Aged Residential Care (ARC)

Please refer to Te Whatu Ora - For the health sector for up to date information as these pages are not updated after 16 December. Relevant information will be moved to the Te Whatu Ora website.

Aged residential care (ARC) is when an older person needs to be cared for in a residential setting.

A person’s care is decided by an assessment of their needs, and there are four levels of ARC:

• rest home
• hospital
• secure dementia
• specialised (psychogeriatric) care.

Accommodation premium rule changes 1 November 2020

In aged residential care facilities there may be ‘premium’ rooms, which are defined as having ‘additional features of a permanent or fixed nature’.

For example, the room might have an en-suite, extra space, or garden access.

From 1 November 2020, all aged residential care providers are required to post premium charges on their websites, and display them prominently. Providers have until 1 December 2020 to post the charges.

Smaller providers who do not have websites will need to publish their charges on a related website.

Funding ‘premium’ rooms

Charges for 'premium' rooms are negotiated between the care provider and the resident, and must be specified in the admission agreement (the Agreement between the resident and the facility).

There is no public funding for premium room fees or additional services.

Aged residential care facilities may charge a resident for a 'premium' room, under certain conditions.

National Agreements

Aged residential care (ARC) services are defined by two national agreements, which are reviewed each year, the:

• Age-Related Residential Care Agreement (ARRC)
• Aged Residential Hospital Specialised Services (ARHSS) Agreement. 

Reviews often lead to variations to these agreements, between districts and residential care facilities.

The below agreements incorporate all of the changes that have been made up to and including the 2021 amendments.

2019 guidelines for planned closure or downsizing of Aged Residential Care facilities

These guidelines are for situations where the owner of an aged residential care facility makes a decision to close or to downsize beyond a small number of beds.

Such decisions often have serious implications for all parties including owners, residents and their families/whanau, facility staff, unions and DHBs. 

Aged Residential Care providers have modified their Admission Agreements to refer to these Guidelines.

Aged Residential Care demand planner

With an ageing population, the demand for residential care beds is expected to rise sharply in New Zealand.

The demand planner provides information about demographic trends and how many ARC beds are being used in each territorial local authority.

This helps districts, aged residential care providers, the Ministry of Health and others in the health sector to understand the capacity, mix and location of beds they will need.

Examples of how the demand planner can help

Districts can use the planner to find out:

• how their aged residential care use compares with that of other Districts
• about their projected aged residential care demand growth
• where older people from the Districts are getting their care
• who is moving into a District area.

ARC providers will be able to answer questions such as:

• Where and when will the largest growth in older people occur?
• Where are the areas of high use and low growth?
• What is the mix of care?

The demand planner will also encourage discussion within the wider health sector:

• Why is there variation across the country?
• What will be the wider models of care for older people in the future, and how will this impact on ARC usage and capacity?

We regularly improve the planner, and updates are released annually.

The demand planner is free.

Palliative care national model

The national model was developed by the Ministry of Health, who own and license it for reuse under a Creative Commons license.

The core assumption of the national model is that historic patterns of cause of death and place of death by age and gender, will continue to apply in the future.

'The Need for Palliative Care in New Zealand' details the historic evidence, methodology, future projections and the sensitivity of those projections.

The patterns used are from the period 2009 to 2013 in New Zealand, after consideration of the mortality data patterns from 2000 to 2013.

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