Micro scale aged care punches above its weight
Amy Henderson, Contributor
As the pace of aged care’s market consolidation intensifies, so too must the conversation of one size fitting all. Honeybee homes is a ‘tiny’ provider on NSW’s north coast that is bucking the trend. A 30-year wait list shows they’ve captured demand in a big way.
Latest News
Who will take care of older Australians if migration slows?
Australia’s aged care workforce already relies heavily on migrant workers, while demand for workers continues to grow. With migration settings under review, providers need to understand what changes to access for overseas workers could mean for staffing.
Why retirement village resident experience now must extend beyond the village
Retirement villages are evolving beyond lifestyle communities into key enablers of ageing in place. Through partnerships, resident feedback and early intervention, operators are helping older Australians navigate changing support needs while improving resident experience and long-term wellbeing.
Yvette Willison, Content Writer
The gap isn’t in the kitchen. It’s in the system around it.
As the numbers behind the 2026 Aged Care Kitchen Pulse Survey come into sharper focus, Lindsey O’Grady says the sector is facing something bigger than a staffing or budget problem: a structural one.
Jakob Neeland, Contributor
Solar initiatives shine on – sustainability in aged care shifts ESG strategy to operational resilience
As boardrooms ramp up discussions to meet rising aged care costs, providers are increasingly needing to adapt. Green initiatives, such as Mercy Health’s recently completed national solar project, are showing that ESG strategies can be key pivot points in securing operational resilience.
Amy Henderson, Contributor
Ageism in the workforce: the blind spot inside aged care
Aged care relies heavily on women, but older workers can still face assumptions about capability, adaptability and value. Advocate Beverly Baker argues providers need to look more closely at how ageism shapes their workforce and workplace culture.
Hayley Campbell, Content Writer
Contributors
Hayley Campbell - Content Writer
"Hayley Campbell is a mental health and healthcare copywriter who believes the best stories start with people."
Yvette Willison - Content Writer
"Yvette is an avid storyteller with a working knowledge base in the Allied Health, Disability and Aged Care sectors."
Atlas McNeil - National Clinical and Training Manager
"Lesley Barton is the National Clinical and Training Manager at Bunzl & Atlas McNeil Healthcare Community, with over 40 years of healthcare experience."
Rise Up Group - Senior Catering Operations Specialist
"Lindsey O’Grady is a chef and aged care hospitality specialist with 40 years’ experience."
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News
Aged care reforms haven’t fixed staffing, survey finds
Marion Piper, Contributor A union survey of 3,550 frontline workers finds understaffing, rising violence and unexplained funding gaps persisting under the Aged Care Act reforms – raising fresh governance questions about how providers are spending taxpayer funding.
Standardised failure: how the new NDIS bill sacrifices participants for budget repair
Marion Piper, Contributor As NDIS reforms repeat the design flaws of aged care’s algorithmic funding failures, Disability Discrimination Commissioner Rosemary Kayess warns that providers will bear the fallout of standardised models that sacrifice individual needs for budget repair.
Why KPMG’s whistleblower failure should concern every aged care provider
Marion Piper, Contributor Following KPMG’s high-profile whistleblower governance failure, Australian aged care directors face heightened scrutiny. Under the new Aged Care Act, leaders can be personally fined up to $165,000 for non-compliant reporting systems, even if the organisation itself escapes regulatory action.
Support at Home’s biggest test: Can government turn reform promises into real-world care access?
Lauren Liao, Contributor A survey of older Australians has highlighted growing frustration with Support at Home, revealing challenges around waiting times, complexity, provider availability and out-of-pocket costs.
Why aged care’s IAT human override could become the next bottleneck
Lauren Liao, Contributor OPAN’s CEO Craig Gear warns the IAT’s human override could recreate the bottleneck it’s meant to fix. With three changes in weeks and Minister Rae unable to confirm trigger criteria or timeframes, boards need to start managing the internal exposure themselves.
Navigating the new horizon: Australia’s first cross-setting quality framework
Lauren Liao, Contributor This new cross-setting framework gives aged care leaders an evidence-based blueprint to measure quality across the entire continuum of care, helping organisations bridge the gap between health services and residential settings to deliver truly integrated, person-centred outcomes.
The Arcare story is about yesterday. The bigger story is what’s next.
Lauren Liao, Contributor While the headlines have focused on allegations surrounding additional service fees via HELF, the more important question for boards and executives is whether the sector has fully understood what the new Aged Care Act is asking providers to become.
Topic
The $100,000 blindspot: Why flat maintenance budgets hide aged care capital risks
When aged care facilities run 24 hours a day, relying on flat budgets and old asset registers creates hidden financial risks. MDFM’s Head of Operations, Rohit Singh, explains why capital planning fails when data falls behind reality.
Quality of care through hospitality
Over the past four or five years, something has quietly changed in aged care dining rooms: the line between care and catering has blurred, and care-minute requirements are now sitting alongside that shift. This piece looks at what happens when funding categories meet the reality of the table — and why the parts of a mealtime that matter most are often the parts no metric was built to capture.
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