Navigating the new horizon: Australia’s first cross-setting quality framework
Published on 9 July 2026
For aged care leaders, navigating the boundary between healthcare and aged care has long been a source of operational and clinical frustration. But residents and clients don’t live their lives in silos; they transition constantly between GPs, hospitals, community services, and residential care. Yet, historically, aged care quality frameworks have forced us to measure care in isolation.
That siloed approach is about to change
Researchers at the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) Research Centre, based out of South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and Flinders University, have developed the National Framework for High Quality Person-Centred Care for Older People. Formally launched by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care (ACAC), this framework represents a fundamental shift: it’s designed to measure care as a whole, following the older person rather than the sector they happen to be interacting with.
What is changing?
Traditional monitoring tools look at broad population data or specific, isolated settings (like a single compliance audit in a residential facility). But this ignores the lived reality: older Australians experience care as a continuous journey.
The new framework bridges these gaps by anchoring quality monitoring to three overarching goals:
1. Promoting autonomy, independence, and wellbeing.
2. Nurturing person-centred care that respects individual preferences, cultural backgrounds, and the “dignity of risk.”
3. Improving integration across every single setting an older person accesses.
Instead of a rigid checklist of regulations, the framework acts as a practical guide for applying five core principles: care must be safe, effective, person-centred, accessible, and comprehensive.
Why this matters for aged care leaders
For executives and clinical managers, the most practical element of this launch is its integration into ACAC’s broader Quality Measurement Toolbox, which features an online bank of scientifically validated quality indicators.
The researchers have identified key priority areas that directly impact consumer experience and clinical outcomes:
- Physical function and quality of life.
- Cognitive health and mental wellbeing.
- Access to care and direct consumer experience.
By mapping these priorities to robust, evidence-based metrics, the framework offers providers a data-driven mirror. It allows organisations to look beyond standard compliance and see how effectively they’re integrating with external health providers to support a client’s total wellbeing.
A shared language for system reform
As the sector undergoes continuous regulatory reform, this framework arrives as a welcome stabilising tool. Craig Gear, CEO of the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN), notes that older people simply want to know if their care is safe, respectful, and responsive. This framework provides the sector with a shared evidence base to make sure reforms match that exact expectation.
For leaders, this is an opportunity to get ahead of the curve by aligning internal quality improvement programs with this cross-setting framework. Doing this can better track performance over time, identify true service gaps, and speak the same quality language as the hospitals and primary care networks providers collaborate with every day.