What Support at Home Means for Independent Support Workers

If you've been working with older aged care clients for a while, you've probably heard "Support at Home" mentioned alongside terms you already knew, like Home Care Package or CHSP. It isn't a competitor product or a separate part of the sector - it's the government aged care program itself, renamed and restructured. Here's what actually changed, and what it means for the work you do.

In short: Support at Home is the Australian Government program that funds in-home aged care for eligible older people. It replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme from 1 November 2025, under the Aged Care Act 2024. For you as an independent support worker, it changes some of the terminology and paperwork around a client's funding - it doesn't change who employs you, and it doesn't guarantee any particular volume of work.

The name changed. Your working relationship with clients didn't

Support at Home clients still choose their own provider or independent support worker once their support plan is approved. Nothing about the reform turns that choice into an assignment, a rostered shift, or an employment relationship. Independent support workers on CareVicinity remain independent contractors - CareVicinity does not employ or assign work to you, under Support at Home or any other funding pathway.

What has changed is the structure sitting behind the client's funding, and some of the language they and their family might now use when they talk to you about it.

What's actually different from the old terminology

If a client says "my Home Care Package," they usually mean the same kind of support, now delivered under a different name and structure:

• Home Care Package (HCP) was the previous program for ongoing in-home support. Support at Home has replaced it for new participants; people already receiving a Home Care Package moved across under transition arrangements rather than a fresh assessment.

• CHSP (the Commonwealth Home Support Programme) is a separate, generally lower-level entry-point program. It wasn't folded into Support at Home.

• ACAT assessment is now generally called a comprehensive assessment, arranged through My Aged Care.

For your day-to-day work, this mostly shows up as new labels on paperwork and in conversation, not a change to the kind of support you're providing.

What a Support at Home client's funding actually looks like

It's worth understanding the shape of a client's approval, because it affects what gets asked of you and how it's recorded, even though it doesn't change who delivers the support.

Support at Home funds services against an assessed level of need, grouped into three categories: clinical supports, independence, and everyday living. Which category a service falls into affects what the client contributes toward the cost, not what you're paid or how you're engaged - that side of the arrangement is between you and the client (or the coordinator managing it), agreed directly.

Alongside ongoing services, the program also covers a Restorative Care Pathway (short-term support aimed at regaining function after a decline) and an Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme (equipment and home changes). A client you're supporting might mention one of these by name - they're part of the same program, not a separate one you need to register for separately.

Does Support at Home mean more work for independent support workers?

Support at Home is a larger, more structured program than what it replaced, and government policy attention on aged care workforce capacity has been part of the public conversation around the reform. That's a reasonable thing to be aware of.

What it doesn't mean is a guarantee. Nothing about the reform, or about CareVicinity, promises a particular number of clients, shifts, or income to any individual support worker. Clients choose their own provider once their support plan is approved, the same way they always have - the reform changes the funding and assessment process behind that choice, not the fact that it's still the client's choice to make.

Screening: one requirement is genuinely new

This is the part of the reform most worth checking, because it's a real compliance change, not just relabelling.

From 1 November 2025, aged care worker screening requirements under the Aged Care Act 2024 apply to aged care workers and responsible persons of a registered provider - which explicitly includes contractors, subcontractors, associated providers, and workers engaged through digital platforms delivering funded aged care services. Under this requirement, a worker needs either a current police certificate (valid up to 3 years) or an NDIS Worker Screening Clearance (valid up to 5 years).

This sits alongside whatever screening a platform or provider already asks for directly - it's a sector-wide government requirement, not something any one platform invented. If you're supporting Support at Home clients through a digital platform, it's worth checking your own screening documents are current against this specific requirement, separately from any platform-specific checks you've already completed.

What stays exactly the same

It's easy to read a program-wide reform and assume everything underneath it changed. Most of it didn't:

• You're still an independent contractor, setting your own availability and agreeing terms directly with each client.

• The client still chooses who supports them, from whichever provider or worker they prefer.

• The actual support you provide - personal care, domestic assistance, transport, allied health, depending on what you offer - hasn't been redefined by the reform.

• How you're paid and what you're entitled to charge is a matter between you and the client (or the platform facilitating that arrangement), unaffected by which government program is funding the client's side of it.

FAQ

Do I need to do anything differently for a client who's moved from a Home Care Package to Support at Home? Not because of the funding change itself. The support you agreed to provide doesn't change just because the program funding it has a new name and structure. If the client's needs or approved services have changed, that's worth confirming with them directly, the same as you would for any client.

Is the new aged care worker screening requirement the same as CareVicinity's existing screening? They can overlap, but they're not automatically the same thing. The Aged Care Act 2024 requirement (police certificate or NDIS Worker Screening Clearance) is a government requirement that applies where you're engaged through a digital platform delivering funded aged care services. Check your own current documents against this specific requirement rather than assuming an existing check already covers it.

Does Support at Home change how much I can earn? No. What you charge and what you take home is agreed directly between you and the client, or set out in the arrangement facilitated by the platform you work through. The program governs the client's funding and what they're approved for, not your rate.

Does this affect NDIS participants I support? No. Support at Home is an aged care program for older Australians. NDIS participants access disability supports through the NDIS separately, with its own screening and eligibility rules.

Where to go next

Understanding Support at Home from the client's side of the assessment and funding process can help when a client asks you a question you can't fully answer. What Is Support at Home? A Plain-Language Guide covers that side in full - the assessment, the funding pathways, and how it replaced Home Care Packages, from the perspective of the person receiving care.

For the practical side of independent work itself, how rates and payments actually work once you're engaged and ABN and GST basics for independent support workers are the next places to look. If part of your caseload includes veterans or their families, supporting DVA-funded clients as an independent support worker covers what's different about that funding pathway specifically.

CareVicinity is an Australia-wide care marketplace connecting people with independent support workers. Availability of specific services and workers may vary by location.