Key takeaways
- 215 care minutes is a sector-wide average, not a universal minimum. Every home is set its own casemix-adjusted target based on how much care its residents need — in practice anywhere from 149 to 262 minutes. Only about 4% of homes have a target of exactly 215.
- Compare a home against its own target, not against 215. Judging every home by 215 gives the wrong verdict for 23% of them — passing homes that are falling short, and failing homes that are doing fine.
- Care minutes measure direct, hands-on care from qualified staff — not activities, meals, or housekeeping.
- You can compare every facility’s actual care minutes in our provider search.
What are care minutes?
Care minutes are the minimum amount of time that nursing and personal care staff must spend with each resident, on average, every day. Each home is set its own target, calculated from the assessed care needs of its residents. They were introduced in October 2023 as part of the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model.
Before care minutes, there was no national standard for staffing levels in aged care. Facilities could — and some did — operate with minimal staff. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety found this was a key driver of poor care outcomes.
Care minutes changed that. For the first time, every residential aged care home in Australia must meet a specific, measurable staffing benchmark — and the data is published for families to see.
Every home has its own target
There are two components to the care minutes target:
- 215 total care minutes per resident per day — from all nursing and personal care staff combined.
- 44 registered nurse (RN) minutes per resident per day. These come mainly from degree-qualified registered nurses, though providers may meet up to 10% of this target with time delivered by enrolled nurses.
These two numbers are averages across the whole sector, not a floor every home must clear. The Department sets each service its own casemix-adjusted target, calculated from the assessed needs of the people actually living there. A home full of residents with complex dementia and high clinical needs is given a higher target than a home caring for more independent residents — because it should be delivering more care.
Across the sector those targets range from 149 to 262 total minutes, with a median of 215. Only about 3.8% of homes have a total target of exactly 215.
A home delivering 205 minutes against its own 199-minute target is passing. A home delivering 230 minutes against a 262-minute target is failing. If you judge both against 215 you would score them exactly the wrong way round.
Across the 2,201 homes where we hold both figures, comparing to 215 instead of the home’s own target gives the wrong verdict for 22.6% of them. Always look for the home’s own target — it is published alongside the actual minutes on every provider profile.
Both figures are also facility-wide averages rather than per-resident guarantees. A resident with complex dementia care needs may receive 300+ minutes of care, while a more independent resident may receive 150. What matters is that the facility as a whole meets its target.
The targets were phased in together: 200 total minutes and 40 RN minutes from October 2023, rising to 215 total and 44 RN minutes from 1 October 2024. The RN target has not been constant — it moved up alongside the total.
How to read the numbers
When you see care minutes data for a facility, here’s what it means in practice:
| Metric | Facility A (below target) | Facility B (above target) |
|---|---|---|
| Total care minutes | 180 min/resident/day | 240 min/resident/day |
| RN minutes | 30 min/resident/day | 55 min/resident/day |
| What it feels like | Longer wait for call bells, rushed personal care, fewer one-on-one interactions | Prompt responses, unhurried care, time for conversation and emotional support |
- Total care minutes
- 180 min/resident/day
- RN minutes
- 30 min/resident/day
- What it feels like
- Longer wait for call bells, rushed personal care, fewer one-on-one interactions
- Total care minutes
- 240 min/resident/day
- RN minutes
- 55 min/resident/day
- What it feels like
- Prompt responses, unhurried care, time for conversation and emotional support
To put it simply: more care minutes = more staff on the floor = more time with your loved one. A facility delivering 240 minutes has roughly 33% more staffing than one at 180 minutes. That’s a meaningful difference in daily experience.
The RN component matters too. Registered nurses handle clinical tasks — medication management, wound care, pain assessment, and coordination with GPs and specialists. A facility with low RN minutes may rely more heavily on less-qualified personal care workers for tasks that benefit from clinical oversight.
Where the data comes from
Every residential aged care facility reports staffing data quarterly to the Department of Health and Aged Care. This data feeds into the Star Ratings system and is published on the My Aged Care website.
The published figure is a single quarter, not a rolling average. The number you see reflects one three-month window, so it can be pulled down by a bad run of staff illness or a hard-to-fill vacancy, and pushed up by a temporary agency arrangement.
This is measurable: between two consecutive releases, the average home’s figure moves by around 12 minutes, and more than a quarter of homes move by over 10 minutes. Only 5% report an identical figure twice in a row. So a single weak quarter is not proof of a staffing problem, and a single strong one is not proof of good staffing. Look at the direction of travel across several quarters— a home that has been above its target for four quarters running is telling you something a single reading cannot.
Our provider search pulls directly from this published data. When you view a facility’s profile, you’ll see their total care minutes and RN minutes alongside their Star Rating, food spend, and other quality indicators.
What good looks like
A home’s own target is the floor, not the ceiling. Many facilities exceed theirs significantly. Here’s how to benchmark what you see:
A real home from our data. Here's how its care minutes compare to the target and to homes nationally.
Above the 215-minute target, and more than most homes. Registered nurse minutes clear the 44-minute mark too.
| Benchmark | Total care minutes | RN minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory target | 215 min/day | 44 min/day |
| National average | ~225 min/day | ~48 min/day |
| Top quartile | 250+ min/day | 55+ min/day |
| Below target (red flag) | <200 min/day | <40 min/day |
There are also differences by provider ownership type:
| Provider type | Typical total care minutes | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Not-for-profit | ~230 min/day | Tend to invest surplus back into staffing |
| For-profit | ~218 min/day | Often closer to the target; wide variation |
| Government | ~240 min/day | Highest average, but fewer facilities |
What changes from 1 April 2026
Until now, missing a care minutes target has been a regulatory matter. From 1 April 2026 it becomes a funding one as well. Part of the care funding for metropolitan non-specialised homes is tied to how much of their target they actually deliver, and the supplement drops to zero for homes delivering less than 85% of both their total and RN targets.
Providers are also now required to submit a Care Minutes Performance Statement as part of the 2025-26 Aged Care Financial Report, audited by a registered company auditor. Staffing figures are, in other words, about to be scrutinised far more closely than they have been.
Using care minutes in your search
Care minutes are one of the most useful data points when comparing aged care homes, but they work best in combination with other quality indicators:
- Star Ratings — the overall quality score considers care minutes as one of four rating domains.
- Food spend — a facility can have great staffing but poor nutrition. Check both.
- Complaints history — high care minutes don’t guarantee good culture. Look at what families actually report.
- Your own visit — numbers tell part of the story. How staff interact with residents during your tour tells the rest.
Remember: a facility delivering 250+ care minutes with a strong Star Rating and above-average food spend is showing you, through data, that they invest in their residents. That’s a powerful signal — and a great place to start your shortlist.