NDIS & Aged Care: What's Changing in 2026

A year of regulatory transformation

If 2025 was the year of transition — the new Aged Care Act 2024 took effect in November, the NDIS Review recommendations began landing — 2026 is the year the new compliance regime gets teeth. By the end of this year, both Australian aged care and the NDIS will look meaningfully different to families, workers, and providers operating in either scheme.

This post is a calendar-by-calendar walkthrough of what's changing, what to do about it, and where the biggest risks (and opportunities) sit for each audience.

The 2026 regulatory calendar

January – April 2026: bedding down the new Aged Care Act

The first quarter of 2026 has been about translating the November 2025 commencement of the Aged Care Act 2024 into operational reality. Several mid-Act provisions came online in January — most notably:

• Statement of Rights complaint pathways became live, with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission given the authority to investigate breaches.
• Worker code of conduct obligations expanded to cover all aged care workers in Government-funded services, not just clinical roles.
• Provider registration tiers — providers were issued new registration categories matched to the services they deliver, replacing the old approved provider list.

For families, the practical effect is that complaints are taken more seriously and there's a clearer path to escalation when something goes wrong with a provider. For providers, the 90-day grace period that ran from November 2025 has now ended — full compliance enforcement began in February 2026.

1 July 2026: government price caps on Support at Home

This is the single biggest change of the year for the home care market. From 1 July 2026, the government will set mandatory price caps on most services in the Support at Home schedule.

What this means in practice:

• The current market-set pricing model ends. Providers can no longer set their own hourly rates above the cap.
• Most service categories — personal care, domestic assistance, nursing, allied health — will have tight caps with limited regional and after-hours loadings.
• Some specialist services and rural/remote loadings will continue to allow above-cap pricing under a defined justification framework.

For families: this should mean lower out-of-pocket costs and far more predictable pricing. The current spread between the cheapest and most expensive providers in any given suburb will compress dramatically. The "compare three quotes" exercise will become much more about service quality than price.

For providers: revenue modelling needs to happen now. Providers who currently charge above the proposed caps need to model the impact on their cost base and adjust service mix, staffing, or efficiency assumptions before July. Several mid-tier providers we've spoken to are anticipating revenue declines of 8–15% on existing client books and are repositioning toward higher-classification clients and short-term pathway work to compensate.

NDIS penalty escalation (already in effect, biting harder through 2026)

The NDIS Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2025 dramatically increased penalties:

• Maximum fines for Code of Conduct breaches leading to death or serious injury increased from $400,000 to $16.5 million.
• Banning orders now carry criminal penalties of up to 5 years jail.
• The NDIS Commission's investigative powers were significantly expanded.

The rule changes were on the books from late 2025, but the operational reality of enforcement is hitting providers in 2026. The Commission has signalled an aggressive enforcement posture, and the first banning orders under the new criminal-penalty regime are expected this year.

For workers, this isn't just an employer problem. The Code of Conduct applies directly to individual workers, not only providers. A worker who breaches the Code can be banned across all NDIS-registered providers nationally, with criminal exposure for the most serious matters.

NDIS registration tiers and the unregistered provider question

Through 2026, the NDIS is rolling out its new provider registration tiers in response to the NDIS Review's recommendations. The intent is to bring more providers into the registration framework, particularly those providing higher-risk services to participants who currently use unregistered providers.

The phasing is gradual — full implementation runs into 2027 — but the key 2026 milestones are:

• Phase 1 (mid-2026): all providers delivering plan-managed support coordination, behaviour support, and high-intensity daily personal care must be registered under the new framework.
• Phase 2 (late 2026): expansion to therapeutic supports, supported independent living, and specialist disability accommodation.

For NDIS participants and their families, the practical impact is that more providers will be subject to formal registration, complaint, and worker screening obligations — generally a quality lift, though it will reduce the pool of available providers in some categories temporarily as smaller operators decide whether to register or exit.

Aged Care Worker Registration scheme

A new federal Aged Care Worker Registration scheme is being phased in throughout 2026 for personal care workers and aged care nurses. The scheme creates a national register of aged care workers similar to AHPRA registration for nurses, with mandatory:

• Police check and worker screening clearance
• Recognised qualifications (Cert III in Individual Support or higher for personal care; relevant nursing qualification for nurses)
• Ongoing continuing professional development requirements
• Code of Conduct compliance, with national banning powers

The phased commencement starts mid-2026 and continues into 2027. Providers need workforce strategies that ensure 100% of in-scope workers are registered before each phase commences — and credential infrastructure that can prove it on demand to the Quality and Safety Commission.

This is one of the principal drivers behind our Worker Passport launch — the registration scheme will be impossible to comply with at scale without portable credential infrastructure.

Single Assessment System maturation

The Single Assessment System (SAS) replaced the old ACAT/RAS split in late 2025. Through 2026, SAS is moving from "everyone is a new build" to a steady operational state, with two consequential changes for families:

• Reassessment turnaround is targeted at 28 days from request, down from the 60–90 day waits common in the old system.
• Pathway identification at first assessment — the assessor now identifies eligibility for short-term Restorative Care, End-of-Life, and AT-HM pathways at initial assessment, rather than requiring separate referrals.

If you have a parent who was assessed before November 2025, it is worth requesting a reassessment in 2026 even if their needs haven't changed dramatically — the SAS framework better captures the kind of multi-condition complexity older Australians actually present with, and reassessment commonly produces a higher classification under the new scheme.

The convergence question

A theme running through all of these changes: the historical separation between aged care and NDIS is becoming harder to defend.

NDIS Review research found that 94% of NDIS providers operate in only one scheme, despite the workforce flowing freely between them and despite many participants needing services from both. The dual registration burden — separate compliance regimes, separate price structures, separate worker screening, separate complaints pathways — is widely recognised as a drag on the sector.

Through 2026 you should expect:

• More cross-scheme worker screening recognition (Worker Passport-style portable credentials)
• Increased pressure on providers to operate compliantly in both schemes, particularly in regional Australia where workforce density doesn't support single-scheme operation
• Rationalisation of complaint and quality regimes where they currently duplicate

This convergence is good for participants, families, and workers. It is harder for providers, particularly those who built single-scheme operations and now find themselves under-resourced to navigate dual compliance.

What you should do this year

Providers

1. Model the July 2026 price cap impact on your current revenue mix. Identify services where you charge meaningfully above proposed caps and decide whether to adjust pricing, change service mix, or improve efficiency.
2. Audit your worker credentials against the new Aged Care Worker Registration phasing schedule. Identify gaps now while you have time to close them.
3. Review your NDIS exposure: if you operate in NDIS, are you current on the new registration tier requirements? If you don't operate in NDIS but your workforce or geography overlaps, is there a strategic case for cross-scheme registration in 2026?
4. Strengthen complaint and incident response: the new Statement of Rights regime and NDIS penalty escalation both demand faster, more documented response to complaints. Audit your processes against the published frameworks.

Workers

1. Get your credentials portable. Whether through Worker Passport or another mechanism, treat your credential records as a personal asset, not a folder in your employer's HR system.
2. Stay current on CPD. The Aged Care Worker Registration scheme will mandate ongoing CPD for personal care workers and nurses — start logging hours now, even if your current employer doesn't require it.
3. Understand the Code of Conduct exposure. Both the aged care Code (under the new Act) and the NDIS Code apply directly to you as an individual worker. Banning orders under the new NDIS regime are national and cross-employer.

Families

1. Use the new transparency requirements. Every Support at Home provider must publish full pricing online. Compare. The price spread before the July cap is meaningful, and even after the cap, there will be quality differences worth interrogating.
2. Request a reassessment under the SAS framework if your family member's classification was determined before November 2025. The new framework captures complexity better.
3. Ask about all three short-term pathways: Restorative Care after a fall, hospital admission, or significant decline. End-of-Life support if appropriate. AT-HM ($15,000 separate pool) for any equipment or home modification need. They're not automatic — you have to ask.
4. Lodge complaints when warranted. The Statement of Rights creates real, enforceable obligations. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's complaint pathway is genuinely faster and more responsive than it was 18 months ago.

Bottom line

2026 is the most consequential year for Australian care regulation since the original Aged Care Act in 1997 and the launch of the NDIS in 2013, combined. The pace of change is genuinely difficult to keep up with — but the direction is unambiguously toward greater participant rights, more portable workforce infrastructure, tighter pricing, and harder consequences for providers who get compliance wrong.

If you're navigating this as a family member, the Funding Finder is the fastest way to know where you stand under the new rules. If you're a worker, Worker Passport is the fastest way to make your credentials portable. And if you're a provider, get in touch — our Provider Portal compliance command centre was built specifically for this regulatory environment.