Business Improvement Fund for Residential Care

This program aims to support residential care providers and improve their business operations, ensuring the needs of senior Australians are met. It seeks to support providers who face significant financial difficulty and will focus on residential providers at greatest risk of service failure, particularly where there are impacts on residents.

The Fund will provide financial support to providers through three streams of grant funding which include:
- Supporting a provider to go through a process of business improvement.
- Supporting the sale of the residential aged care facility to another provider.
- Where no options exist, supporting the orderly and safe close down of a residential facility.

Generally, funding will not exceed $7,500 per operational residential care bed. In the case of a sale of a business, funding will not exceed $15,000 per operational residential care bed.

A provider can only apply for one of the funding support streams. Applications for multiple facilities will be accepted but must be submitted on a separate application form for each facility.

A total funding pool of $50 million is available. The Government has announced an additional $35.6 million in funding, bringing total funding to around $85 million.

Eligible applicants include organisations that must be a residential aged care provider that:
- Has operational residential aged care facilities in Australia including all NATSIFAC residential providers, and local government residential providers.
- Have no or limited access to other sources or forms of support (e.g. from other operations or means including from a parent or related organisation).
- Be in a financial position impacting significantly on your ability to care for residents or facing reasonably near risks of service closure.

Providers in rural and remote areas and providers affected by the 2019-20 bushfires will be prioritised for consideration.

Please refer to the Fact Sheet for the complete eligibility requirements.

Eligible activities include:
- Improving the business, for example to restructure business operations and upgrade financial management and IT systems.
- Transitioning a business to a new provider.
- Closing down a business in a safe and orderly manner and transition residents to other facilities (where there’s no other option).

The main assessment criteria include whether:
- If the provider has no or limited access to other sources of funds or support.
- The financial position of the provider and degree of risk of service closure or impacts on resident care.
- A clear business strategy showing how any funding provided would be used to improve and support the ongoing long term viability of the provider.
- The provider’s record, capability and capacity to provide quality care.

Providers in rural and remote areas and providers affected by the 2019-20 bushfires will be prioritised for consideration.

Ongoing operating expenses are not eligible.