The aged care sector in Australia has undergone the most significant regulatory transformation in its history. Following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which delivered its final report in February 2021, the obligations placed on providers around workforce quality, training, and governance have been substantially strengthened.

For aged care operators, the message from the Commission was direct. The systemic failures it documented were not primarily about resources. They were about culture, accountability, and the willingness to treat training as central to quality care rather than an administrative burden.

What the Royal Commission found

The Commission's final report, "Care, Dignity and Respect," documented extensive evidence of inadequate care, including cases of substandard treatment linked directly to workforce capability. Commissioners Tony Pagone and Lynelle Briggs found that the sector was "unkind and uncaring" in too many instances, and that inadequate staffing and training were recurring factors.

One of the Commission's key findings was that providers consistently lacked the systems needed to identify and address workforce capability gaps. Training was often delivered inconsistently, records were incomplete, and there was no reliable mechanism for ensuring that care workers had the skills and knowledge required for their specific roles.

The Commission made 148 recommendations. Many of them relate directly to workforce quality. Recommendation 68 called for minimum training requirements for all personal care workers, including mandatory completion of a Certificate III in Individual Support or equivalent qualification. Recommendation 84 called for new governance obligations requiring providers to demonstrate that workforce capability is actively managed and monitored.

The current regulatory framework

The Aged Care Quality Standards, which came into force in 2019 and have been progressively strengthened since, set out the obligations that providers must meet. Standard 7, which relates to human resources, is the most directly relevant to training compliance.

Under Standard 7, providers must demonstrate that they have a workforce that is sufficient in number and skill to deliver safe, quality care and services. They must show that workers have the skills and knowledge relevant to their role. And they must have systems in place to identify and address workforce capability gaps on an ongoing basis.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, which is responsible for assessing compliance against these standards, has made workforce capability a priority area for its audit activity. Its annual report for 2022-23 noted that Standard 7 remained one of the areas most frequently cited in non-compliance findings during accreditation assessments.

The casual workforce problem

One of the most significant compliance risks in aged care is the management of casual and agency staff. High rates of workforce turnover, combined with the frequent use of labour hire to fill shifts, create a situation where workers are regularly rostered on without having completed mandatory training.

Research conducted through the University of New South Wales Social Policy Research Centre has highlighted the extent to which the aged care workforce relies on casual and temporary staff, particularly in residential facilities. In some facilities, casual workers make up more than 40 per cent of the direct care workforce.

Each of those workers represents a compliance risk if their training status cannot be verified in real time. When a care worker arrives for a shift through an agency, a provider cannot simply assume that the agency has managed their training obligations. The provider retains responsibility for ensuring that every person delivering care on their behalf meets the required standards.

What systematic training management looks like in aged care

Providers that consistently achieve strong compliance outcomes share several characteristics.

• Training is assigned at the point of onboarding, before a worker's first shift, not during their first week

• The training assigned reflects the specific role, not a generic induction that applies to all staff equally

• Refresher training is scheduled automatically at the required intervals, rather than relying on a manager to remember

• When care standards change, or when new clinical guidelines are issued, the system identifies which workers need updated training and assigns it without requiring manual intervention

• For workers who hold registered qualifications, licence expiry dates are tracked with automated alerts so that renewals are managed before they become compliance issues

Providers that have implemented these systems report significant reductions in the time spent on audit preparation. Rather than spending weeks compiling records before an assessment, they can produce complete, accurate workforce training reports in minutes.

Preparing for an assessment

When the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission assessor arrives, they will want to see records that demonstrate ongoing, systematic management of workforce capability. They are not looking for a perfect snapshot taken in the days before their visit. They are looking for evidence that your systems have been operating consistently.

The questions to ask yourself now are:

• Can you produce a complete training completion report for every current staff member within five minutes?

• Can you show that casual and agency staff have met the same training requirements as your permanent workforce?

• Can you demonstrate that your training content reflects current standards and guidelines?

If those questions reveal gaps, closing them requires both the right records and the right systems for maintaining them going forward.