Ending Support at Home Services: A Safe Exit Process

Ending Support at Home services is not a decision you can make on commercial terms. Since 1 November 2025 the grounds are prescribed, the notice period is fixed, and the paperwork is a condition of registration. Most providers learn this in the worst possible week, when a worker has been threatened and someone asks whether services can stop on Friday. They cannot.

Key Takeaways

A provider may only cease home support services in the circumstances listed in section 149-35(2) of the Aged Care Rules 2025. That list is closed, and your service agreement must say so.
Written notice under section 149-40 must state the decision, reasons, cessation date and the participant's rights, 14 days or more before services stop.
There is no provider-initiated suspension power in the Rules. A unilateral pause is a failure to deliver.
You cannot charge an exit amount, and records must reach the incoming provider within 28 days of request.
If behaviour prompted the decision and the behaviour changes, you must write again to withdraw the notice.

The Grounds Are a Closed List, Not a Judgement Call

Section 149-35(1) of the Aged Care Rules 2025 bars a provider from ceasing funded aged care services unless a circumstance in subsection (2) applies and notice has been given. For home support, assistive technology and home modifications those are:

the person cannot be cared for in the home or community with the resources available to you;
their condition has changed so they no longer need the services, or an approved needs assessor has found other funded services suit them better;
they have intentionally caused serious injury to one of your aged care workers, or intentionally infringed a worker's right to work in a safe environment;
they have not paid an agreed fee or contribution for a reason within their control, have not negotiated an alternative arrangement, and have no fee reduction supplement application in place;
they have told you in writing that they are moving outside your service area, or that they no longer want your services.

Read that against the reasons providers actually give and the gap is obvious. Chronic refusal of a recommended support is not there, nor a soured relationship with a care partner, repeated late cancellations, or a rude family member. The Department's guidance on when you can cease Support at Home services mirrors the Rules exactly, so a reason you cannot map onto one of those grounds will not survive a complaint. Where a case feels unworkable but does not fit, ask honestly whether the first ground applies, documented against a real assessment rather than a staffing preference.

Section 148-70(4) closes the loop: the service agreement must state that you may only cease in the section 149-35(2) circumstances, and set out how and when it may be terminated. A termination-at-will clause inherited from the Home Care Packages era is now inconsistent with the Rules, so rebuild it alongside an entry, transition and exit policy template.

Why a Service Suspension Policy Cannot Do the Work

Many providers want a middle option and draft a service suspension policy that stops visits for a fortnight while risk is reviewed. The Rules give no such power. The only pause the Department recognises is participant-initiated: its page on temporarily stopping Support at Home services covers a participant pausing for hospital, transition care, respite or a holiday, with care management continuing monthly. Nothing there creates a provider right to withhold agreed services.

A unilateral suspension is therefore not a lesser version of cessation. It is a failure to deliver under the service agreement, without the notice and reasons a lawful cessation requires. If you must stop attending a household immediately for worker safety, that is a work health and safety decision still to be reconciled with your aged care obligations within days. Replace suspension in your policy with an escalation pathway carrying dated review points and a named decision maker.

Unsafe Household Escalation Before You Reach the Exit

Exit should be the last rung of a ladder you can show an auditor. Unsafe household escalation works when every rung is a documented control with an owner and a review date: a revised care plan, two-worker visits, a change of worker or visit time, equipment that removes a manual handling risk, a behaviour discussion with the participant's GP, or a negotiated payment arrangement where contributions have fallen behind. That last matters, because non-payment is only a ground once no alternative has been reached.

Section 24(2) of the Aged Care Act 2024 is useful here. Providers must take all reasonable and proportionate steps to act compatibly with the Statement of Rights, acknowledging that limits may be necessary to balance competing rights, the rights of aged care workers, and compliance with other laws including the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. That supports a proportionate restriction on delivery, not abandonment. The Commission's material on the Statement of Rights and your own rights, dignity and choice obligations belong in the decision record.

Notice, Reasons and the People Who Must Be Told

Section 149-40(1) requires a written notice stating the decision, the reasons, the intended cessation date, and the participant's rights, including access to your complaints and feedback system, any other complaints mechanism, and independent aged care advocates. Subsection (2) sets the timing at least 14 days before that date, and the Department is blunt that you cannot cease immediately and must deliver through the notice period.

Subsection (3) is the provision most policies miss. Where the decision was based on the participant's behaviour and you later agree that services will continue because the behaviour has changed, you must give a further written notice stating you no longer intend to cease. That makes the 14 days a genuine review window rather than a countdown.

Information the Act requires be given to an individual must also go to a consented registered supporter, so a notice served on the participant alone is defective. A cessation notification also goes to the System Governor and the Commissioner within 28 days, and Services Australia must be told within 28 calendar days of the exit date. Keeping those channels straight is what a My Aged Care and referral management policy is for.

Exit Without Exit Fees, and the Handover That Follows

The Department states on its exiting the program and changing providers pages that you cannot charge an exit amount when someone leaves your care. Exit without exit fees is the baseline, not a concession. What remains is settlement: final invoices for contributions already incurred, a final monthly statement, claims finalised within 60 days of the exit date, and the remaining budget position given to the incoming provider within 28 days.

Transfer of records is a hard obligation. Under section 149-80, where an incoming provider requests records necessary for continuity, you must supply them or copies within 28 days, including records you must keep under section 7 of the Records Principles 2014 and section 154-1000 of the Rules. A warm handover sits on top: a call between care partners, a joint visit where risk is high, a written risk summary. Our note on protecting people during a change of care covers the clinical side.

Be precise about the scope of continuity of care obligations. Section 149 of the Act makes continuity a condition of registration, and the Department says appropriate arrangements must be in place. The prescribed continuity of care plan in section 149-75 is drafted for residential services, so home care providers should not assume a residential template discharges the duty, nor that nothing written is needed.

What the Governing Body Should See About Every Exit

Exits are one of the cleanest quality signals a board gets, and they are usually invisible. Give the governing body a standing quarterly item: provider-initiated cessations, the ground relied on for each, notices withdrawn, how many ended with no receiving provider in place, median days from escalation to notice, and any complaint or advocacy involvement. Where a quality care advisory body is required, it reports to the governing body on service quality at least every six months, and cessation data belongs there.

Two patterns should prompt questions. Zero cessations across a large caseload suggests informal ceasing, by rostering people down to nothing. Cessations clustered in one branch or coordinator is a local practice problem, not a cohort problem.

Ending Services Well Is a Governance Test

The decision test for ending Support at Home services should be written while nothing is on fire: which ground applies, what evidence supports it, which reversible controls were tried and dated, who approved it, who signed and received the notice, and what the receiving provider was given. Build that and the hard cases become procedural. Skip it and your worst week becomes your compliance record.

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we stop services immediately if a worker is assaulted?

Remove workers from immediate danger, but that is not lawful cessation. Intentional serious injury to a worker is a ground under section 149-35(2)(c). The cessation still requires written notice at least 14 days beforehand, during which the agreed services must continue by some safe means.

Can we charge anything when a participant exits?

No exit amount. You may still invoice contributions already incurred, must issue a final monthly statement, and finalise claims within 60 days of the exit date.

Is non-payment enough on its own?

No. Section 149-35(2)(d) requires that the non-payment was for a reason within the participant's control, that no alternative arrangement was negotiated, and that no fee reduction supplement application is in place. Document all three before issuing notice.

Do we have to find the participant a new provider?

Continuity is a condition of registration under section 149 of the Act, and you must support the transfer, including giving records within 28 days of a request. You cannot force another provider to accept a referral, so what matters evidentially is what you did: referrals attempted, advocacy offered, dates.

Does a registered supporter get the notice too?

Yes, where the participant has consented to information being shared with that supporter, or where the supporter falls within the category the Act covers regardless of consent.

Suspending or Ending Support at Home Services Safely