From 1 November 2025 the Support at Home program replaces the:
- Home Care Packages (HCP) program
- Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) program.
Support at Home helps older people to:
- keep living at home longer
- be connected to their community
- receive health and wellbeing support.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (department) leads the Support at Home program. You can find more information about it in the department’s Support at Home manual.
Our role
The Commission regulates registered providers that deliver Support at Home.
We register all providers in one or more registration categories. Each category groups services together based on:
- common characteristics
- risks associated with the services they provide
- provider obligations (what they must do) to reduce those risks.
We regulate providers based on their category (or categories) and the obligations they have to meet.
All providers must:
- uphold the Statement of Rights
- follow the Code of Conduct for Aged Care (Code) and make sure their workers and responsible persons follow the Code
- report serious incidents to us through the Serious Incident Response Scheme page
- make sure older people and their supporters are aware of their right to make a complaint or give feedback to us or their provider.
Our Regulatory Strategy 2025–26 explains our risk-based, proportionate approach to regulating the aged care sector. It applies to all registered providers of Australian Government-funded aged care.
We use a range of regulatory and enforcement tools to make sure providers and workers are meeting their obligations and delivering safe, quality aged care.
More information
Single provider model
Support at Home now operates under a single provider model and it is a requirement that all Support at Home participants receive care management services, Under this model, each older person is linked to a single registered provider who oversees their individual service agreement and is responsible for coordinating, delivering, and claiming payments for all services including ongoing services.
This means that registered providers, claiming for delivery of Support at Home services must:
- Apply to be registered in Category 4, with the service type ‘Care management’ as well as any other service types or categories you want to deliver care in
- be audited under the strengthened quality standards
- meet Outcome 5.1 (Clinical Governance) of Standard 5: Clinical care.
Each older person receiving Support at Home has a provider registered in Category 4. Each older person will develop their service agreement with that provider. That provider will be responsible for:
- the older person’s care management
- overseeing all their Support at Home services
- meeting all obligations applying to the registration category/ies under which they are registered.
Under the ‘single provider model’, if an older person’s needs change over time, and they are assessed as requiring additional services that the provider is not registered to deliver, the older person would need to transfer to another provider who is registered for the full range of services required according to their assessed needs.
Therefore, as a provider you may choose to register in multiple categories and service types so that you or your associated provider can deliver a broader range of services.
To deliver government-funded aged care services under the Support at Home Program visit, becoming a registered provider.
There is a fee associated with each audit we conduct. For more information on the fees to become a registered provider, please see the Registration fees webpage.
Support at Home short-term pathways
People using the Support at Home program will have access to 3 short-term pathways to help them stay at home longer:
- Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme (AT-HM)
- Restorative Care Pathway
- End-of-Life Pathway.
For each of the above short-term pathways, there are certain requirements for providers registered to deliver these services, in addition to the general Support at Home registration requirements. Providers delivering services under the:
- AT-HM scheme must be registered into Category 2 with the service type ‘Assistive Technology and Home Modifications’ selected
- Restorative Care Pathway must be registered into Category 4 with the service type ‘Restorative care management’ and ‘Allied health and therapy’ both selected
- End-of-Life Pathway must comply with the strengthened Quality Standards based on the service-type they offer and the category/ies under which they are registered.
You can find more information about the pathways on the department’s website.
Guidance
The strengthened Quality Standards guidance tool helps providers and workers understand and meet the strengthened Quality Standards.
You can use this online tool to find the information you need. Choose your registration category to see the strengthened Quality Standards that apply to you. You’ll find information about how to meet each outcome.
The tool also encourages you to use best practice when providing care and services.