Workforce Compliance Under the New Aged Care Act: What Providers Must Do Now
Compliance
April 4, 2026
Why regulated care providers must move beyond audit cycles and build real-time compliance systems.
Workforce has always been at the heart of quality care, but the new Aged Care Act has fundamentally changed what's expected of providers when it comes to their people. From mandatory worker screening and registration requirements to enforceable Code of Conduct obligations, the regulatory bar has been raised significantly. For providers still operating under legacy workforce management practices, the window to adapt is closing fast. This guide breaks down the key workforce compliance obligations, what the Commission is actively looking for, and practical steps providers can take right now to get ahead of enforcement.
Why Workforce Compliance Is Now a Regulatory Priority
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made workforce one of its central concerns — and the new Aged Care Act has translated those recommendations into enforceable obligations. The Commission has signalled that workforce compliance will be a focus area in 2026 audits and site visits, particularly around worker screening, qualification verification, and Code of Conduct adherence.
This isn't just about having enough staff. It's about having the right staff, properly screened, adequately trained, and operating within a clear governance framework. Providers who treat workforce compliance as a tick-box exercise risk serious regulatory consequences — including conditions on registration and, in severe cases, sanctions.
For providers already navigating the transition to the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, workforce obligations represent another layer of change that demands structured, proactive management.
Worker Screening: The New Baseline
Under the new Act, all workers in aged care must undergo mandatory screening through the Aged Care Worker Screening Database. This goes beyond traditional police checks — it's a nationally consistent framework designed to identify individuals who pose an unacceptable risk to older Australians.
Key requirements for providers include:
Ensuring all new workers are screened before commencing duties
Verifying screening status for existing workers within transition timeframes
Maintaining records of screening clearances and renewal dates
Establishing processes for managing adverse screening outcomes
Monitoring ongoing changes to worker screening status
The practical challenge for many providers is tracking screening status across a large, often casualised workforce — particularly those using agency staff. Manual spreadsheets and ad hoc processes simply won't scale. Providers need systematic approaches to screening management that integrate with broader workforce governance.
Code of Conduct: From Aspiration to Enforcement
The Aged Care Code of Conduct is now enforceable under the new Act, applying to both providers and individual workers. This is a significant shift from the previous framework where conduct expectations were largely embedded within quality standards rather than being independently enforceable.
The Code requires workers to:
Act with respect for people's rights to dignity, privacy and autonomy
Provide safe and competent care aligned with their training and scope
Act with integrity and transparency
Promptly report concerns about care quality or safety
Take reasonable steps to prevent and respond to all forms of abuse
For providers, the obligation extends to ensuring workers understand the Code, are trained in its application, and that systems exist to identify and respond to breaches. This links directly to your clinical governance framework — workforce conduct governance should be embedded within your broader clinical and corporate governance structures, not treated as a standalone HR function.
Mandatory Training and Qualification Requirements
The new Act and supporting regulations are progressively tightening expectations around worker qualifications and ongoing training. While minimum qualification requirements for personal care workers have been debated for years, the direction of travel is clear: providers need to demonstrate that their workforce is competent, current, and continuously developing.
Key areas where providers should focus include:
Mandatory dementia training for all care workers — not optional upskilling
Annual competency assessments for clinical and medication management tasks
Orientation programs that specifically address the Code of Conduct and Statement of Rights
Specialised training for restrictive practices, palliative care, and wound management
Documentation of training completion linked to individual worker records
The Commission has been clear that simply offering training isn't enough — providers need evidence that training translates into practice. This means competency-based assessment, regular observation, and feedback loops that connect training outcomes to care quality. Providers managing care minutes compliance should also ensure their workforce planning accounts for the skill mix required to deliver meaningful care within mandated timeframes.
Incident Reporting and Worker Obligations Under SIRS
The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) places specific obligations on workers — not just providers — to identify and report incidents. Under the new Act, these obligations are reinforced with stronger whistleblower protections and clearer escalation pathways.
Providers must ensure their workforce understands:
What constitutes a reportable incident under SIRS — including the expanded definitions
How to report internally and when direct reporting to the Commission is appropriate
Protections available to workers who report in good faith
The consequences of failing to report known or suspected incidents
A common audit finding is that workers know about SIRS but aren't confident in the practical mechanics of reporting. Providers should invest in scenario-based training rather than relying on policy documents alone. For a detailed breakdown of SIRS requirements and how to streamline your reporting processes, see our complete SIRS reporting guide.
Managing Workforce Compliance for Agency and Contracted Staff
One of the most overlooked areas of workforce compliance is the management of agency, locum, and contracted workers. Under the new Act, providers retain primary responsibility for ensuring all workers delivering care — regardless of employment arrangement — meet screening, training, and conduct requirements.
This creates a significant governance challenge. Providers need to:
Establish contractual requirements with agencies that mandate screening and training compliance
Verify screening status independently — not simply rely on agency assurances
Ensure agency workers complete site-specific orientation before commencing duties
Include agency workers in incident reporting and feedback processes
Maintain auditable records of all agency worker credentials and deployments
The Commission has indicated that reliance on agency staff without adequate oversight will be treated as a governance failure, not simply an operational challenge. Providers with high agency utilisation should treat this as a priority risk area within their governance framework.
Building a Workforce Compliance System That Scales
The cumulative weight of these obligations — screening, training, Code of Conduct, SIRS, agency management — creates a compliance burden that manual processes simply cannot sustain. Providers managing multiple sites or large workforces need systems that automate tracking, surface gaps proactively, and generate audit-ready evidence without creating additional administrative load.
An effective workforce compliance system should:
Centralise worker screening status with automated expiry alerts
Track mandatory training completion against regulatory requirements by role
Link workforce data to incident reporting and quality indicators
Provide real-time visibility of compliance gaps across sites
Generate evidence for audits without manual compilation
Technology plays a critical role here — not as a replacement for good management, but as the infrastructure that makes consistent compliance achievable at scale. Providers who have moved from reactive to continuous compliance approaches consistently report better audit outcomes and lower workforce-related incident rates.
Practical Steps to Take Right Now
If you're a provider looking to strengthen your workforce compliance posture ahead of upcoming audits and enforcement activity, here's where to start:
Conduct a workforce compliance gap analysis — map your current state against new Act requirements
Audit worker screening records — identify any gaps, expired clearances, or unscreened workers
Review your Code of Conduct training — ensure it's practical, scenario-based, and documented
Assess agency worker oversight — verify that your contracts and processes meet the new standard
Evaluate your record-keeping systems — can you produce audit evidence within hours, not weeks?
Connect workforce compliance to your broader governance and quality improvement frameworks
The providers who will navigate this transition successfully are those treating workforce compliance not as an isolated HR task, but as a core pillar of their quality and safety governance. The regulatory environment is only going to get more demanding — building the right foundations now will pay dividends for years to come.
Written by
James Driscoll
Writer
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