From 1 November 2025, strengthened standards of the Aged Care Act 2024 are coming into effect. What does this mean for service providers like Meals on Wheels who provide meals for older people? As November approaches, make sure you’re ready and are getting the correct information by engaging an accredited practicing Dietitian.
Meal requirements for in-home aged care
With the introduction of the new Aged Care Act 2024, home care providers face new responsibilities, particularly around the delivery of nutritious meals. These changes reflect a broader push for quality, dignity, and person-centred care across both residential and in-home settings.
This document has an excellent summary of the aged care provider guidance for requirements on in-home meals, snacks and drinks under the revised Aged Care Act.
New obligations for Meals on Wheels as a home-delivered meal service
A new meal obligation has been introduced under the updated legislation, applying to any Commonwealth-funded meals delivered to older people’s homes or provided during community respite. The aim? To ensure meals are not only nutritious and appropriate for older adults, but also appetising and considerate of their needs and preferences.
This means that all Meals on Wheels providers need to ensure their service meet the revised Aged Care Act. The best way to do this is to engage an accredited practicing Dietitian with aged care experience.
Why choose a Dietitian with aged care experience?
Our Dietitians are qualified to assess your service, to ensure you meet the revised Aged Care Act. Engaging a Dietitian who has experience in both aged care sectors, commercial, and other non-government organisations (NGOs) is essential. An experienced Dietitian will:
- Already know the industry and requirements
- Understand the nutritional needs and requirements of the elderly in the new program standards
- Bring practical experience in the operational requirements of kitchens and your staff
An assessment report and audit should be more than an emailed PDF document with no follow up. Instead, we endeavour to understand the culture of a service. Our team will work to understand how your employees operate, and how their contributions affect the service.
How can Ingrained Nutrition help ensure you meet the revised Aged Care Act Quality Standards?
Our approach to ensuring your service meets the revised Aged Care Act is practical, seamless and unobtrusive. In our onsite review, we oversee an entire day’s service. We assess the systems, the size of the facility, and the roles of your team. This helps us to understand your workplace culture and deliver effective guidance.
We review all existing recipes and the meal plans, working with your team to figure out the best approach to introduce the new guidelines into your Meals on Wheels service. We do a lot of prep work to make the on-site review as unobtrusive as possible. This allows time for our Dietitians to factor in the crucial human elements.
Implementing the revised Aged Care Act Quality Standards with Ingrained Nutrition
After we have conducted our review of your Meals on Wheels service, we will have an implementation meeting. At this meeting we will discuss with you what we assessed, the strengths, weaknesses, and what needs to be adjusted to meet the new standards, as well as set a timeframe for the implementation. Our goal – aside from making sure your service is ready for the revised Aged Care Act Quality Standard framework – is establish a long-term partnership with your service, and your staff. We’re a team, so when we present our findings, it is a collaborative experience rather than a checklist of Do’s and Do Not’s.
This implementation meeting is a unique strength of our business, and we have found it to be incredibly valuable for our clients. We want to make sure that you don’t have to go over the same information over and over with different practitioners. When you choose Ingrained Nutrition, we prioritise long-term partnerships. We have been in practice for over 16 years, and are not going anywhere.
Having a framework for continuous improvement, supported by a consistent, experienced Dietitian makes it easier for a facility to implement and adjust to new frameworks. We will be the familiar face working alongside you to improve your service delivery.
Work with an experienced Dietitian team to help meet the revised Aged Care Act Quality Standards
Relationships matter to us at Ingrained Nutrition. Delivering the best quality service for our vulnerable community members is at the core of our business. Contact our team of Dietitians today: we’d love to help your Meals on Wheels service apply the strengthened Aged Care Act Quality Standards.
