Home Care Participant Experience: Measure It, Prove It

As at 13 October 2026, no survey, score or quality indicator is mandated for Support at Home providers, so home care participant experience is something you design. What the law does require is narrower: a complaints and feedback system, a continuous improvement plan, and evidence that what participants tell you changes what you do.

Key Takeaways

As at 13 October 2026 the Rules require no survey or score from Support at Home providers; quality indicators, including the Consumer Experience Assessment, apply to residential care (s 166-105).
Every Support at Home provider must run a complaints and feedback system (Act s 165), meet Outcomes 2.1 and 2.6b of the Quality Standards and hold a continuous improvement plan.
Feedback that raises an issue must be managed, kept for seven years and counted in the annual report to the Commission, so a check-in that surfaces a problem is feedback, not survey data.
The Program Manual says providers should regularly seek participant input but sets no method, scale or frequency; touchpoints and questions are good practice.
The Commission tests whether experience, documents and outcomes agree, so a dated action traced to a participant's words outweighs a satisfaction percentage.

What do the Act and Rules require about listening to participants?

These requirements apply to Support at Home providers, read from the Aged Care Act 2024 (compilation of 1 July 2026) and the Aged Care Rules 2025 (compilation of 1 October 2026). Each item below is a requirement, not guidance.

Statement of Rights: participants may express opinions and be heard (Act s 23(7)), use their preferred language with interpreters (s 23(8)), complain without reprisal (s 23(9)) and be supported by an advocate when giving feedback (s 23(10)). Every provider must demonstrate it understands them and has practices to act compatibly (Act s 144; Rules s 144-1).
Quality Standards: Outcome 2.1 requires meaningful and active partnerships with participants to inform priorities and improvement. Outcome 2.6b requires you to encourage feedback without reprisal and use it for improvement (Rules ss 15-5, 15-15).
Complaints and feedback system: the system must accept feedback orally, in writing and anonymously, offer advocates and language services, and be reviewed at least annually (Rules s 165-15). You must tell participants at least monthly that complaints and feedback are welcome (s 165-20).
Continuous improvement: every provider must show commitment, and this category must hold a continuous improvement plan (Act s 147; Rules ss 147-5, 147-10). Neither says what the plan must contain.

Is any survey or quality indicator mandatory for Support at Home?

No. The Rules apply their quality indicators, including the Consumer Experience Assessment, to residential care only (s 166-105). The Department's Quality Indicator Program page says Support at Home indicators are still being developed, with no start date given, and the Program Manual contains no survey or indicator requirement.

Guidance points the same way. Manual s 10.9 says providers should regularly seek input from participants, registered supporters and carers, and use it to inform improvement. The Commission's guidance on Outcome 2.1 says home providers should have processes to obtain information from older people and check how well those partnerships inform delivery.

The Commission's guidance also mentions consumer advisory bodies, but the Rules require them only of residential, nursing and transition care providers (s 158-20). Neither source prescribes a method.

How do you measure home care participant experience in Support at Home?

Everything below is good practice. Attach it to contact you already owe: the Manual requires at least one direct care management activity per participant each month, for at least 15 minutes (s 8.4), and counts evaluating service quality as an included activity (s 8.4.1).

Which touchpoints are worth building in?

First month after onboarding: ask whether services match the care plan, workers arrive as agreed and they know how to raise a concern.
After a care plan review: ask two or three questions on whether the updated plan reflects what they said.
After an incident or service change: ask whether they understood what happened and what changed. An incident is itself a care plan review trigger (Manual s 8.6.2).
Annually: use the 12-month plan and agreement review for a broader conversation about goals and workers.

Which methods suit older people?

Phone check-in with fixed questions: a short call from the care partner, at a time the participant prefers, with four to six plain-language questions asked the same way each time plus one open question. No scale or pass mark is prescribed, so do not present a score as a regulatory indicator.
Supported conversation: for cognitive impairment or limited English, follow the communication preferences in the care plan (Manual s 8.6), book an interpreter under your interpreter and language services policy, allow extra time and record what you observe. Some people communicate through body language (Commission guidance on Outcome 3.2).
Registered supporter, with consent: ask the participant first and record the answer. A supporter may communicate the participant's will and preferences (Act s 27), and receives information where the participant consents (s 29). Note whose view each answer is; see registered supporters and consent.

How do you separate participant feedback from a formal complaint?

The Act and Rules handle both through one system (Act s 165), but the duties differ. For a complaint you must resolve each issue as soon as practicable, report the outcome and reasons, and explain how to go to the Complaints Commissioner (Rules s 165-25). For feedback you must consult the person who gave it (s 165-30).

Do not let the survey form decide the label. Log every issue raised in one register, mark it feedback or complaint, and ask the participant if unsure. The record and report duties attach to feedback that raises an issue (Rules ss 154-200, 166-205), so confirm with your own legal adviser how survey comments fit. See the home care complaints post for the pathway.

What should you record, and how do you turn answers into a dated action?

For feedback and complaints that raise an issue, Rules s 154-205 prescribes records of what was received each year, its nature, action taken, responses to the participant, improvements made, an evaluation of effectiveness and days to resolve, kept for seven years. Section 166-210 requires an annual report to the Commission, signed by the governing body, analysing complaint patterns and causes.

Check-in record (good practice): date, touchpoint, who took part, method, supports used, supporter consent, the participant's words as close to verbatim as possible, and the label.
Dated action (good practice): give each theme an owner, change, due date, review date and test of whether it worked, then enter it in the continuous improvement plan. Rules s 109-15 lists a plan update that sets a period for addressing an audit nonconformance among the circumstances prescribed for registration or renewal.
Closing the loop: tell the participant what changed. The Department's published Standards list reporting outcomes to the governing body and individuals as an action (2.6.5), and actions describe what providers can do, not rules. See continuous improvement examples.

What evidence will an assessor find convincing?

The Commission audits providers when they apply to register, renew or vary categories 4, 5 or 6. Its renewal audit guide says auditors collect evidence from eight categories, including the experience of sampled older people and supporters, observations, documents and care outcomes. Evidence is judged relevant, current, credible and valid, meaning verified through other sources, which is the logic of the triangulation method.

Procedure and records: touchpoints, owners, labelling rules and dated check-ins in participants' own words.
Register, plan and people: each issue linked to an action, outcome and review result, governing body papers recording themes, and care partners who can describe the process.
Statement of Rights map: one page showing which record evidences s 23(7) to (10). The Act and Rules prescribe no form of proof, so this is your own way to show the practices s 144 asks for.

Governa publishes free policy templates. Governa Connect maps an organisation's policies to the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, and Norma answers staff questions grounded in the organisation's own policies.

Prove You Listened, Not That You Surveyed

The Rules ask Support at Home providers for a system that hears participants, handles what they raise and improves because of it, not for a satisfaction score. Four touchpoints, one register and a dated action log are a practical way to show it. Take your last five care plan reviews, add the same three questions to each follow-up call, and log every issue raised as feedback or a complaint.

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Support at Home providers have to run a client satisfaction survey?

No. The Act, the Rules and the Program Manual do not require one, and the Consumer Experience Assessment in the Rules applies to residential care. A survey is one optional way to feed the complaints and feedback system you must run.

How often should we ask Support at Home participants for feedback?

The Rules require you to tell participants at least monthly that complaints and feedback are welcome (s 165-20), and the Manual requires monthly direct contact. No frequency is set for structured questions.

Is a negative survey comment a complaint?

Not automatically. The label depends on what the participant raises and wants, so ask when unsure, then log the issue and tell them the outcome.

What counts as Statement of Rights evidence in a Support at Home audit?

The Act requires you to demonstrate understanding of the rights and practices to act compatibly (s 144) but prescribes no form of proof. Dated check-ins showing participants were heard, offered interpreters or an advocate and told what changed, mapped to s 23(7) to (10), are sensible evidence.

Home Care Participant Experience: How to Measure It and Prove You Acted