Australia’s aged care sector is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. With the new Aged Care Act having taken effect on 1 November 2025, boards are being called to step up, not as distant overseers, but as active stewards of quality and safety.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made it clear: the sector’s failures were not just operational but were failures of governance. The new Act brings that reality home to every boardroom across the country.
The shift: aged care governance reimagined
The reforms emerging from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety have redefined what good governance looks like. The new Act strengthens expectations for transparency, consumer rights, and accountability at every level.
For boards, this means:
- A majority of independent, non-executive directors
- At least one member with clinical or care experience
- Oversight of quality care and consumer advisory bodies
- Active monitoring of provider duties, incidents, and complaints
- Regular publication of governance, quality, and financial data.
It’s a decisive move toward a governance model that places the consumer at the centre and holds boards directly responsible for embedding quality and safety in culture and strategy.
The expanding role of the board
Under the new Aged Care Act, the role of the board extends far beyond compliance. Directors must now lead transformational change, setting the tone for ethical conduct, transparency, and continuous improvement.
Key areas of focus include:
- Governance and strategy: Embedding quality and consumer rights into organisational purpose
- Risk oversight: Gaining visibility into operational, clinical, and reputational risks
- Accountability: Ensuring systems meet reporting and assurance obligations
- Culture: Fostering openness, learning, and psychological safety across the organisation.
Boards that succeed will treat these not as regulatory hurdles, but as opportunities to strengthen trust, quality, and long-term resilience.
The new reality: accountability and opportunity
The reforms bring greater legal exposure for directors: ignorance or passive oversight is no longer a defence. But they also open the door for boards to elevate their impact.
Boards that invest in stronger governance frameworks and data-driven oversight will:
- Make better, faster decisions with real-time risk intelligence
- Build public confidence through transparent accountability
- Drive cultural change and staff engagement
- Protect both consumers and reputation.
In short, good governance is good care.
The stakes: consequences of inaction
The consequences of not getting governance right are serious and personal.
Under the new framework, boards can no longer claim ignorance or rely solely on management reports. Directors who fail to exercise due diligence face regulatory enforcement, reputational damage, and in extreme cases, loss of licence to operate.
Failing an audit or breaching provider obligations can trigger sanctions, funding suspensions, or enforceable undertakings. Beyond the paperwork, the greater loss is trust from consumers, families, and staff.
Weak governance can put both your organisation’s licence and its mission at risk.
Challenges boards face
Many boards still struggle with:
- Fragmented systems for risk, compliance, and incidents
- Limited visibility of operational issues
- Insufficient reporting or reliance on management summaries
- Lack of clinical or regulatory expertise on the board
- Reactive governance rather than strategic leadership
Bridging these gaps requires better information, clear escalation pathways, and systems that connect governance with day-to-day operations.
From the boardroom to the frontline: Who owns governance?
For many aged care providers, ‘governance’ still lives at the board table or in policy documents. But for compliance and care outcomes to improve, it needs a home inside the organisation particularly within quality and risk teams.
Boards must ensure clear accountability for how governance translates into daily practice:
- Who owns risk and quality systems?
- How are incidents escalated and lessons acted upon?
- Are staff empowered to report and resolve issues?
When governance becomes everyone’s business, from directors to carers, the system moves from compliance-driven to care-driven.
Governance that puts consumers first
Governance can sound dry. But at its core, it’s about people: ensuring every resident is safe, respected, and receiving the quality of care they deserve.
Every audit passed, every incident prevented, every improvement implemented begins with a board decision to make quality and risk a shared priority.
Strong governance is the foundation that enables compassionate care. It connects policy with purpose - turning mission statements into measurable outcomes.
Here are practical steps to prepare for the new governance landscape:
- Integrate your data: unify risk, compliance, and incident reporting for a holistic view.
- Train and upskill directors and executives on the Aged Care Act and Quality Standards.
- Strengthen assurance with internal audits, peer reviews, and independent oversight.
- Review board composition to ensure diversity, independence, and clinical insight.
- Foster transparency create open channels for feedback and whistleblowing.
- Monitor culture measure behaviours, not just policies.
Technology as an enabler
Modern governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platforms like Protecht are transforming how boards oversee aged care organisations.
Instead of static reports, boards can now access real-time dashboards that connect risk, incidents, controls, and compliance. This integrated view gives directors confidence that governance isn’t just documented, it’s lived.
With tools built specifically for aged care, boards can see the full picture: where risks are emerging, how controls are performing, and where to focus improvement efforts.
Conclusions and next steps for your organisation
As Australia’s aged care sector enters this new era, the most effective organisations will be those whose boards lead from the front, not only meeting the requirements of the new Act, but modelling the culture it seeks to create.
Boards that prioritise transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement won’t just comply: they’ll build trusted, sustainable care organisations.
Now is the time for boards to ask: Are we ready to lead the change?
Interested in learning more? Explore how Protecht supports governance and risk management in aged care.
Our Aged Care Bundle helps providers meet the Aged Care Act 2024 with pre-built registers, workflows, and reports aligned to the Aged Care Quality Standards and SIRS, enabling faster implementation, stronger governance, and audit-ready evidence for safer, customer-centred care.
Speak to our Aged Care specialists today to learn more: https://www.protechtgroup.com/en-au/contact.