This submission informs the Office of the Inspector-General for Aged Care’s 2025 Progress Report on the Implementation of Aged Care Royal Commission Recommendations. It focuses on Royal Commission recommendations that relate directly to palliative care, in the areas of:

• Legislative and regulatory framework
• Care classifications and funding (in residential and home care)
• Access to health care, including:
  • Integrated health and aged care provision
  • Better alignment between Commonwealth and state/territory funded services
  • Alternatives to aged care for people under 65, including those who require palliative care
• Workforce training and education.

There have been welcome reforms in each of these areas. However, changes to date have not delivered tangible improvements in access to palliative care at the necessary scale.

Further work is required to bring about the system-wide improvement in access to quality palliative and end-of-life care that the Royal Commission envisaged.

PCA-Submission OIGAC Progress Report Aged Care Royal Commission Recommendations March 2025.pdf