Seminar/Oral Presentation 43rd National Hospitality in Healthcare Conference

The landscape of aged care food service is undergoing its most profound transformation in decades. Meeting the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards—particularly Standard 6—requires an immediate shift from traditional institutional catering to a highly specialised blend of clinical risk management and culinary excellence. To achieve this at scale, the education sector and frontline providers must unite. This session shares the practical insights, key findings, and strategic framework developed by William Angliss Institute in direct collaboration with aged care industry leaders.

Moving past basic regulatory checklists, we explore the reality of a kitchen operation that demands nutritional consistency 365 days a year. Crucially, this presentation addresses the sector's chronic workforce challenges by outlining how we are working with industry to establish aged care as a prestigious, clearly defined career pathway for the next generation of culinary professionals.

Key findings and practical learnings include:

• Mapping the Clinical-Culinary Skill Set: Insight into the core competencies identified by industry leaders, including advanced texture-modification, clinical fortification, and the multidisciplinary collaboration required with speech pathologists and dietitians.
• Reframing Compliance: Practical approaches to shifting kitchen culture, ensuring thorough food safety and menu documentation transcends basic checklists to serve as a vital clinical record of resident care.
• The Legacy Framework: A collaborative workforce blueprint designed to transform aged care into a sought-after, highly skilled career path that attracts and retains top-tier culinary talent.

Attendees will gain insight into how this unified education and industry partnership is actively co-designing the training framework alongside frontline sector leaders. We will share our milestone achievements to date, our immediate next steps, and our 5-year vision for establishing defined, professional career pathways that elevate chefs and food service staff across the sector. Ultimately, this session will demonstrate how driving this systemic change mitigates clinical risk, empowers kitchen teams, and delivers genuine dignity on the plate—ensuring residents maintain meaningful choice over what, when, and where they eat