Aged care provider registration and audits under the Aged Care Act 2024

The Aged Care Act 2024 commenced on 1 November 2025 and replaced the previous provider approval and accreditation arrangements with a single registration system administered by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Every provider of Australian Government funded aged care services must now be registered (checked August 2026).

This article covers the registration and audit machinery — categories, triggers, evidence tools, ratings and renewal. For the substance of the Act and the standards themselves, see the Aged Care Act 2024 in plain English and the strengthened Quality Standards.

Registration replaced approval and accreditation

Under the Act, the Commission tests an applicant's suitability, capacity and capability to provide aged care — both when they apply and when their registration is renewed. Registration also gives the regulator a live picture of who is delivering what, which is the point of merging two previously separate processes.

Registered providers can claim Australian Government funding for delivering services to a person approved for those services, including through the Support at Home program, residential aged care, and specialist aged care programs. The Commission's registration guidance is the authoritative source, and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing maintains the Aged Care Act resources.

The six registration categories

Every provider must register in one or more categories. Each category groups service types by common characteristics, the risks associated with the service, and the provider obligations that address those risks.

Your categories determine your obligations, your conditions of registration and — critically — whether you are audited at all.

Which providers get audited, and when

The Commission conducts an audit against the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards when an organisation, person or registered provider applies in categories 4, 5 or 6 to:

• be registered as a provider;
• renew their registration; or
• vary their registration.

Providers registered only in categories 1, 2 or 3 are not audited against the Quality Standards through this pathway. That is the single most useful planning fact in the whole regime: adding a category 4 service to a category 1 registration converts you from an unaudited provider to an audited one, and the variation itself triggers the audit.

An audit starts either when the Commission is assessing an application for registration or variation adding category 4, 5 or 6, or when a provider advises that it plans to renew. Registration is granted for a set period and renewed on application — commonly three years — so build the audit into your renewal planning well before expiry.

Audit initiation: the AECT and the CDECT

The Commission runs the audit on two evidence collection tools, and missing either has consequences.

The Audit Evidence Collection Tool (AECT). The audit initiation email asks you to complete and submit the AECT with key documentation, to nominate the governing body and senior management representatives who will attend meetings and their availability, and to send updated policies and procedures as they become available. The Commission then calls to confirm receipt, discuss the process and arrange an audit initiation meeting.

The warning is explicit: the Commission cannot do the audit without a completed AECT, and if you do not complete and submit it by the deadline, your application can be withdrawn. This is not a paperwork courtesy — it is a gate.

The Care Delivery Evidence Collection Tool (CDECT). Before each care delivery location or residential care home audit, the Commission emails to explain the purpose and type of audit and asks you to complete the CDECT. Its contents are reviewed and analysed before the auditors arrive.

How the audit is delivered

The audit has two components, and which ones apply depends on why you are being audited.

Provider audit. The Commission reviews and analyses your AECT, meets your governing body and senior management representatives to understand your systems and processes for governance, clinical and care quality and staffing, decides where to audit if you offer category 4 or 5 services, and prepares an audit plan. For all registration types in categories 4, 5 and 6, the audit includes a review of provider evidence such as organisational policies and procedures applicable to the strengthened Quality Standards. Provider evidence is collected from you once.

Care delivery or residential care home audit. This tests whether your systems and processes are embedded and effective. It applies to renewal audits only. For renewals, in addition to provider evidence, the Commission audits all category 6 residential care homes and a sample of category 4 and 5 service locations. Providers applying to be registered in category 6 have an audit at each residential care home; providers in categories 4 or 5 have one provider audit assessing a sample of locations.

These audits include interviews with older people and their representatives, interviews with staff, observations and file reviews. There is an online opening meeting, a brief entry meeting on arrival, regular feedback meetings throughout, and a closing meeting at which the Commission gives a preliminary conformance rating for each Outcome assessed. The Commission uses a digital audit tool to collect information and evidence.

For registration and variation audits, the Commission meets your governing body and senior management and will tell you if a site visit is needed to see where services will be delivered.

The rating scale, including the exceeding rating

Ratings are given at both the Outcome and Standard levels, based on the evidence collected. There are four possible ratings.

The exceeding rating is opt-in and demanding. Where a provider conforms with all seven Standards, the Commission asks whether it wants to be considered, and if so requires a response against three further criteria: excelling in active partnerships with older people and workers for better outcomes; excelling in governance and clinical governance systems; and excelling in the dining experience. All three must be met.

Audit ratings affect the provider's Star Rating and are shown on the Find a provider tool, so a non-conformance is publicly visible as well as regulatorily significant. Full detail is published in the Commission's graded assessment and audit ratings guidance and its audit process guidance.

Reporting, decisions and the supervision that follows

After delivery, the Commission prepares a preliminary report containing initial findings, conformance ratings against each Outcome, and detailed findings supporting any minor or major non-conformance rating. It considers the experiences of older people and their supporters, the experiences of workers, and feedback both positive and negative received during the audit. It does not include names or identifying information of older people, supporters or workers.

You receive the preliminary report by email and can respond, including by submitting supporting evidence, by the stated deadline using a secure link. The Commission reviews your response and prepares a final report giving reasons for the final ratings, including where they differ from the preliminary report. The final report goes to you and to the Commission's provider registration team, and informs the decision to register you and to apply any conditions.

Three things follow the decision:

• Conditions. The Commission may add conditions of registration to manage risks to older people. Requirements sit in the Act or the Aged Care Rules 2025, some applying to all providers and some category-specific.
• Supervision. Every registered provider is given a supervision status and monitored through the Commission's Supervision Model. Where a minor or major non-conformance is given, the Commission monitors and works more closely with the provider until the issues are fixed in a lasting way.
• Review rights. Registration decisions are recorded in a Notice of Decision and the Provider Register. Some are reviewable, and a provider that disagrees can ask the Commission to reconsider.

Fees apply to register, renew and vary a registration, and the Commission publishes fee calculators for each. Because the fee depends on your categories and the scale of your operation, use the Commission's calculators rather than budgeting from a headline figure.

Practical preparation runs through the strengthened Quality Standards obligation, the key personnel obligations that the governing body interview will probe, and your Serious Incident Response Scheme records, which the audit will test rather than merely sight. The aged care readiness tool and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission profile are useful starting points, and the aged care hub collects the wider obligation set. Providers who also hold NDIS registration should read NDIS audit evidence and non-conformity ratings, because the two evidence packs overlap heavily.