Standard 1 of the strengthened aged care standards sets the tone for how care and services must be tailored to each individual’s unique identity, values, and life experience.

It promotes a rights-based, individualised approach to care that empowers older people to feel respected, heard, safe, and in control of their care. This standard expects providers to go beyond task-focused care and embed dignity, choice, inclusion, cultural safety, and autonomy into everyday practice.

Providers must ensure that staff are equipped to meet the preferences of older people, enable informed decision-making, support diversity and independence, and build trusted, respectful relationships. These expectations underpin the care experience and are foundational to every other standard.

What Training Is Required and Why?

Training under Standard 1 must build staff's knowledge, skills, ability, attitudes, and interpersonal behaviours that reflect empathy, cultural humility, and respect. Training on this standard is critical for all staff. For example, it should also address the governance and system-level responsibilities for ensuring that person-centred care is encouraged and reliably delivered.

Key Training and Capability Requirements

The following capabilities need to be developed across the workforce to meet Standard 1, The Individual:

Standard 1: Key Training Requirements

• Understanding of dignity, autonomy, and the right to privacy
• Recognising and supporting cultural, spiritual, gender and life diversity
• Effective communication tailored to individual preferences and impairments
• Providing trauma-aware and healing-informed care
• Supporting informed choice and decision-making, including the dignity of risk
• Recognising abuse, neglect or discrimination and responding safely
• Upholding professional boundaries while building trust
  

These training goals are essential because:

• Respect and individualisation are core audit themes across all outcomes
• Failure to uphold privacy, dignity or cultural safety is frequently linked to non-conformance
• The standard explicitly links training to safe and person-centred care delivery (refer to Outcomes 2.8, 2.9)

Outcome 1.1: Person-Centred Care

This outcome expects care to reflect the older person’s identity, background, culture, and life story, tailored to their goals and preferences.

Key training focus areas for Outcome 1.1 include:

• Person-centred care principles and values
• Building trusting relationships and effective partnerships with older people and families
• Delivering culturally safe and inclusive care
• Recognising trauma and applying trauma-informed care practices
• Using life-story work to inform care planning

Outcome 1.2: Dignity, Respect and Privacy

This outcome centres on the right to be treated with kindness and respect, to be free from harm, and to receive care that protects personal privacy.

Training topics needed to meet Outcome 1.2 include:

• The aged care rights framework and Code of Conduct
• Preventing, recognising and reporting abuse, neglect and discrimination
• Delivering private and respectful personal and intimate care
• Supporting safe relationships and the expression of sexuality and gender
• Understanding the role of informed consent when addressing privacy and safety
  

Outcome 1.3: Choice, Independence and Quality of Life

This outcome is about enabling people to live meaningful lives, supported by informed choice and decision-making that balances risk with autonomy.

Education priorities under this outcome include:

• Supported decision-making and the role of substitute decision-makers
• Informed consent processes and documentation
• Communicating in ways that promote understanding and participation
  Enabling positive risk-taking to support autonomy and quality of life
• Identifying and addressing barriers to independence and wellbeing

Outcome 1.4: Transparency and Agreements

This outcome ensures that older people understand and consent to the agreements and financial arrangements related to their care.

Training areas for Outcome 1.4 include:

• Explaining agreements, rights and financial information clearly and in plain language
• Documenting informed consent to care and fee changes
• Supporting people to access advice before entering into agreements
• Communicating fees and services in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways
• Ensuring consistency between agreements and actual care delivery
  

Audit Evidence Items - Standard 1 Training and Education

To demonstrate conformance with Standard 1 during an audit, providers must show that education and training efforts are systematic and effective.

The table below summarises the types of evidence auditors may look for to confirm that training and education under Standard 1 are in place, embedded in practice, and making a measurable impact on the quality of care provided.

Evidence Type	Examples
Documents and records	Training matrix, attendance logs, policies on cultural safety, trauma-informed care, and consent.
Care planning records	Notes indicating care is tailored to cultural, spiritual, and linguistic needs.
Worker competency	Assessment tools confirm knowledge of privacy, consent, dignity, and rights.
Management feedback	Interviews confirming training strategies align with organisational policy and audit themes.
Individual Feedback	Statements indicating they feel known, respected, and able to make choices.
Observations	Staff seen to be using inclusive language, respecting privacy and engaging empathetically.
Complaints data	Documentation that training needs were identified in response to incidents, complaints or feedback.

L&D Guide to Training on Standard 1

To effectively deliver on the intent and outcomes of Standard 1, training must be purposeful, targeted, and responsive to regulatory and individual staff needs.

Here are key strategies for implementation:

1. Begin by identifying the most critical gaps: Conduct a needs assessment to identify gaps in knowledge, skills, confidence, or practice, especially in trauma-informed care, privacy, and culturally safe communication.
   
2. Tailor training to specific job roles: Assign training carefully by job role, facility, and function to avoid a ‘spray and pray’ situation where everyone gets training without a clearly identified and validated need.
   
3. Choose engaging methods that promote practical application. For complex areas like dignity of risk, abuse recognition, and cultural humility, use reflective and scenario-based learning.
   
4. Ensure foundational principles are well understood from the outset: Make training on person-centred and rights-based care mandatory at induction and refreshed annually.
   
5. Measure and improve through feedback and data: Evaluate learning effectiveness through feedback, performance reviews, and care experience outcomes.

List of Ausmed Modules on Standard 1: The Individual

The following modules from the Ausmed Library help you meet the education and training requirements of Standard 1.

Explore the full library here.

Ausmed Module	Duration (minutes)
Standard 1: The Person	10
Communicating in Aged Care	24
Person-Centred, Rights-Based Care for the Older Person	12
Cultural Safety in Healthcare	25
Communicating in Aged Care	24
Culturally Safe, Trauma-Aware and Healing-Informed Care	25
Intimacy and Sexuality in Aged Care	30
Person-Centred, Rights-Based Care for the Older Person	12
LGBTIQ+ in Aged Care	22
Understanding Professional Boundaries	5
Partnering With Older People	12
Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS)	40
Privacy, Confidentiality, Dignity and Personal Information	11
Communicating in Aged Care	24
Responsible Information Delivery	9
Consent to Treatment	34
Advocates and Language Services	10
Dignity of Risk	In development
Documentation in Aged Care	25
Transitions of Care	In development