What Aged Care Providers Need to Know
From 1 April 2025, three new staffing-related quality indicators (QIs) will be introduced under the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program, reinforcing the central role of the workforce in delivering safe, high-quality aged care.
The expansion of staffing QIs reflects a broader commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement in the sector. These new measures follow a national pilot program and will track care minutes delivered by enrolled nurses, lifestyle officers, and allied health professionals.
While providers will need to begin collecting data from 1 April, most of the required information is already captured through the Quarterly Financial Report (QFR), helping to limit additional reporting effort. Only one new data point—related to recommended allied health services received—will require separate submission via the Government Provider Management System (GPMS) by 21 July 2025.
What Are the New Staffing Quality Indicators?
The three new indicators focus on measuring the contributions of enrolled nurses, allied health workers, and lifestyle assistants. Each role plays a vital part in ensuring the holistic well-being of residents. In summary, data to be collected around these new indicators is as follows:
Enrolled Nurses
- Proportion of enrolled nursing care minutes to total care minutes
- Proportion of nursing care minutes to total care minutes
Allied Health Workers
- Percentage of recommended allied health services received
- Allied health care minutes
Lifestyle Officers
- Lifestyle officer care minutes
Four of the five new data points will draw on information already collected for the Quarterly Financial Report (QFR), reducing reporting burden. The only new data element is the “percentage of recommended allied health services received”, which will need to be submitted via the Government Provider Management System (GPMS) by 21 July. See section below on this data point for further information.
New Quality Indicator: Enrolled Nurses (ENs)
Enrolled nurses (ENs) play a critical role in delivering clinical care to aged care residents, working under the supervision of registered nurses or nurse practitioners. As part of the new staffing quality indicators, providers will now be measured on the proportion of care delivered by enrolled nurses within their workforce.
DoHAC will calculate two enrolled nursing quality indicators using existing data from the Quarterly Financial Report (QFR):
- Proportion of EN care minutes to total care minutes
EN minutes as a percentage of all care minutes (EN + RN + PCW + AIN)
- Proportion of nursing care minutes (EN + RN) to total care minutes
Nursing minutes (EN + RN) as a percentage of total care minutes (EN + RN + PCW + AIN)
Note:
EN = Enrolled Nurse
RN = Registered Nurse
PCW = Personal Care Worker
AIN = Assistant in Nursing
Reporting Requirements
- Providers do not need to submit any separate data for these indicators.
- DoHAC will automatically extract EN, RN, PCW, and AIN care minutes data from the QFR and display it in the Quality Indicator Program App via the Government Provider Management System (GPMS).
- Providers will be able to view EN indicators alongside their other quality indicator data.
- Important: Failure to submit QFR data, or to submit it on time, will result in an automatic non-submission of this quality indicator.
For more information download: qi-program-quick-reference-guide-enrolled-nursing.pdf
New Quality Indicator: Allied Health Professionals
Allied health professionals are university-qualified health professionals, are not part of the medical, dental or nursing professions and have specialised expertise in preventing, diagnosing and treating various conditions and illnesses. Allied health services include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, podiatry, dietetics, other allied health, and allied health assistants.
- Percentage of recommended allied health services received
To support accurate reporting on this indicator, the DoHAC refers to a three-step process: Review, Record, and Report.
Review
Conduct a one-time review of care records for each resident after the end of the quarter and before the reporting deadline (by the 21st of the following month)
Record
Capture the following data points:
- Number of residents excluded (e.g. those absent for the entire quarter)
- Total number of allied health services recommended in care plans
- Breakdown of recommendations by discipline (e.g. physiotherapy, occupational therapy, etc.)
- Total number of recommended services received
- Breakdown of services received by discipline
Report
Submit the following through the Government Provider Management System (GPMS):
- Number of allied health services recommended
- Number of recommended services received
Plus:
- Number of residents assessed for allied health needs
- Number of residents excluded
- Discipline-level breakdowns of both recommended and received services
For more information download: QI Program quick reference guide – Allied health recommended services received
2. Allied Health Care Minutes
DoHAC will calculate allied health care minutes using data already submitted by providers through the Quarterly Financial Report (QFR).
What Providers Need to Know
- No separate reporting is required for this indicator.
- DoHAC will extract residential allied health labour costs and hours data directly from the QFR.
- This information will be displayed in the Quality Indicator (QI) Program App within the Government Provider Management System (GPMS), alongside other quality indicators.
- Important: Failure to submit QFR data—or submitting it late—will result in an automatic non-submission of this quality indicator.
For more information download: qi-program-quick-reference-guide-allied-health-care-minutes.pdf
New Quality Indicator: Lifestyle Officer Care Minutes
Lifestyle officers play a vital role in supporting the psychological, spiritual, social, and physical well-being of aged care residents through meaningful activities and engagement. As part of the new staffing quality indicators, their contribution will now be measured using existing financial and staffing data submitted through the Quarterly Financial Report (QFR).
How This Indicator Will Be Calculated
The Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) will calculate lifestyle officer care minutes using:
- Labour costs and
- Hours worked
submitted for diversional, lifestyle, recreation, and activities officers in residential aged care.
Providers are not required to submit any additional data beyond their regular QFR submission.
Key Guidance on Calculating Labour Costs
DoHAC provides the following instructions for accurate reporting:
- For hybrid roles, apportion labour costs based on the time allocated to each function.
- For staff working across multiple facilities, split costs according to the time spent in each facility.
- Include only costs associated with residents funded under the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) model, including residential respite care recipients.
Reporting Process
- Lifestyle officer data will be extracted automatically from the QFR and displayed in the QI Program App within the Government Provider Management System (GPMS).
- This will allow providers to view lifestyle officer metrics alongside other quality indicator data.
- Failure to submit QFR data on time will result in an automatic non-submission of the lifestyle officer quality indicator.
For more information download: qi-program-quick-reference-guide-lifestyle-officer.pdf
Insights from the Staffing QI Pilot
The new indicators were informed by the Final Report of the Expanding the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program: Staffing QIs pilot, which tested nine staffing-related QIs across the three workforce categories.
✅ Deemed suitable for implementation:
- EN care minutes per resident per day (now captured via proportions)
- Allied health care minutes
- Percentage of recommended allied health services received
- Lifestyle officer care minutes
❌ Not yet ready for rollout:
- Several QIs were found to require further research or were not considered feasible at this stage, including:
- Detailed service attendance tracking for lifestyle officers
- Broader measures of allied health service delivery when recommendations were made
What This Means for Providers
The introduction of these staffing QIs reflects a growing emphasis on measuring not just how much care is delivered, but by whom and how well it aligns with care plans. Providers will need to:
- Review internal data capture systems for ENs, allied health, and lifestyle teams
- Ensure care minutes are accurately tracked and reported
- Prepare to submit new allied health data through GPMS by the 21 July deadline
- Use this data to inform workforce planning, staffing models, and quality improvement initiatives
With increasing regulatory focus on staffing transparency, these indicators will likely influence star ratings, funding alignment, and consumer choice in the future.
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