Aged Care Quality Standards
The Aged Care Standards are the guidelines and regulations promoting high-quality care for elderly residents in Australia. All aged care facilities and providers are required to adhere to these Quality Standards in order to operate.
These standards cover various aspects of care, including safety, dignity, communication, and overall quality of life for aged care recipients.
Complying with these standards must involve putting in policies and procedures to meet the standards, conducting regular checks and assessments and looking to continually improve the quality of care provided as new challenges arise.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission oversees and regulates aged care services in Australia, ensuring compliance with the Aged Care Quality Standards.
It conducts audits, investigations, and site visits, offering support to providers to help them meet regulatory requirements.
Non-compliance with the Commission’s regulations leads to serious financial penalties or a loss of accreditation. Something as simple as not keeping timesheet records is considered a breach of compliance obligations by Fair Work.
An employer who is publicly outed for non compliance risks serious damage to their reputation.
Aged care employers looking to create trust in their services must consistently act in the best interests of their residents and be proactive in delivering service quality.
This requires good leadership and a team focused on driving compliance efforts on an ongoing basis.
Quality of Care Challenges Amidst Funding Shortages
The Aged care sector has experienced challenges in recent times. Inquiries into care standards and reports of neglect are now common place.
Staffing shortages and high employee turnover contribute to inconsistencies in care delivery and impact residents’ well-being. Funding shortages limit the resources of aged care providers, restricting their ability to invest in staff training and development.
Australia’s ageing population and increasing demand for aged care services means there is plenty of opportunity in the sector in coming years. Nevertheless, financial constraints put a strain on resources and make it harder for providers to deliver a high standard of care.
To address these challenges, aged care employers must prioritise improving working conditions to attract and retain qualified staff.
By offering competitive wages, opportunities for professional development, and supportive working environments, these employers will ensure that their staff are motivated and capable of delivering high-quality care.
Leveraging technology has also helped aged care employers manage payroll efficiently and accurately, leaving more time to focus on providing high quality care.
Fairtime clients save time and money resourcing their payroll teams. They avoid having to count up timesheet hours by hand each pay cycle They focus less on payroll compliance and are freed up to focus on other important challenges in their business.
Award Interpretation for Aged Care Quality Standards and Compliance
Complying with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can be tough without using the right technology. Using Award interpretation software means you do not have to guess what rates to pay staff. Employees have the satisfaction they are paid at the right rate and are motivated to upskill themselves and taking on higher duties.
By investing in attracting and retaining the best talent, Aged Care providers can mitigate the impacts of funding shortages on their business and uphold the quality standards essential for delivering exceptional care to elderly Australians.
We are here to help Aged care employers through this transition.
What is Fairtime?
Fairtime is timesheet and payroll compliance software designed to help Australian employers pay staff at the right rate.
What does it do?
When an employee enters their work hours into Fairtime, our pay rate engine converts their timesheet into a payslip with one click. Any employee, any shift pattern and at any Award classification.
We track leave and TOIL balance with custom pay calendars and pay rates. Employers often sync Fairtime with XERO or MYOB so that their pay slips become instantly available, saving them hours of manual entry.
How to use Fairtime
This is the most comprehensive A to Z compliance option for businesses in the Aged Care and SCHADS space. Our dedicated support team is on hand to help you during implementation and beyond.
We also provide Free Payroll Health Checks to help you understand your problems better.
Our affiliate law firm, Fairtime Legal, advise businesses on employment law issues like contracts or pay rate classifications for your staff.
Fairtime can also be customised to help you carry out wage remediation. You can engage accountants to manually review payslips line by line to confirm an underpayment OR you can upload historical hours into Fairtime and we’ll calculate the right rate of pay.
For a copy of the current Aged Care pay rates, you can fill out the form below.
