The proof is on shift: why workforce has become the new compliance engine

The first 120 days of the new Aged Care Act have made one thing unmistakably clear. Compliance no longer starts at head office – it starts on shift. 

The new Aged Care Act is now in force – and its first 120 days have shifted the sector decisively from promise to proof. 

Rights-based obligations, strengthened Quality Standards, registration renewal and new transparency requirements have not simply lifted governance expectations. They have collapsed the distance between boardroom and bedside. 

Providers are no longer judged on good intentions. They are judged on what can be delivered, documented and demonstrated at service level, day in and day out. 

That shift was the focus of DCM Group’s recent webinar, ‘The first 120 days of the new Aged Care Act’, which brought together a frontline panel to unpack where pressure is already emerging, what leaders are learning fast, and what needs to be in place next. 

The panel, moderated by DCM Group CEO Chris Baynes, featured: 

• Lahn Straney, Chief Scientific Officer at Health Metrics (pictured top) 
• Cynthia Payne, Founder of Anchor Excellence 
• Michael Wild, Chief Operating Officer at Southern Cross Care Queensland 
• Lana Richards, Chief Quality Officer at Catholic Healthcare 

For Michael, the shift has been immediate and practical. 

“The compliance responsibility is going to be much more at that frontline service level,” he said. 

Care minutes, 24/7 RN coverage, incident reporting, feedback management and consumer rights all depend on a workforce that can both provide care and evidence what occurred. Productivity – not simply recruitment – now sits at the heart of sustainable compliance. 

Documentation is no longer separate from care 

For years, staff have described documentation as something that happens after care. The first 120 days suggest that era is over. 

Health Metrics Chief Scientific Officer Lahn Straney says providers are increasingly being judged not only on what they do, but on what they can evidence. 

“That shift is happening at a time when many frontline staff already feel overwhelmed by the amount of documentation required.” 

The issue is not the idea of documentation – it is the duplication that sits inside fragmented systems. When reporting is disconnected from workflow, fatigue builds. When documentation is embedded in daily activity, it becomes protection rather than burden. 

Catholic Healthcare Chief Quality Officer Lana Richards has spent the past two years deliberately dismantling processes that add administration without improving outcomes. 

“We dubbed it ‘returning time to care’,” she explains. “Our frontline teams love their jobs. But the work was becoming more and more bureaucratic and administrative.” 

Her team’s approach has been to delegate decision-making closer to the resident, trusting frontline staff to act within clear guardrails. 

“Freedom in a framework,” she said. “We trust you. We’ve got your back. But people need to feel that in reality.” 

That shift matters because documentation without psychological safety can  become defensive. With it, reporting becomes intelligence. 

Michael says building that environment has been essential. 

“We’ve encouraged a psychologically safe environment. No recriminations. It’s about learning and improving.” 

In a rights-based regime, incidents, near-misses and escalating risk must emerge early. The panel stressed that a workforce that feels safe to report is a workforce that protects residents and the organisation. 

Culture is now a risk control 

The first 120 days have also highlighted how deeply behavioural the new framework is. Consent, dignity of risk and family dynamics are no longer side issues. They sit at the centre of daily care interactions. 

Anchor Excellence founder Cynthia Payne argues that the real test of compliance lies beneath the formal systems. 

“Rubbish data in, rubbish data out,” she warned. “If we’re not picking up the connection to the lived experience – rights-based care, trauma-aware practice – we’re still in an old mindset.” 

For Cynthia, the “middle layer” of organisations – regional managers, quality leads and supervisors – is critical. This is where that legislative intent either translates into behaviour or stalls in paperwork. If this layer is weak, documentation may exist, but assurance will be low. 

Boards are already sensing this shift. As Cynthia notes, directors are asking sharper questions about whether reports genuinely reflect what is happening in rooms and corridors. 

“We don’t want the Commission to have to do it for us,” she said. “Boards need to connect the dots around risk profiling.” 

Regional realities 

The workforce challenge is not evenly distributed. In rural and remote communities, providers often operate the only service in town. Demand may exceed supply, and acuity can rise faster than workforce capability. 

“There’s a real responsibility on providers,” Michael stated. “Sometimes we have to make hard decisions around the capacity and capability of the workforce to manage care needs.” 

In those environments, recruitment alone cannot solve the equation. Capability, supervision and smarter workflow design become critical. 

Digital literacy forms part of that capability stack. As Lahn notes, regulatory scrutiny is increasingly data-driven, and accuracy matters. 

“If we want the benefits of AI and deeper analysis, we actually need some level of data standardisation,” he said. “Without clean, consistent data, it becomes very difficult to use it in any meaningful way to answer the questions we care about.” 

The implication is clear. Providers still relying on paper-based or disconnected systems will struggle to meet the expectations of the Act for evidence. 

Health Metrics eCase: Turning documentation into evidence

Health Metrics’ Australian-built eCase platform integrates care planning, incidents, compliance reporting and staffing oversight.

By embedding documentation directly into daily practice, data duplication is reduced while strengthening audit trails and governance visibility – shifting compliance from after-the-fact reporting to real-time evidence. 

Workforce as operating engine 

The lesson emerging from the first 120 days is not that staff must work harder – it is that organisations must work smarter. 

When care planning, incident capture, escalation and closure are integrated into one workflow, documentation becomes real-time evidence rather than past reflections. When dashboards reflect live activity rather than static reports, governance becomes insight rather than reassurance. 

Lahn stresses that systems should support getting the documentation in more easily and then ensure that the data works harder for providers. 

The final message? 

The Act has not created the workforce challenge – but it has exposed it. 

Providers who redesign workflow, invest in capability and embed documentation within daily care now will turn compliance into a competitive advantage. Those still relying on manual systems and goodwill will feel the pressure increase. 

The first 120 days have made one thing clear: workforce is no longer a cost centre. It is the operating engine of care – and now of compliance.