The reports will extend to home and community care services from July 2019 (having previously only been available for residential aged care consumers), says the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC).

Since 2017, over 1,780 CERs have been completed by residents and published – detailing how people experience the quality of care and services in residential facilities using a standardised set of questions on areas such as safety, staff and food.

The ACQSC is working with La Trobe University’s Australian Institute of Primary Care and Ageing to develop the CER survey questions for home and community care consumers – and the first phase of a pilot testing of the reports has already been completed.

A second test phase will begin this month and examine collection methodology using a combination of paper, telephone and online CER surveys.