Outcome 2.1 of the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards represents a fundamental shift from traditional service delivery to genuine partnership with older people. This outcome requires providers to engage in meaningful and active partnerships with individuals to inform organisational priorities and drive continuous improvement, ensuring that the voices and experiences of older people directly shape how aged care services are designed, delivered, and improved.

Under the strengthened standards, providers must engage in meaningful partnerships that reflect the diversity of service users, including specific requirements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement to ensure cultural safety and accessibility. Additionally, providers must partner with individuals in the design, delivery, evaluation, and improvement of quality funded aged care services. Getting this training right is not just about compliance. It's about creating a genuine culture of co-design and shared decision-making in aged care.

Understanding What Outcome 2.1 Actually Requires

Under the strengthened standards, providers have one overarching responsibility with three specific partnership requirements that your training must address comprehensively:

The Core Requirement: Providers must engage in meaningful and active partnerships with individuals to inform organisational priorities and continuous improvement. This isn't about token consultation—it's about genuine partnership where individuals have real influence over how services are shaped and delivered.

First (Action 2.1.1), governing bodies must partner with individuals to set priorities and strategic directions for how funded aged care services are provided. This means individuals must have genuine input into the highest levels of organisational decision-making.

Second (Action 2.1.2), providers must support individuals to participate in partnerships and ensure partnerships include people who reflect the diversity of service users. This includes specific requirements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement, and must encompass the full range of diverse backgrounds, including veterans, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTIQ+ individuals, people living with disability or mental illness, and many other groups identified in the guidance.

Third (Action 2.1.3), providers must partner with individuals in the design, delivery, evaluation, and improvement of quality-funded aged care services throughout the entire service lifecycle.

Recommended Ausmed Training Modules for Outcome 2.1

Based on our review of available Ausmed Training Modules, the following modules directly support compliance with Outcome 2.1 requirements. All modules require an Ausmed subscription (individual module purchases are not available):

Partnership Methods: Practical Approaches for Different Provider Types

The ACQSC guidance provides specific examples of how providers can implement meaningful partnerships. Your training must address these practical differences between residential and home care approaches.

Residential Care Providers typically have more centralised opportunities for partnership. Key methods include establishing Consumer Advisory Bodies where older people guide service design and evaluation, organising morning or afternoon teas at premises to gather feedback and seek input, and holding structured feedback sessions for discussion and improvement suggestions.

Home Service Providers face unique challenges with geographically dispersed clients, but can utilise virtual connections such as phone and online get-togethers, conduct individual consultations during home visits, and develop partnerships with local services and community groups to facilitate broader engagement. This is particularly important for providers serving rural and remote areas where in-person gatherings may not be feasible.

Engaging Diverse Communities

The guidance identifies over 13 specific diverse groups that must be included in partnerships. Your training must equip workers to engage effectively across this full spectrum of diversity.

Cultural and Indigenous Groups: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (including those from stolen generations), people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and people of various religions and spiritual backgrounds require specific cultural competency and trauma-informed approaches.

Vulnerable and At-Risk Communities: Financially or socially disadvantaged individuals, people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, and care-leavers, including Forgotten Australians and former child migrants, often require additional support and trust-building to participate effectively.

LGBTIQ+ and Gender Diverse Communities: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, as well as gender diverse or bodily diverse people, require safe spaces and inclusive practices that acknowledge their unique experiences and needs.

Disability and Health Communities: People living with disability or mental illness, neurodivergent individuals, deaf, deafblind, vision impaired, or hard of hearing people, and people living with cognitive impairment including dementia require accessible communication methods and appropriate support to participate meaningfully.

Geographic and Service-Specific Groups: Veterans and war widows, people in regional, remote or very remote areas, and parents and children separated by forced adoption or removal each bring unique perspectives that must be actively sought and valued.

The Four Essential Training Areas for Outcome 2.1

Monitoring Partnership Effectiveness

The guidance emphasises that providers must monitor how well their partnerships are working. Your training must include systematic evaluation approaches including reviewing care and service documents to ensure individual feedback is integrated into care and services plans, monitoring participation and feedback from Consumer Advisory Bodies and similar committees, and recording actions and improvements made as a direct result of partnering with individuals.

Success Indicators: According to the guidance, you'll know partnerships are working well when older people report they feel safe to speak up and feel heard and valued. Your training must emphasise creating environments where these outcomes are achieved.

Training Frequency and Role-Specific Considerations

While the strengthened standards do not mandate specific training frequencies, best practice recommendations include completing all four training areas within 3 months of employment, conducting annual refresher training covering all competencies (recommended 2-3 hours total), performance-based assessments every 6 months, additional training following partnership reviews or feedback, and annual cultural competency updates.

Assessment and Documentation Requirements

Knowledge Assessment: Your assessment framework must verify understanding of partnership principles (meaningful engagement, co-design, shared decision-making), cultural competency (particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement), diversity and inclusion (the 13+ specific diverse groups and participation barriers), governance integration (how partnerships influence strategic direction), and partnership methods (Consumer Advisory Bodies, forums, surveys, feedback systems).

Practical Skills Demonstration: Workers must demonstrate engagement facilitation skills, cultural safety practice with diverse communities, co-design facilitation abilities, feedback integration capabilities, and partnership evaluation competencies.

Training Documentation Requirements: For audit purposes, maintain individual worker training completion records for all four training areas, competency assessment results and certification dates, cultural competency training specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement, role-specific training variations, and training effectiveness evaluation records.

Operational Evidence Requirements: Document partnership policies and frameworks covering all three actions, evidence of governing body engagement with individuals in strategic planning, diverse partnership representation and participation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific engagement processes, service design and improvement partnership activities, and partnership outcome measurement records.

Implementation Timeline

Immediate Actions (Next 30 Days): Audit your current partnership and engagement processes, assess existing relationships with diverse community representatives, evaluate governing body capacity for individual partnership, and plan comprehensive partnership training rollout across all staff levels.

Short-term Implementation (Next 90 Days): Deploy comprehensive partnership training across all staff levels, implement competency assessments and certification processes, establish partnership systems and measurement frameworks, and begin diverse community engagement and relationship building.

Ongoing Compliance (Continuous): Conduct regular competency reviews and refresher training, implement partnership evaluation and improvement processes, maintain cultural competency development and community relationship maintenance, and ensure continuous integration of partnership outcomes into organisational improvement.

Remember, Outcome 2.1 represents a fundamental shift towards genuine partnership in aged care. When you implement comprehensive training that systematically embeds partnership principles, you create organisations where older people are genuine partners in shaping their care, where diverse voices are valued and heard, and where continuous improvement is driven by the insights and experiences of those who use your services.