Anchor Alert: Managing Worker Risk Policy

From Paper to Practice: Provider Must-Dos Under the New Worker Risk Policy

A skilled and well-supported workforce is not just a ‘nice to have,’ it is absolutely critical to delivering high-quality care and ensuring a positive experience for every older person in your service.

The Commission’s new focus reinforces a fundamental truth: You are the ultimate safety net and custodian of rights. As a Registered Provider, the ultimate responsibility for the safety, health, wellbeing, quality of life, and rights of the older people in your care rests squarely with you. This includes rigorously ensuring that all your aged care workers and responsible persons—or ‘workers’ as the policy defines them—are suitable and do not pose a risk to the people they care for.

Crucially, this accountability is non-delegable. Even if you subcontract your care services or rely on agency staff, you remain responsible and accountable for those services and the conduct of those workers.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, as the sector’s main regulator, is tasked with upholding and improving the safety and wellbeing of older people. Their goal is to build confidence and trust in the sector. Essentially, they are watching, and their strategy is built around ensuring you manage this core worker risk effectively.

Core Responsibilities and Accountability

Take Full Responsibility for Workers: Providers are responsible for the safety, health, wellbeing, and quality of life of older people, including making sure all aged care workers and responsible persons are suitable and do not pose a risk. This accountability holds even when you subcontract care and services or engage agency staff.

Meet All Statutory Obligations: Ensure you comply with all key obligations relating to worker risks under the Aged Care Act, including:

• ~ Making sure people are suitable to be involved in aged care.
• ~ Ensuring workers meet the Aged Care Code of Conduct (Code).
• ~ Meeting the Aged Care Quality Standards, especially those about workforce planning and management.
• ~ Managing incidents and complaints effectively.
• ~ Complying with whistleblower obligations to protect people who make disclosures.

Worker Screening and Suitability

Comply with Worker Screening Requirements: It is a condition of your registration that you comply with and ensure your workers and responsible persons comply with worker screening requirements set out in the Aged Care Rules 2025.

Check the Banning Order Register: You are expected to check the Commission’s banning order register.

Do Not Engage Unsuitable Persons: You cannot allow a person who does not meet the worker screening requirements to work in aged care.

Require Necessary Clearances: Ensure workers generally have either a police certificate or an NDIS Commission worker screening clearance.

Risk Management and Prevention

Establish Effective Systems and Processes: You must have good enough governance, systems, or processes for managing worker-related risks, specifically covering:

• ~ Workforce planning and strategy (e.g., rostering)

• ~ Worker recruitment and screening
• ~ Worker education, training, and support
• ~ Worker supervision
• ~ Worker performance management

Support and Train Workers: Where a worker makes a mistake, you must make sure you are supporting the worker to uphold rights and deliver safe, quality care, for example, by providing the right training.

Identify, Assess, and Manage Risk: You are expected to identify, assess, and manage worker-related risk.