Care Partner Obligations Every Support at Home Provider Meets

Key Takeaways

• Care partner obligations follow the function, not the title: whoever delivers care management holds the duties.
• Every participant must receive at least one direct care management activity each month: contact with them or their registered supporter.
• For ongoing services, 10 per cent of each quarterly budget funds care management, pooled at service delivery branch level.
• Rostering, staff training, travel, program governance and compliance cannot be claimed as care management.
• No mandatory qualifications attach to the role, so competence is evidenced through training, supervision and caseload design.

The Care Manager Is Now a Care Partner

Since 1 November 2025, when the Aged Care Act 2024 commenced and replaced the Aged Care Act 1997, the staff member who delivers care management to a Support at Home participant is called a care partner. The old percentage fees for care management and package management are gone. Care management is now a funded service type with a named deliverer, a minimum frequency, a defined scope of claimable activity and a pooled account you claim against in arrears.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is explicit that care partners have no mandatory qualifications or registrations. They are appropriately trained aged care workers with relevant experience, who may hold qualifications in ageing, disability or nursing. That freedom is also the trap. With no registration floor, the only thing between your care management and an adverse finding is your record of who did the work, what they were trained to do and when they last spoke to the participant.

The Four Care Management Activity Groups

The Department groups funded care management into four activity types. Use them as both your billing taxonomy and your care note categories, because that alignment makes a claim defensible.

• Care planning - developing and reviewing care plans, individualised budgets and service agreements.
• Service planning and management - working with workers, participants and registered supporters to keep care continuous across settings, including hospital transitions.
• Monitoring, reviewing or evaluating - managing risks, tracking goals, case conferencing and watching budget utilisation.
• Support and education - helping participants make informed decisions and linking them to other ageing-related programs.

Care planning carries the heaviest compliance load. A care partner must complete the care plan before or on the day care starts, prepare it with the participant or their registered supporter, and provide a copy when it is finished, whenever it is updated and on request. If your intake lets services commence on a draft plan, you have a defect. Our glossary entry on what a care plan needs to cover sets out the fields.

A care plan review belongs on a twelve-month cycle at minimum, and the Department lists triggers that bring it forward: a participant request, a change in needs or goals, a higher classification, approval for assistive technology or home modifications, entry to the End-of-Life Pathway, a new risk or incident, or a change in carer support. Build those as system events, not reminders.

Monthly Direct Contact Is the Minimum, Not the Target

The clearest of the care management obligations is frequency. The Department states you must deliver at least one direct care management activity to each participant every month, and defines direct as communicating or meeting with the participant or their registered supporter. An internal file review, a GP call or a budget reconciliation is care management, but it is not direct contact and does not discharge the monthly duty.

The program manual and the Department's provider training material describe that monthly activity as a minimum of 15 minutes, while the guidance pages state the requirement without a duration, so roster and record at least 15 minutes per participant per month. Monthly direct contact is also the measure an assessor tests fastest, because it is countable.

What You Cannot Charge as Care Management

The Department names activities that cannot be claimed as care management: scheduling or rostering staff, staff training, travel, education, program governance, compliance, record keeping for program purposes and human resources activities. That list is not exhaustive.

Rostering sat comfortably inside care management under Home Care Packages. It is now unclaimable, as is the travel time spent driving to a home visit, even though the visit itself is claimable. One nuance matters for your coding rules: later versions of the program manual clarify that record keeping for care management purposes is included, while record keeping for program administration is not. Your price has to absorb the unclaimable work, because care management sits in clinical supports and no participant contribution is payable for it.

When a Clinically Qualified Care Partner Is Appropriate

A care partner holding a university-level qualification in a relevant health discipline, such as a Bachelor of Nursing or Physiotherapy, is a clinically qualified care partner. You choose your workforce mix, and the Department's reason for the distinction is supporting participants with more complex needs.

Clinical allocation should follow a documented risk trigger rather than preference. Unstable chronic disease, complex wound or continence management, polypharmacy, swallowing risk, cognitive decline with behavioural risk and recent unplanned hospital admission all justify clinical oversight, as does the End-of-Life Pathway. Write the triggers into policy and record each allocation decision.

That boundary is a clinical governance question, not a scheduling one, which is why how clinical governance is defined should inform where you draw the line. Where a non-clinical care partner holds the relationship and a nurse provides oversight, set delegation and responsibility boundaries in writing so escalation is not left to judgement.

Caseload Design and Supervision

The program sets no caseload cap, which makes caseload your risk control to design and your decision to defend. Work it backwards from the money. Your care management account receives 10 per cent of each ongoing participant's quarterly budget, pooled at the service delivery branch. Divide that pool by your internal rate for available hours, then by participant count. If the result sits near the 15-minute floor, your caseloads cannot absorb complexity.

Pooling lets you spend more on a participant in crisis and less on a stable one, but only if someone is watching the account. Funding carries over between quarters within a financial year, with carry-over into the next year capped at the April to June quarter allocation. Persistent underspend signals that monthly contact may not be happening.

Because the role carries no qualification floor, your competency framework is the evidence that care partners can do the job. Define the skills required, assess them and keep the records. Our training and competency requirements for staff template gives you a structure, and complex caseloads warrant clinical supervision.

Records That Prove Monthly Contact Occurred

Care management is claimed in arrears and itemised against the individual participant, so claim data and care notes have to agree. Four records carry the weight.

1. A dated care note for every direct contact naming the care partner, the person spoken to, the activity group, the duration and the outcome.
2. A monthly exception report listing participants with no recorded contact, actioned before the month closes rather than at audit.
3. Claim records that reconcile to those notes, with no claimed time lacking a note and no claimable work left unclaimed.
4. Care plan version history and allocation records showing each review date, its trigger and why this participant has this care partner.

The Department also expects care notes to capture important discussions, changing needs, case conferences, risks, incidents and near misses, and billing or service changes. A note reading "called client, all fine" satisfies none of that.

Self-Management and the Care Management Supplement

Self-management does not reduce your care management obligations. The Department confirms the 10 per cent deduction continues regardless, and that you must still deliver at least one direct care management activity per month to participants who self-manage, because you retain responsibility for quality, safety, governance and compliance. The arrangements belong in the care plan, including which tasks the participant holds.

For specialised groups there is extra funding. The care management supplement funds an additional 12 hours per year, or three hours per quarter, per eligible participant: older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people homeless or at risk of homelessness, care leavers, veterans approved for the Veteran's supplement for aged care, and participants referred from the care finder program. It applies once even where several criteria are met. Services Australia identifies most from the assessment, so check eligibility at intake.

Care Partner Obligations Stand or Fall on Your Records

No single one of these duties is difficult. One direct contact a month, a plan written before care starts, a review every twelve months, a claim that matches a note. What defeats providers is drift: a caseload that quietly grows, a care partner on extended leave, a stable participant forgotten for a quarter. Build the exception report and keep allocation decisions in writing. The Department's guidance on funding for care management and the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards govern this work, under the Aged Care Act 2024.

Related Resources

• My Aged Care and Referral Management Policy Template
• Clinical Handover and Escalation Policy Template
• Record Keeping Policy Template
• Family and Carer Engagement Policy
• Registered Supporters and Consent in Home Services
• Governa Policy Mapping to Standards
• Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a care partner have to be a nurse?

No. The Department states there are no mandatory qualifications or registrations for the role. A care partner holding a university-level health qualification is a clinically qualified care partner, and may be allocated to participants with more complex needs.

What counts as the monthly direct care management activity?

Communicating or meeting with the participant or their registered supporter. A phone call, video call or home visit qualifies. Internal file work or budget reconciliation is care management but not direct contact.

Can we charge a participant for care management?

No. Care management falls within clinical supports, and no participant contribution is payable for clinical supports. It is funded by the 10 per cent deducted from each ongoing participant's quarterly budget, plus the supplement where eligible.

How often must a care plan review happen?

At least once every 12 months, and sooner on a participant request, a change in needs or goals, a higher classification, approval for assistive technology or home modifications, entry to the End-of-Life Pathway, a new risk or incident, or a change in informal support.