Are strict compliance measures taking the soul out of aged care?

I have been employed in the aged care sector for over 31 years and have been a CEO for the last 25. I write this at a time of both excitement and trepidation.

The new Aged Care Act commencing on November 1 promises to place older people firmly at the centre the care model, a goal most of the sector wholeheartedly supports.

On paper, it represents a fundamental shift in philosophy. But as I reflect on three decades in the sector, I can’t help but wonder whether the guarantee of reform will truly reach the frontline, or whether the growing burden of compliance may overshadow the direct care staff delivers.

When I started as a care worker in a small rural facility, everything was done by hand – I vividly remember completing my first accreditation workbook handwritten on A3 paper!

Over time, the systems changed: PCAI, RCS, ACFI, and now AN-ACC, each introduced in a bid to make the allocation of federal funds both simpler and fairer. And yet, with each new system, staff have also seen an increase in paperwork, reporting, and red tape.

Has aged care improved over that time? Absolutely.

The 2004 Review of pricing arrangements in residential aged care led by W.P. Hogan described aged care as a “cottage industry.” The sector has come a long way since then. Facilities are better equipped, staff are better trained, and older Australians enjoy a standard of accommodation and services that would have been unimaginable 30 years ago. The sector has matured enormously, professionalised, diversified, and become far more accountable.

But there’s another side to this story.

Despite these advances, I worry that compliance has become the dominant narrative, and, possibly, at the expense of meaningful care and genuine human connection.

The pendulum has swung too far toward documentation and away from experience.

What about the staff journey?

The sector often talks about the “resident journey,” yet rarely about the staff journey.

Behind every form, audit and quality report, are people; nurses, care staff, lifestyle workers, volunteers, many of whom entered aged care to make a difference in someone’s day.

When these people are burdened with excessive paperwork, their capacity to engage, to observe, and to truly care diminishes.

Take the Quality Indicator Program, for example. It is designed to provide data-driven insights into resident outcomes, but the reality is that many staff spend hours gathering and entering this data.

Reform has added multiple layers of mandatory external reporting that can make the workforce feel “accountable” without necessarily making them better at their jobs.

This is not to dismiss the intent of reform. Accountability is vital. Transparency matters. Families have every right to know that their loved ones are safe and well cared for.

But the sector must also be honest enough to ask whether these systems serve the people they’re meant to protect, or whether, in the drive to prove compliance, have the processes created distance staff from the human moments that matter most.

As the sector prepares for the new Act, my hope is that it can achieve balance.

Let compliance be the guardrail, not the goal. Let documentation support staff, not suffocate them, and remember that the experience of an older person receiving care cannot be improved in isolation from the carers’.

After all, the true measure of success in aged care isn’t how many boxes are ticked, it’s how many lives are touched.

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Justin Dover is the Co-CEO of Alino Living - an independent retirement living and aged care provider on the New South Wales Central Coast.