The Aged Care Act 2024:
Emergency Planning for Residents

Accountability: The Managing Director's Responsibility

For Managing Directors and registered providers, the Aged Care Act 2024 raises the bar on showing that care is safe. You are not just managing a building. You are overseeing a clinical and life-safety environment where resident risk profiles drive the emergency response.

At Compliance Ready, every facility audit asks one question: can you show it? Feeling safe is not enough. We recommend a competent review of your emergency plan every six months, in step with the AS 1851 Section 14 cycle where it applies.

Emergency & Disaster Management for Residents

Under the new Act and the strengthened Quality Standards, providers are expected to manage risks to each resident's safety, including in emergencies and disasters. In practice, that means an emergency plan built around the residents actually in the building.

A one-size-fits-all evacuation plan is a risk. Your procedures should reflect:

• High-dependency mobility needs.
• Cognitive impairment and dementia-specific evacuation cues.
• Reliance on clinical equipment, such as oxygen, during a power failure.
• Residents' dignity and engagement during drills.

AS 1851-2012: What Changed in NSW

Under section 81 of the Regulation, building owners must maintain each essential fire safety measure. Section 81A, which applies from 13 February 2026, adds that the maintenance activities (inspection, testing and servicing) must be done in accordance with AS 1851-2012, unless an approved performance solution covers them. The penalty is up to 600 penalty units for a corporation.

For an aged care building, that covers the full range of fire safety measures, each under its own section of AS 1851. Common problem areas include:

1. Fire doors and smoke seals: often damaged in busy aged care corridors, which undermines "defend in place" strategies.
2. Emergency Warning and Intercommunication Systems (EWIS): need to be audible in all care areas, including noisy laundries and kitchens.
3. Smoke management systems: give residents extra time to relocate, so their routine servicing matters.

Section 14, "Emergency planning in facilities", is the part that covers the emergency plan itself. It applies where emergency planning is one of the building's essential fire safety measures.

Resident Risk Profile Integration

We recommend building a Resident Risk Profile into your emergency and disaster management plan.

Traditional fire engineering often assumes able-bodied evacuation. In aged care, "defend in place" or zonal relocation is the usual strategy, and it is only as good as the staff carrying it out.

The Compliance Ready Standard for resident risk profiles:

• Dynamic assessment: update emergency procedures when a resident's mobility changes. A plan updated once a year will fall behind.
• Cognitive cues: make exits identifiable for people with cognitive decline, with high-contrast signage and clear wayfinding that doesn't cause distress.
• Competent review: where Section 14 applies, its yearly inspection checks that the emergency plan is still relevant. We recommend reviewing it against the current resident profile every six months.

Common Aged Care Emergency Planning Gaps

In our audits, we often see these three gaps. If they look familiar, fix them before an incident, audit or insurance review finds them.

Insurance & WHS: Why Evidence Matters

After an incident, your insurer will look for evidence of maintenance. Gaps in your AS 1851 maintenance records can complicate or delay a claim.

Under WHS laws, officers (Managing Directors and board members) must exercise due diligence. Handing safety to a generalist facility manager without checking the work, including six-monthly emergency procedure checks, is a real risk.

From 1997 to 2024: How the Framework Changed

The Aged Care Act 1997 relied on accreditation visits that were often treated as points in time. A facility could prepare for a visit, pass, and then slip.

The Aged Care Act 2024, which commenced on 1 November 2025, moves toward continuous monitoring and a rights-based approach. This mirrors WHS law, where safety duties are ongoing. If an emergency occurs and your records show long gaps in training, a past accreditation result will not help much.

Executive Oversight

Board members and senior executives are accountable for how the organisation manages risk, including emergency systems. Many facilities hand fire safety to a generalist maintenance manager. AS 1851-2012 clause 1.10 requires routine service to be conducted by competent persons, so check who is doing the work.

The Compliance Ready Standard for executive oversight:

• Evidence of competency: does your provider hold professional indemnity insurance for the work they do?
• The right standard: are your maintenance records referencing AS 1851-2012, as section 81A now requires? Where emergency planning is an essential fire safety measure, are Section 14 inspections recorded?
• Resident focus: residents have the right to safe, quality care. A safety plan that does not account for residents' needs is hard to defend.

Clinical Integration: The Missing Link

In aged care, there is often a divide between clinical care and facility maintenance. Emergency planning works best when the two are joined up: the Chief Warden understands residents' clinical needs, and registered nurses understand the fire systems.

Why? In a Code Red (fire), nurses are often the first responders for resident relocation. If a nurse hasn't been trained on the building's zoned evacuation panel (EWIS) for a long time, the facility is carrying avoidable risk.

Compliance Ready trains clinical staff in how the fire systems work. We cover more than exit locations: smoke compartmentation, zoned relocation, and how to work with Fire and Rescue NSW on arrival.

Summary: The 2026 Checklist

Check your facility against these items today:

Compliance Ready specialises in healthcare emergency planning. We help facilities stay prepared, insured and safe for residents.