Over the next three years, all residential aged care homes will be assessed against the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. If your service hasn't been audited yet under the new framework, now is the time to prepare.

Understand what's being assessed

The Commission audits providers against the outcomes within each Standard. Each outcome describes what providers need to demonstrate — not just that policies exist, but that they are implemented, monitored, and leading to good outcomes for the people receiving care.

The Standards that apply to your service depend on your registration category. Make sure you know which Standards you'll be assessed against and review every outcome within them.

Review your conformance

Go through each outcome and honestly assess where you stand. Where are you confident you can demonstrate conformance? Where are there gaps? Are your policies and procedures current and aligned with the new Standards? Is your evidence up to date?

In Coverage, you can record a conformance rating against each outcome. This is the foundation of your audit preparation — it forces a structured review of every area.

Organise your evidence

Evidence is anything that supports your claim of conformance: policies, meeting minutes, training records, feedback logs, incident reports, care plans, audit findings, and more. Make sure your evidence is clearly named, linked to the correct Standard and outcome, and current.

This will be crucial when it comes to collecting data for your AECT and CDECT evidence.

Make sure documents you've uploaded meet the currency requirement for each document. This information is displayed in the collection tools.

Generate your audit package

Coverage lets you generate a complete audit package with a single click. This bundles your conformance ratings, evidence, and supporting documentation into a structured format aligned with the Standards. Use it as a dry run — generate the package, review it with your leadership team, and identify anything that needs attention before the real audit.

Brief your team

Auditors will speak with staff, not just leadership. Make sure your team understands the Standards, knows where to find relevant policies and procedures, and can explain how their day-to-day work connects to the outcomes being assessed.