Overcompliance to care-minute targets is endemic and driving smaller and not-for-profit aged care providers to the brink. It doesn’t have to be this way.
For the love of aged care, not-for-profit providers – please stop spending money you don’t have.
Failure of workforce management, not the AN-ACC funding model, is the key reason for the residential aged care crisis.
For smaller and NFP providers, aka “Little Aged Care”, overcompliance to care-minute targets is endemic. Yet every minute worked above target you are paying for out of your own pocket.
The table below shows care minute performance for 14 NFP providers in June 2025. This provides a concerning insight into NFP labour management.
Take Bolton Clarke. In June 2025, 38 of their facilities achieved total care minute compliance averaging 113% RN and 105% of their total care minute target.
This care minute overcompliance equals an annual estimated $11 million of labour expense above the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s recommended care provision.
Additionally, 27 facilities worked significantly above their RN care target even though they didn’t achieve total care compliance. This is costing an additional $4.6 million in labour expense.
Overcompliance is ubiquitous. Calvary spends an estimated $4.2 million on unfunded labour in its 41 RN complaint facilities.
Little Aged Care, it’s time to live within your means, tighten your labour belts and work to near 100% compliance for the future of aged care.
Related
Clinicians may argue that the AN-ACC care minute provision is inadequate for care, and this may be true. Yet, support services could argue the same about the hotelling supplement, or property about maximum RAD values.
Little Aged Care, to sustain 115% RN and 106% total care minutes requires a defunding of non-clinical labour and other expenses, yet this is hugely detrimental to the resident experience.
Or worse, the overcompliance is funded through debt, paid for by money that isn’t even yours.
Like oxygen on a plane, you must prioritise your financial health first so you can sustainably provide care to others.
The oversupply of labour may feel morally right yet it will be the residents who suffer if your business is in financial jeopardy.
Big Aged Care understands this. The first thing the for-profit providers do after an NFP acquisition is to reduce labour, often below standard.
Don’t go quietly into the night. The industry desperately needs Little Aged Care providers to be financially viable to sustain quality and diversity in care.
The worst-case scenario would be an industry dominated by only a handful of very large providers. Our residents deserve better than McDonald’s-style aged care.
Steve Hughes is a financial accountant and operational specialist with over 15 years of aged care experience. His stated purpose is to “democratise and promote financial resilience across Little Aged Care”. Contact him for a free Workforce Performance Assessment showing the excess labour and care minute supplement impact for your individual homes.
This article was first published on Mr Hughes’ LinkedIn feed. Read the original here.