The Government welcomes the Ombudsman's inquiry into the Single Assessment System.
The new Aged Care Act, including the Single Assessment System, was the biggest reform to aged care in almost 30 years, delivering on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
We always said change of this size would need careful monitoring and ongoing refinement, and we've been listening and making changes to the assessment system for more than 6 months.
Older Australians deserve an aged care system that works for them and their loved ones.
We have heard that the assessment system isn't always getting it right. We listened, and we've acted.
Last sitting, Parliament passed our escalation pathway so from January, where someone's circumstances aren't fully captured by their assessment, their outcome can be reviewed by a person and changed if necessary - adding a further layer of human oversight and nuance to the assessment system.
We've commissioned an independent, clinically informed review of how assessments classify and prioritise people. Its report will be published in full and tabled in Parliament in the first half of 2027.
The Albanese Government inherited a broken aged care system and we are working to turn it around.
We've delivering more packages, more aged care beds, nurses in nursing homes and more care minutes than ever before.
The Government will consider the Ombudsman's report carefully as we continue to improve our aged care system, including the assessments system. We're already acting on many of the recommendations to ensure our aged care system is transparent and reliable, and we'll examine what further action we can take to give every Australian confidence in the system.
In addition to having acquitted a number of recommendations through the passage of the Act, commissioning an independent review and publishing plain English and technical details of the assessment system, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the Government accepts or accepts-in-principle all remaining recommendations and will work with other agencies to support responses to recommendations directed outside the portfolio.
