Education & Training

IDDSI standardised texture-modified food and thickened fluids across aged care, changing how risk is described. But safety language alone hasn’t fixed rosters, training or communication pathways – and Standard 6 now demands the operating model catch up.

Aged care providers ask where the money will come from before asking whether their kitchen system is already wasting it. Poor design costs more than budgets do – through waste, rework, complaints and burnt-out chefs carrying risk no one else sees.

A CEO’s line – aged care can survive, but not run like it’s 1985 – sent Lindsay O’Grady back to 1986: the year he started as a chef. Forty years on, the kitchen has changed. But has the model around it changed enough?

RFBI has spent four years and significant capital building housing for 285 overseas nurses and carers. The program’s entire foundation rests on one federal mechanism. This raises questions about policy risk, sourcing ethics, and board-level contingency planning that other providers haven’t yet answered.

Registered nurse Jo Russell spent a decade trapped in a cycle of care burnout. Her experience highlights the trap that many high-performing workers face – and why it’s costing providers.

Aged Care Week 2026 brought sector leaders to Sydney to confront governance, AI, recruitment and rights-based care head-on. Across three days, a clear theme emerged: providers leaning into honest, on-the-ground lessons to shape a more sustainable future.

As regulatory environments evolve and pressure, accessible and full training is a must-have in meeting workforce pain points.

With registered nurse supply a structural problem and care minutes accountability locked in, Lutheran Services’ Transition to Practice Program offers a replicable model for providers tired of losing ground to the external recruitment market.

Concussion diagnosis breakthrough could mean significant efficiencies in residential aged care response and improved care response channels.

Collecting data is no longer enough, interpreting is consistently is meeting compliance with confidence.