Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards: a workforce checklist

The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards took effect on 1 November 2025, alongside the Aged Care Act 2024. For most providers the biggest practical question is simple: what does a reviewer expect to see about your workforce? The answer sits under Standard 2, The Organisation, not Standard 7. This guide is a working checklist of the workforce evidence to keep current.

Standard 2 frames a provider's governance systems and workforce as central to delivering safe, quality, person-centred care. Two outcomes carry most of the workforce weight: Outcome 2.8 (workforce planning) and Outcome 2.9 (human resource management). The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission publishes guidance for each.

Where the workforce sits: Standard 2, not Standard 7

It is worth stating plainly because it is a common misread. Standard 7 covers the residential community. Your workforce obligations live in Standard 2, The Organisation. When a reviewer assesses how you recruit, screen, train and support workers, they are looking at Standard 2 evidence.

Within Standard 2:

• Outcome 2.8, Workforce planning: you are expected to have a workforce strategy that makes sure you have enough, suitably qualified workers with the right mix of skills to deliver safe and quality care. See the Commission's workforce planning guidance.
• Outcome 2.9, Human resource management: you are expected to recruit, screen and manage qualified and competent workers, with a pre-employment validation process and training based on contemporary, evidence-based practice. See the human resource management guidance.

Worker screening: get the two options right

Screening is the hard gate. From 1 November 2025 there are two screening options for people working in Aged Care, and only two:

• a police certificate that is not older than 3 years and does not record certain offences, or
• a current NDIS Worker Screening Clearance.

If you hold a valid NDIS Worker Screening Clearance you do not also need a police certificate; the clearance is recognised in Aged Care. An NDIS Worker Screening Clearance is valid for 5 years. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing sets this out in its screening requirements for the Aged Care workforce.

A few points reviewers will probe:

• Scope of who is covered. The screening requirements reach beyond your direct employees to subcontractors, workers from associated providers and platform-sourced staff. If a person does not meet the requirement, you cannot let them work in Aged Care.
• Registration is not screening. AHPRA registration confirms a nurse or allied health practitioner is registered to practise. It is never a substitute for worker screening. A registered nurse still needs a police certificate under 3 years old or an NDIS Worker Screening Clearance.
• Future changes are coming. The planned approach is to expand the NDIS worker screening model into Aged Care, rolled out in stages. The Department has indicated this will not start before mid-2026, so the two-option rule above is what applies today. We track this in our guide to the future Aged Care worker register.

For the detail of acceptable evidence and edge cases, see our Aged Care worker screening requirements guide and the glossary entry on the NDIS Worker Screening Check.

Qualifications and competency

Outcome 2.9 expects workers who are skilled and competent in their roles, who hold relevant qualifications, and who have experience appropriate to the care they deliver. Practical checklist items:

• A pre-employment validation process that confirms the qualifications, skills and experience an applicant claims are accurate. This is about checking what you have been told, not taking it on face value.
• Records of relevant qualifications for each role, for example a Certificate III or IV where the role calls for it. Our comparison of the Certificate III versus IV in Aged Care explains where each fits.
• For registered health practitioners, an AHPRA registration check confirming current registration and any conditions. AHPRA is one of the few sources you can verify directly at source via the public register, separate from screening.

Competency is broader than a piece of paper. The standards expect you to identify the skills each role needs, map training to those skills, and check that workers can actually perform the role, not just that they completed a course.

Training and supervision

Under Outcome 2.9 you must provide workers with training and supervision so they can effectively perform their roles. The Commission expects training to be based on contemporary, evidence-based practice and matched to your scope of services and the diversity of the people you support.

Checklist items reviewers commonly look for:

• A training needs analysis that lists the skills each role requires and the training that builds them.
• Records of competency-based training on core matters such as the Code of Conduct, the Serious Incident Response Scheme, person-centred and culturally safe care, dementia care and emergency response.
• Current first aid and CPR where the role requires it. See first aid and CPR requirements for care workers.
• Evidence of supervision appropriate to the worker's role and experience.

Our guide to Aged Care mandatory training breaks down the recurring requirements and renewal cadence.

A sufficient and capable workforce

Outcome 2.8 is about having enough of the right people. You are expected to have a workforce strategy that identifies the number and mix of skilled workers you need to meet people's needs and your legislative obligations, and to roster in a way that delivers safe, quality care. Rostering should be informed by that workforce strategy.

For audit purposes this means being able to show:

• a documented workforce strategy linking the care you deliver to the skills and numbers you need,
• rostering that reflects that strategy rather than ad hoc gap-filling, and
• how you monitor workforce performance, including evaluations, feedback and ongoing training.

Pulling the evidence together

Because compliance under the standards reflects your current state when a report is run, not a reconstructed history, the practical task is keeping every worker's screening, qualifications and training current and ready to show on the day. A scattered spreadsheet makes that hard. Our Aged Care audit readiness for workforce records guide and the provider screening checklist walk through how to organise it.

You can also pressure-test individual roles with the screening by role tool and keep an eye on expiries with the credential renewal tracker.

How Koora fits

Koora gives each worker a Career Passport: a portable, reviewed set of credentials with ongoing compliance monitoring. For providers, that means a worker's screening, qualifications and training arrive in one place, with AHPRA registration and state checks verified at source where a register supports it, and police checks, qualifications and training reviewed against the document supplied. NDIS clearance source-verification is on our roadmap.

Koora pre-clears workers so you start from a clearer picture, but the legal duty to sight evidence and decide who works in your service stays with you. Compliance status shows where things stand when a report is run, mapped to the workforce evidence Standard 2 expects. Koora connects to your rostering and HR systems via API and webhooks, with direct integrations built on demand, so workforce records do not have to live in a separate silo.