What does care management include under Support at Home?
Understanding Support at Home
Care Management
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In short...
Care management includes developing and reviewing your care plan and budget, coordinating services, monitoring risks and outcomes, responding to changing needs, providing information and helping you navigate the aged care system. It must include meaningful direct contact at least once each month, even if you self-manage.
The details...
What does care management include under Support at Home?
Care management includes the work your provider does to plan, coordinate, monitor and review your Support at Home services.
It is not limited to arranging workers. Its purpose is to make sure your approved services reflect your needs, preferences, goals, safety risks and cultural requirements.
Developing your care plan
Your care partner should work with you to develop an individual care plan before, or by the day, your services begin.
This includes:
understanding your needs, goals and preferences
reviewing your My Aged Care support plan and approved services
identifying help already provided by family, friends or other services
discussing cultural, language and communication requirements
completing relevant safety and home-risk assessments
developing your service schedule and quarterly budget
establishing and reviewing your service agreement
recording emergency and escalation arrangements.
The care plan should explain what support will be provided, how it will be delivered and what outcomes it is intended to achieve.
Planning and coordinating services
Care management can include:
deciding how approved services will be used
coordinating nursing, personal care, allied health and other supports
communicating relevant information to workers
involving family members, carers or registered supporters with your consent
incorporating cultural preferences into service delivery
ordering approved consumables
coordinating transitions between hospital, home, respite or other care settings
helping prevent gaps or duplication between different services.
Your care partner should help ensure that the different people involved in your care understand their roles.
Managing your quarterly budget
Your care partner should help develop and monitor your individualised quarterly budget.
This includes:
explaining how much funding is available
explaining provider prices and participant contributions
helping prioritise services
checking that planned spending is sustainable
monitoring spending to prevent an unexpected budget shortfall
reviewing the mix of services when needs or prices change
providing clear information so you can make informed choices.
Care management should not be used simply to control spending or deny suitable services. Budget decisions should still reflect your assessed needs and goals.
Monitoring your care
Care management includes ongoing monitoring of whether services are:
being delivered as planned
safe and appropriate
meeting your needs
helping achieve your goals
responding to changes in your condition or circumstances.
The care partner may:
review workers’ care notes
speak with you about how services are going
discuss concerns with workers or clinicians
participate in case conferences
identify emerging health or safety risks
follow up after a fall, hospital admission or other incident
arrange an earlier care-plan review when necessary.
The provider must deliver at least one direct care management activity each month. This should generally involve at least 15 minutes of meaningful communication with the participant or their registered supporter. More frequent care management should be provided where the person has complex or changing needs.
A monthly care management activity may be a telephone call, video discussion or meeting. It should involve meaningful engagement, not merely an automated message or administrative contact.
Reviewing your care plan
The care plan should be reviewed:
at least once every 12 months
whenever your needs change
when services change
after a significant health event
when your goals or preferences change
when safety concerns arise.
A review may result in changes to your service mix, budget, worker instructions or risk-management arrangements.
Where your My Aged Care approval or classification is no longer sufficient, the care partner can help you request a Support Plan Review or reassessment.
Providing information and support
Care management may include helping you:
understand your rights and responsibilities
understand your Support at Home approval
make informed decisions about services
navigate My Aged Care and other health or community systems
connect with GPs, hospitals, allied health or other relevant services
access interpreters or translated information
understand wellness and reablement approaches
prepare or review advance care planning documents
provide feedback or make a complaint.
A care partner can help you raise a complaint, but the provider cannot charge its complaint investigation and resolution work to the care management funding pool.
Supporting families and carers
With the participant’s consent, care management may also involve:
communicating with family members or carers
explaining changes in care needs
including supporters in planning discussions
helping carers navigate aged care services
identifying risks of carer stress or burnout
linking families with respite or other support.
Family involvement should reflect the participant’s wishes and privacy rights.
What does care management not include?
Some ordinary provider administration cannot be claimed as care management.
Excluded activities include:
creating staff rosters
scheduling routine visits
assigning or replacing workers
submitting government claims
staff travel
staff training
recruitment and performance management
ordinary financial and operational reporting
incident reporting administration
investigating and resolving complaints
routine care notes completed by support workers.
These are provider operating responsibilities and should not be presented as individual care management delivered to you.
How is care management funded?
For participants receiving ongoing Support at Home services, 10% of the quarterly classification budget is allocated to care management.
This amount is placed into the provider’s pooled care management account rather than remaining available for the participant’s direct services.
Because the funding is pooled:
you do not receive a fixed personal number of care-management hours
some participants may require more care management than others
the provider should allocate support according to complexity, changing needs and risk
every participant must still receive the required monthly direct activity.
The provider should be able to explain what care management it has delivered for you.
Does care management still apply if I self-manage?
Yes.
Self-management may give you more control over choosing workers, scheduling and managing parts of your budget, but the registered provider still retains responsibility for safety, quality, claiming and legal compliance.
A care partner must continue to:
maintain a care plan
monitor risks and service quality
review your needs and goals
explain your budget
provide at least one direct care management activity each month.
The 10% care-management allocation still applies to participants who self-manage ongoing services.
What should good care management look like?
Good care management should be:
proactive rather than only responding when something goes wrong
personalised to your needs
clear about budgets and prices
responsive to changes
coordinated across workers and health professionals
culturally safe
respectful of your choices
properly documented.
Warning signs include:
no identifiable care partner
no meaningful monthly contact
unexplained budget changes
care plans not being reviewed
repeated service problems without follow-up
nobody responding to changes in health
family members being excluded or included against the participant’s wishes
routine rostering being described as personalised care management.
What should I do next?
Check the person's Notice of Decision and support plan.
Ask the provider or My Aged Care to explain how the rule applies to this situation.
Keep the advice and any agreed changes in writing.
Helpful Local Home Help resources
Check the official guidance
Check current official Support at Home guidance. Aged care rules, funding amounts and program guidance can change, so check the current official information before making an important care or financial decision.
Takeaways
- Care management helps organise, monitor and adjust your care so services remain safe and suitable.
- The person's support plan and circumstances determine how the rule applies.
- Current official guidance should be checked before an important decision.
About Local Home Help
How Providers Are Listed
How providers appear on Local Home Help Local Home Help helps families discover home support services available in their area. Providers may appear on the site in a few different ways. Some providers create and manage their own listing on the platform. Others may appear based on publicly available information about services operating in a particular region. This helps families see a broader view of support options available locally. Where possible, we encourage providers to claim and manage their listing so information such as services offered, contact details and service areas remain accurate and up to date. There are no paid or enhanced listings on Local Home Help, and there never will be. Claiming or managing a listing has no effect on a provider's visibility, ranking, or how often it appears in a consumer's personalised shortlist, it simply keeps the information families see accurate and current. Local Home Help does not charge consumers to access the platform. We may generate revenue in other ways in the future, but none of these will ever influence which providers a consumer sees, how they're ranked, or what appears in their shortlist. Provider visibility is, and will remain, based solely on relevance to each family's stated needs. What does not influence Liz There are no paid or enhanced listings on Local Home Help, not now, and not in the future. No provider can pay for a higher position in Liz results, a better ranking, or inclusion in a consumer's shortlist. This is a permanent commitment, not a current-state description. Claiming or updating a profile does not improve a provider's ranking. It gives Liz more accurate information about the provider's services, coverage and care model, which can make the explanation of why a provider matched clearer, but it has no effect on whether or how highly that provider appears. Local Home Help intends to generate revenue in other ways in the future - for example through tools built for providers, or products separate from the consumer matching experience. None of these will influence which providers appear in Liz's results, how they're ranked, or what a consumer sees in their personalised shortlist. Visibility and ranking are based solely on the fit factors described above, and nothing else. This reflects the platform's core ethos: Local Home Help is built consumer-first. Every design and revenue decision is made so that what a family sees from Liz is the most relevant outcome for them. Never the most profitable outcome for Local Home Help or a provider.
Independence Statement
Our independence Local Home Help is designed to help families navigate the often confusing world of home support and aged care services. The platform aims to present information in a clear and balanced way so families can better understand the types of help available and where to find it. While providers may appear on the platform, Local Home Help does not recommend one provider over another. The decision about which service may be suitable will always depend on individual circumstances. Families are encouraged to contact providers directly, ask questions and make their own enquiries before making a decision. Our focus is to make the process of understanding and finding support at home easier. Local Home Help does not accept payment of any kind in exchange for provider visibility, ranking, or shortlist placement, and never will. Any future revenue Local Home Help generates will come from sources entirely separate from how providers are matched to consumers.
Quality Signals
What to look for when choosing a provider Finding the right support service can take time. When considering a provider, families may wish to look for signs of quality such as: Clear information about services offered Transparent pricing or funding options Experience supporting older people at home Relevant professional qualifications where appropriate Positive feedback or reputation in the community Willingness to answer questions about care and services It is often helpful to speak with more than one provider before making a decision. Local Home Help aims to provide a starting point for exploring services, but the best choice will depend on the needs and preferences of the individual receiving support.
About the Author
Local Home Help Editorial Team
This article was created by Local Home Help to help Australian families better understand aged care and home support options in plain English.
Our content is based on publicly available information from:
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My Aged Care
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Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
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Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
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Provider pricing schedules and operational experience within the aged care sector.
Local Home Help is an independent consumer information platform and does not provide medical, legal or financial advice.
Important information
Aged care rules, fees, eligibility requirements and program arrangements can change. The information on this page is general guidance only and may not apply to every person or situation.
Before making a financial, legal or care decision, check the latest information with My Aged Care, Services Australia, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, or another appropriate official source.
Local Home Help does not provide legal, financial, medical or clinical advice.
Source data
Last reviewed
20/7/26, 9:08 pm