Featured articles from our Aged Care Today magazine authored by our Ageing Australia team and specialists within the aged care sector.
Federal reform is now moving from policy design to practical delivery, and success will depend on whether the settings are workable on the ground. What’s in it for providers is greater funding support, stronger recognition of viability pressures, and the opportunity to operate in a more coordinated and sustainable system – provided implementation matches the ambition of the reform.
Australia’s aged care sector has moved into a new phase of federal reform: one less defined by policy announcement and more by implementation. The core legislative and policy architecture is now better established, but the real test is whether reform settings translate into a system that is workable for providers, sustainable over time and genuinely person-centred for older Australians.
From the sector’s perspective, the federal picture is broad. It includes the continuing transition to the new Aged Care Act, the rollout of Support at Home, budget measures affecting residential care capacity and provider viability, the future of CHSP, and related policy settings that shape housing, workforce and services for older people. These are not isolated reforms. Together, they are reshaping how care is funded, delivered and experienced.
One of the biggest national shifts is the move to Support at Home. The program has replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme, while CHSP remains on a later transition pathway. This staged introduction has helped avoid a more abrupt change, but it has also prolonged uncertainty for providers that are trying to manage workforce planning, pricing, service design and client communication at the same time. The question for the sector is no longer whether in-home reform is necessary. It is whether implementation settings will support independence for older people without creating unmanageable complexity for providers.
That is why operational issues such as assessment, participant contributions, pricing transparency, assistive technology and home modifications have become so important. They are not administrative details on the edge of reform; they sit at the centre of whether the model works. If these settings are poorly calibrated, the system risks undermining the very outcomes it is meant to support – early intervention, ageing in place and a more person-centred aged care system.
The federal budget framework is equally significant. The 2026–27 Budget signalled that the Commonwealth understands the scale of demand facing the sector, with measures spanning additional aged care beds, more Support at Home packages, personal care support and funding aimed at quality, safety and provider viability. That investment is welcome, particularly as providers continue to face rising operating costs, workforce shortages and growing service complexity. But the sector also knows that funding announcements, on their own, do not resolve structural pressure. Lasting impact depends on how those measures are designed, sequenced and translated into workable delivery settings.
Residential aged care remains central to this conversation. While there is strong policy emphasis on supporting older people to remain at home for longer, demand for residential care has not disappeared. Providers need confidence that capital, accommodation and operating settings will support future capacity, particularly in thin markets and communities where service continuity is already under pressure. Reform must strengthen the full continuum of care, not simply shift pressure from one part of the system to another.
The same is true of retirement living, seniors housing and veterans’ supports. These may sit in different portfolios or policy conversations, but they intersect in the lived experience of older Australians. Federal policy works best when it recognises that ageing does not happen in program silos. Housing choice, community supports, trauma-informed care, allied health access and continuity across service settings all shape outcomes for older people and for the providers supporting them.
The federal reform agenda is therefore at a decisive point. The next chapter is not about whether change is needed; the sector accepts that it is. The challenge now is to ensure legislation, regulation, funding and implementation move together in a way that reduces friction, supports provider sustainability and delivers better outcomes for older Australians.
For the aged care sector, the priority is clear: keep reform practical, keep it coordinated and keep it anchored to what older people, providers and communities need in the real world.
| Federal reform is now in its delivery phase, and government is signalling that providers are central to making the system work. The expectation is that providers adapt to the new legislative and funding settings, but the accompanying message is that reform also needs to be practical, properly funded and sustainable if providers are going to deliver better outcomes.
What’s in it for providers:
There is a real opportunity here – more funded demand, more support for residential investment, and a stronger policy case for sustainable care but only if the implementation settings work on the ground. |
Ageing Australia
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Australia’s leading aged services magazine distributed quarterly featuring informative articles from service providers, suppliers, innovators and thought leaders across aged the aged care sector.
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