Aged Care

Catering for the needs of more than one million Australians, Australia’s aged care sector plays a vital role in providing care, community and support to our ageing population.

As the quality of our lives improves to allow us to live longer and healthier lives, providing appropriate accommodation for ageing Australians is becoming increasingly essential. This is driving substantial increases in demand for residential aged care facilities, integrated care facilities and retirement communities nationwide.

While historically, the provision of aged care services and accommodation has been tightly controlled and heavily regulated by the Australian Government, new legislation introduced in 2016 is helping to drive substantial change toward a market-driven and consumer-centric system of access to aged care services. Where previously supply, distribution and funding of aged care places has been determined through use of population-based service provision target ratios, changes outlined in the Aged Care Sector Committee’s Aged Care Roadmap* will endeavour to deliver a funding model that follows the consumer, leading to more control and more choice for elderly Australians, and less difficulty moving between different models of care as the individual’s need changes.

As deregulation of aged care services increases, in particular residential aged care services, providing premium services beyond basic facilities is expected to become a point of differentiation for many providers and consumers. This, combined with an enhanced ability to offer a broader range of integrated care services is anticipated to drive industry revenue growth and boost profit margins; increasing opportunities for aged care providers across all three sectors (not-for-profit, private and government) to expand service offerings and capabilities.