Providers, services and places in aged care

Overview

The Australian Government provides funding for approved aged care service providers. An aged care provider (or organisation) manages an aged care service. A provider may operate a number of different services, sometimes across different aged care programs.

A service can be a facility that provides aged care (such as home care or residential care). A service can also be an outlet that provides home support.

Residential and flexible care services are allocated a set number of government-funded places (or beds). At 30 June 2024, there were 223,691 operational places allocated to residential care services, with an occupancy rate of 88% through 2023–24 (Department of Health and Aged Care 2024). Home support outlets and home care services are not allocated a set number of government-funded places.

For more information on managing supply and demand of aged care places, see Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act and Stocktake of Australian Government Subsidised Aged Care Places.

At 30 June 2024 (or during the 2023–24 financial year for home support):

• 1,265 providers were providing home support through 3,652 outlets
• 909 providers were delivering home care through 2,364 services
• 736 providers were delivering residential care through 2,617 services.

 

Table 1: Number of aged care providers, services and places by care type, 30 June 2024

Care type	Providers	Services	Places
Home support	1,265	3,652*	N.A
Home care	909	2,364	N.A
Residential care	736	2,617	223,691
Transition care and short-term restorative care	71	198	6,829
Other flexible care	70	235	5,457

*Number of home support outlets.
Notes:
1. The data for 'Home support' have been measured over 2023–24 financial year.
2. Estimates presented here have been calculated without reference to aged care services claims data.
3. 'Other flexible care' includes Multi-Purpose Services Program, Innovative Care Programme, and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program. Providers operating more than one type of flexible care service (or operating both transition care and short-term restorative care services) are counted only once in each cell.
4. Due to differences in methods, counts on provider may differ slightly to those extracted from the stocktake data. This difference in provider counts has not affected service or place counts.

Source: National Aged Care Data Clearinghouse.

Location of aged care services

The map below shows the location of active aged care services in Australia during the reporting period:

• home support outlets during the 2023–24 financial year
• services for other care types as at 30 June 2024.

Each dot represents an aged care service, and the colour reflects the type of care it offers (see 'Types of aged care available in Australia' above).

Location is based on the physical location of the service, facility or outlet. For home support and home care, as a service can deliver care some distance away from its physical location, the location of the service marked on the map can be different to the location where care is received.

Overall:

• Home support outlets and services providing home care, residential care, transition care and short-term restorative care were concentrated in more densely populated urban areas.
• Services providing other flexible care were more frequently located outside of densely populated urban areas.

 

Figure 1: Location of aged care services by care type, 30 June 2024

Aged care services by remoteness areas

The availability of aged care services varies by remoteness areas and care type, with most aged care services located in metropolitan areas.

Most older people live in metropolitan areas. At 30 June 2024, 66% of the older Australians (people aged 65 and over) lived in Metropolitan areas (MM 1), 9.5% lived in Regional centres (MM 2), 23% lived in Rural towns (MM 3–5) and only 1.5% lived in Remote or Very remote communities (MM 6–7). For more information on people using aged care by remoteness area, see People using aged care.

In this section, remoteness areas are based on the physical location of the service, facility or outlet, so home support outlets and home care services can deliver care some distance away from their physical location.

At 30 June 2024 (or during the 2023–24 financial year for home support), where the data on remoteness areas are known:

• more than half (55%) of home support outlets were located in Metropolitan areas (MM 1), compared with 1 in 3 (34%) that were located in Rural towns, Remote or Very remote communities (MM 3–7)
• more than 3 in 5 home care (63%), residential care (63%), and transition care and short-term restorative care (61%) services were located in Metropolitan areas (MM 1), compared with 28%, 29% and 25% that were located in Rural towns, Remote or Very remote communities (MM 3–7), respectively
• over 2 in 5 (44%) other flexible care services, which includes the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care (NATSIFAC) Program, were located in Remote and Very remote communities (MM 6–7), compared with just 4.7% that were located in Metropolitan areas (MM 1).

 

Figure 2: Aged care services by care type and remoteness areas, 30 June 2024

Management of aged care services

The Australian Government provides most of the funding for aged care services but they may be operated by government (state and territory or local), not-for-profit (religious, charitable and community), or private organisations.

At 30 June 2024 (or during the 2023–24 financial year for home support), where the data on organisation type are known:

• not-for-profit organisations operated the majority of aged care services across Australia – 73% of home support outlets, 65% of home care services and 57% of residential care services
• private organisations operated the second highest number of home care (29%) and residential care (35%) services, but only 9.2% of home support outlets
• government organisations operated the fewest number of home care (6.3%) and residential care (8.0%) services, but almost one-fifth of home support outlets (18%)
• across states and territories, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (89% each) had the highest proportion of not-for-profit residential care services. Victoria had the highest proportion of private and government residential care services (41% and 20%, respectively).

 

Figure 3: Aged care services by care type, organisation type and states and territories, 30 June 2024

Providers, services and places over time

A number of aged care reforms and changes were implemented between 2015 and 2017. This includes introduction of the Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) Programme, rollout and expansion of the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), and changes to the Home Care Packages (HCP) Program.

To improve comparability, we only report trend data between 30 June 2017 and 2024 (or between 2016–17 and 2023–24 for home support), accordingly all aged care data could be compared for a same period.

The number of aged care providers and services can change over time due to demand, funding and other market forces. The number of aged care places, however, are decided by the Australian Government. Residential and flexible care services are allocated a set number of government-funded places. The Australian Government manages the supply of aged care places by specifying a national target provision ratio of subsidised aged care places based on the population aged 70 and over. This approach aims to grow the supply of aged care places in proportion to the growth in the older population. Home support outlets and home care services are not allocated a set number of government-funded places.

Between 30 June 2017 and 2024 (or between 2016–17 and 2023–24 for home support):

• the number of providers for home care, transition care and short-term restorative care, and other flexible care increased by 29%, 78% and 17% respectively; while the number of providers for home support and residential care decreased by 17% and 18%, respectively
• the number of home support outlets, transition care and short-term restorative care services, and other flexible care services increased by 7.7%, 51% and 6.8% respectively, whereas the number of home care and residential care services remained relatively stable
• the total number of places for residential care, transition care and short-term restorative care and other flexible care places all increased. The biggest increase in places was for transition care and short-term restorative care (55%), followed by other flexible care (21%) and residential care (11%).

 

Figure 4: Aged care providers, services and places by care type, 2017–2024

Management and provision of aged care over time

The number of residential and flexible care places in aged care services operated by not-for-profit, government and private organisations have changed over time, and varied across states and territories. The Australian Government manages the supply of aged care places by specifying a national target provision ratio of subsidised aged care places based on the population aged 70 and over. States and territories with more older people have more aged care places available.

Between 30 June 2017 and 2024:

• the number of places in private and not-for-profit residential care services increased by 14% (79,800 to 90,700) and 12% (112,000 to 125,000), respectively. However, the number of places per capita, based on the population aged 70 and over, declined over the same period – from 31 to 27 per 1,000 in private services and from 43 to 38 per 1,000 in not-for-profit services
• for government residential care services, both the number of places and the number of places per capita decreased – from 8,800 to 7,700 places (a 12% decline) and from 3.4 to 2.3 places per 1,000 people aged 70 and over, respectively
• the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care (NATSIFAC) Program is a prominent part of aged care service provision in Northern Territory. The number of NATSIFAC places in Northern Territory more than doubled – from 350 to 745 places. The number of places per capita increased for not-for-profit and government services – from 27 to 43 per 1,000 people aged 70 and over for not-for-profit services and from 7.8 to 10 per 1,000 for government services.

 

Figure 5: Aged care places by care type, organisation type and states and territories, 2017–2024

Size of residential care services over time

The size of residential care services has changed over time. There are fewer small services (with 60 or fewer operational places) and more large services (with 101 or more operational places). Private residential care services are more commonly large services, while government and not-for-profit services tend to be small.

At 30 June 2024:

• overall, 35% of residential care services were large services, 33% were medium-sized services (61-100 operational places) and 32% were small services
• almost 9 in 10 (88%) government residential care services and 34% of not-for-profit services were small services, compared with 16% of private services.

Between 30 June 2017 and 2024, as a share of all residential care services:

• the number of small services decreased by 29% overall – the biggest decline was for not-for-profit services and private services (32% decline each), and the decline for government services was 15%
• the number of medium-sized services increased by 14% for not-for-profit services, but decreased for government and private services by 6.3% and 3.0%, respectively
• the number of large services increased by 34% – the biggest increase was for not-for-profit services (37% increase), followed by private services (32% increase), while the number of government services remained stable.

 

Figure 6: Size of residential care services by organisation type, 2017–2024

COVID-19 and aged care services

During 2023–24, there continued to be a real and ongoing impact of COVID-19 in residential aged care. Most residential aged care services experienced a COVID-19 outbreak during 2023–24 – 2,238 facilities experienced one or more outbreaks (Department of Health and Aged Care 2024).

The Australian Government continues to support the aged care sector to respond to the COVID-19 outbreaks. The supports during 2023–24 include introduction of the Aged Care Outbreak Management Support Supplement for the purchase of rapid antigen tests (RAT), personal protective equipment (PPE) and additional workforce if required; access to PPE from the National Medical Stockpile (NMS) when commercial supplies are unavailable or insufficient; access to surge workforce through contracted providers and COVID-19 antiviral medications through community pharmacy; pre-deployment of PPE summer and winter packs ahead of COVID-19 peak periods/waves; and weekly supply of RAT kits for screening staff and visitors prior to an outbreak and to increase daily testing during an outbreak.

For further information on aged care services and the COVID-19 pandemic, see the Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act and the COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian residential aged care facilities weekly report.

 

Reference

Department of Health and Aged Care (2024) 2023–24 Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act 1997, Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Government, accessed 15 January 2025.

 

Where can I find out more?

Related information can be found on other GEN topic pages:

• People using aged care
• Spending on care

For a list of residential care, home care and flexible care services, view the Aged care service list.

For a confidentialised unit record file (CURF) on this topic, view the GEN data: Providers, services and places in aged care.

For more information about providers, services and places in aged care, view the Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act.