The Aged Care Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct has now been launched.
The Preamble states that the Code is designed to establish an aspirational framework that supports good governance and innovative, high-quality care and engagement through which:
- providers of aged care services aim to perform beyond the expectations of the communities they serve and the consumers for whom they are accountable;
- workers in aged care are supported to realise this level of performance; and
- older Australians, their families, carers and advocates, who access and engage with aged care services can know that the measures and activities put in place aim to achieve quality, safe and personalised aged care services and supports.
The seven principles set out in the Code are:
- Consumer led and community shared value – consumers are central to care decisions and outcomes
- Living well and integrated models of care – focus is on the consumer’s quality of life and realising their choice through holistic and integrated models of care
- Board Governance – strong governance underpins performance, mitigates risk and drives culture
- Best practice sharing and industry benchmarking – sharing lessons learnt and better practice supports continuous improvement and contributes to improved care and support for consumers
- Education and training, including workforce accreditation – appropriately skilled and qualified staff deliver improved support and care for consumers
- Workforce planning – holistic and innovative care practices and improved care outcomes require enhanced workforce planning
- Proactive assurance and continuous improvement – high performance is built on information, transparency and a culture of continuous improvement
The Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services is encouraging all providers to sign up to the Code. This can be done here.
Each provider is responsible for developing and publishing a transition plan on their website within six months of signing up to the Code. The transition plan is intended to give the Council and the public information about how and when the provider plans to demonstrate their commitment and accountability to the Code outcomes and the evidence they will provide.
A list of all signatories to the Code will be available publicly.
If a provider does not develop or implement an annual plan or report on their own progress annually against their existing plan they will be removed from this list until they have done so.
By 30 June 2021, signatories to the Code will need to be able to show how they plan to commit to and demonstrate progress against the Code.
