Webinar 2: Designing better aged care environments

Redesigning Aged Care Amid Reform

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, concluding in 2021, laid bare systemic failures in Australia's aged care sector, including environments that exacerbated isolation, reduced independence, and contributed to poor outcomes for residents. In response, the government released the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines in July 2024, establishing four core principles: enabling independence, creating home-like and safe spaces, ensuring outdoor access, and fostering community connections.

These guidelines arrive as part of sweeping changes under the Aged Care Act 2024, which commenced on 1 November 2025 after a delay from an initial July start. The Act shifts the system to a rights-based framework, strengthening quality standards and provider accountability. While no mandatory single-room deadline exists yet, the principles push strongly towards private rooms with ensuites and smaller-scale living units over multi-occupancy wards, reflecting evidence that such designs improve wellbeing, reduce behavioural issues, and support dementia care.

Providers now confront real stakes. Refurbishing or building to these standards demands significant capital—often millions per facility—amid tight margins and workforce pressures. Smaller or regional operators risk falling behind, potentially facing compliance issues or closures, while larger ones may accelerate upgrades to attract residents and funding. The guidelines apply immediately to new developments and major refurbishments, amplifying urgency as the sector absorbs the new Act's requirements, including enhanced quality standards that implicitly demand better environments.

Non-obvious trade-offs emerge. Homelike designs can enhance resident satisfaction but increase operational complexity and costs for staffing and maintenance. Dementia-friendly features, such as intuitive wayfinding and sensory stimulation, clash sometimes with infection control priorities. Critics note that without sufficient targeted funding, the push for premium environments could drive up fees or reduce bed availability in lower-income areas, entrenching inequities in a system already strained by demand from an ageing population projected to double the over-85 cohort by 2040.