is what proves you met it. If the record does not exist, the duty is unevidenced, whatever actually happened on the floor. That is the shift worth planning for. Not obligations invented out of nowhere, but obligations that now come with an expectation that you can produce the evidence on request.

The two official starting points are the Department's page on the new Act and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, which holds the provider guidance for each duty area. Both are worth checking by date rather than from memory, because the Rules under the Act are still moving. An exposure draft of the Aged Care Amendment Rules 2026, covering an escalation pathway for assessment, was published for consultation on 12 October 2026 (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, as at November 2026).

When the new Aged Care Act started

The new Aged Care Act started on 1 November 2025, and its start was timed to line up with the launch of the Support at Home program.

That single date matters for records more than it looks. A provider's files now straddle two legal regimes. Care delivered before 1 November 2025 was delivered under the old arrangements. Care delivered after it sits under the new Act. When a regulator, an auditor or a board asks a question that reaches back across that line, the honest answer usually needs both sets of records and a clear note of which rules applied when. Providers who marked that boundary in their own systems at the time are in a better position than those who did not.

What records a provider must keep

A provider must keep records showing what care was delivered, to whom and by whom, and that the conditions of its registration were met throughout. The exact list comes from the Act and the Aged Care Rules 2025, and it differs by registration category.

Rather than guess at a list, it is more useful to group what the records have to carry:

• Who received care, and what was agreed with them. Agreements, assessed needs, consent, and changes to any of those over time.
• What was delivered, and by whom. Service records against what was agreed, and the workers who delivered it.
• Who the workers were. Screening and suitability checks, training, and the workforce obligations that attach to your registration category.
• What went wrong, and what you did. Incidents, complaints, feedback, open disclosure, and the action taken afterwards.
• How the organisation governed itself. Governing body decisions, clinical governance, and the provider governance duties the Commission publishes guidance on.
• Money. The financial and prudential records required of your category.

The practical test for each group is simple. If an auditor asked for six months of it tomorrow, could you produce it as a set, or would it have to be assembled from memory, email and four spreadsheets? Our page on reporting for aged care providers covers how providers pull these threads into a single view, and our post on aged care quality indicators walks through one reported set in detail.

What the Statement of Rights means for a provider

The Statement of Rights sets out the rights of a person receiving aged care, and for a provider it is a standard the care itself is measured against, not a poster for the foyer. The Act requires providers to deliver care in a way that upholds those rights.

For record-keeping, the question it raises is evidential. Choice, dignity, communication in a person's own language, involvement of the people they want involved: each of those is a thing you either recorded or did not. Care notes that read as tasks completed say very little about whether a right was upheld. Care notes that record what the person asked for, what was offered and what they chose, say a great deal.

The Aged Care Code of Conduct runs beside the Statement of Rights, applying to the provider, its governing persons and its workers. The Commission publishes provider guidance on both (Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, as at November 2026).

Registration, provider governance and the people responsible

A provider delivering Australian Government funded aged care needs registration under the new Act, in a category that matches the services it delivers. The conditions attached to that category are the obligations it is held to, and the Commission is the registrar.

Two things follow for a board. First, the conditions are category specific, so the honest answer to "what do we have to do?" always starts with "which categories are we registered in?". Second, provider governance duties reach named individuals as well as the organisation. The Act places obligations on responsible persons, which means a governing body cannot treat compliance as something that happens below it. The Commission's provider governance and clinical governance guidance is the place to check what your category requires, along with the Strengthened Quality Standards that apply to it.

Compliance and enforcement, and reporting duties

The Commission has a range of compliance and enforcement powers under the Act, and they escalate: monitoring and supervision, requests for information, conditions and directions, through to stronger action for serious or repeated failures.

Reporting duties sit inside this. Some reports are routine and scheduled. Others are triggered by an event, and the clock starts when the event happens rather than when the paperwork is noticed. The Serious Incident Response Scheme is the clearest example, and our post on what counts as a reportable incident goes through the categories. The timing and thresholds for each report come from the Act and the Rules, so check them on the official pages rather than from an internal procedure written before November 2025.

What this means week to week is less dramatic than it sounds. A provider that knows, on any given Monday, which reports are due, which are late, which incidents are still open and which worker checks have lapsed, is doing the thing the Act is built around. A provider that finds those things out during an audit is not.

Common questions

When did the new Aged Care Act start?

The new Aged Care Act started on 1 November 2025, timed to line up with the launch of the Support at Home program (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, as at November 2026).

What records must a provider keep under the new Aged Care Act?

A provider must keep records showing the care it delivered, who delivered it, what was agreed with each person, what incidents and complaints occurred and what followed, how the organisation governed itself, and the financial records its registration category requires. The precise list depends on that category and is set by the Act and the Aged Care Rules 2025, so read it against your own registration rather than from a general list.

What is the Statement of Rights in the new Aged Care Act?

The Statement of Rights sets out the rights of a person receiving aged care, including dignity, choice and being heard, and the Act requires providers to deliver care in a way that upholds them. The Commission publishes provider guidance on it (Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, as at November 2026).

Do providers need to register under the new Aged Care Act?

Yes. A provider delivering Australian Government funded aged care needs registration under the Act, in a category matching the services it delivers, and the conditions attached to that category are the duties it is held to. Registration guidance and forms come from the Commission as registrar.

What happens if a provider breaches the new Aged Care Act?

The Commission has compliance and enforcement powers that escalate with the seriousness of the failure, from monitoring and requests for information through to conditions, directions and stronger action. What applies in a given case depends on the facts, so the Commission's compliance and enforcement guidance is the source to read, and legal advice is the right step for a specific matter.

Sources

• New Aged Care Act, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, as at November 2026
• Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, as at November 2026