Aged Care CCTV: A Guide for Residential Aged Care Homes

What rules apply to CCTV in aged care?

• No national mandate: the Australian Government funds and regulates residential aged care, but no Commonwealth rule requires CCTV. A 2022 South Australian Government discussion paper noted that CCTV is not commonplace in resident bedrooms and other private spaces.¹
• The South Australian pilot: from March 2021 to March 2022, SA Health trialled audio-visual monitoring at two residential settings, including the residential aged care service at Mount Pleasant District Hospital, with Commonwealth funding.² The independent evaluation found residents and families broadly accepting, and staff comfort rose from 40 per cent to 83 per cent, but the AI generated more than 12,000 unverified alerts and was not yet accurate enough to detect incidents in an aged care setting.³
• Consultation: South Australia’s 2022 consultation on technology in aged care found strong support for legislation to guide the ethical use of surveillance technology, and that the consent of the resident is paramount.⁴
• Privacy: organisations covered by the Privacy Act must tell people they may be recorded, keep footage secure, and destroy or de-identify it when it is no longer needed.⁵ Providers of health services, which include activities in the course of providing aged care, are covered regardless of turnover, and health information is sensitive information.⁶
• Surveillance and workplace laws: state and territory surveillance devices laws restrict recording private activities and conversations without consent. Workplace surveillance laws in NSW and the ACT require written notice to staff before surveillance starts; the ACT law also requires visible cameras and signs, and prohibits surveillance in toilets, change rooms, showers, sick bays and first aid rooms.⁷

What does good aged care CCTV look like?

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission lists CCTV among the measures that make it harder for intruders to enter without being seen.⁸ Used well, CCTV also helps a provider review falls, incidents and complaints in shared areas. A well governed system has:

• a written purpose and policy, shared with residents, families and staff;
• coverage of entries, car parks, reception, corridors, lounges, dining areas and the perimeter, with no cameras in toilets, bathrooms or first aid rooms;
• cameras in residents’ rooms only with the documented consent of the resident or their decision maker, and a clear policy on family-installed devices;
• secure storage, individual logins and audit trails, a set retention period, and a process for releasing footage to the regulator or police;
• written notice to staff and clear signs for residents and visitors;
• integration with duress alarms, nurse call and door monitoring for residents at risk of leaving unaccompanied; and
• staged testing of any AI or analytics before staff rely on it, a key lesson from the South Australian pilot.

How Agilient supports aged care CCTV

Agilient provides independent CCTV consulting for aged care providers: camera strategy and coverage reviews, CCTV policy and privacy reviews, duress alarm and access control assessments, and specifications for new homes or upgrades. Agilient does not sell or install cameras. Its wider aged care security work covers site security risk assessments, and the aged care security framework guide and CCTV upgrade guide give more detail.