Governing Third-Party Workers in Support at Home

A participant asks you to pay their own gardener out of their quarterly budget, or the physiotherapist they have used for eleven years who has never signed anything with your organisation. Support at Home contemplates these requests. What it does not do is shift the regulatory consequence: third-party workers deliver the service, and the registered provider answers for it.

The department's position is plainly worded. On its guidance for self-management by Support at Home participants, it states that you must meet all regulatory obligations and requirements, including when third parties deliver services, and that if you cannot, you should not agree to the arrangement. Put that in front of any care manager about to approve something to avoid a difficult conversation.

Key Takeaways

Engaging a third-party worker transfers delivery, not accountability. Provider liability for quality and safety stays with the registered provider.
Where a participant self-manages, the overhead you charge is capped at 10 per cent of the actual cost of the third-party service and must sit inside the final service price.
Screening, Code of Conduct coverage and incident reporting reach are settled before the first visit, not after the first problem.
The arrangement belongs in the care plan, with a named reviewer and defined review triggers.
If due diligence cannot close the gaps, declining is the compliant answer.

You Remain the Accountable Provider

Support at Home runs on a single provider model: one registered provider holds the service agreement, coordinates delivery and claims payment. The department's guidance on services under Support at Home is explicit that you remain responsible for making sure any third party meets the requirements of the Aged Care Act 2024 and the Aged Care Quality Standards, and that you cannot agree if you cannot meet those obligations through the arrangement.

The Commission says the same about organisations delivering on your behalf. Its guidance for associated providers states that registered providers are responsible for the quality, safety and compliance of services delivered by associated providers, including Code of Conduct compliance, must maintain effective oversight, and must ensure every aged care worker has met the screening requirements even where the work reaches the participant through another entity. That is the governance floor, so assess the risk before you agree.

Brokerage Arrangements Are Not Agency Staffing

Compliance teams conflate these two constantly, and that produces the wrong controls. Agency staff fill a gap on your roster, work to your care plan under your direction and are selected by you. A third-party worker is usually nominated by the participant and sits outside your workforce. Brokerage arrangements add a layer again, because an organisation rather than an individual delivers. Understanding the difference between a contractor and a subcontractor tells you who to hold to account.

One point catches providers out. Even when the participant found the worker, you still engage that worker to deliver on your behalf. Their preference creates no relationship that bypasses you, and it does not suspend the service list.

The Overhead Cap on Third-Party Arrangements

Support at Home prices are inclusive: labour, travel, consumables and administration fold into the service price rather than being billed separately as package management was under Home Care Packages. When a self-managing participant brings their own worker you still carry cost for screening, qualification verification, oversight and claiming. The department lets you recover that as an overhead, capped at 10 per cent of the actual cost of the third-party service and included in the final service price charged to the budget.

Read the cap precisely. The department attaches it to self-management arrangements, and the participant may negotiate it down. Outside self-management your overhead already sits inside your set price, not as a separate ceiling. It is cost recovery for governance you are legally required to perform, not a margin. And it is not the 10 per cent care management deduction taken from each participant's ongoing quarterly budget, which is funded as a clinical support with no participant contribution.

How the Cost Appears in the Budget and the Statement

The price charged to the budget has two visible parts: the actual cost of the third-party service and your overhead. Agree both in advance, including who receives and pays the supplier invoice. An arrangement where nobody decided who holds the invoice will produce a reconciliation dispute inside a quarter.

The record then has to survive scrutiny. The department's requirements for monthly statements for Support at Home services include listing each service with its date, price, hours or units, the subsidy received, the participant contribution, and where third-party suppliers were used. That last element is your audit trail: the arrangement existed, it cost this, and the participant could see it.

Contribution consequences by service type

What the participant pays depends on the service category, not on who delivered it. A third-party arrangement does not reclassify a service into a cheaper category, and misclassification is a claiming error.

Clinical supports - no participant contribution is payable, so a third-party allied health service here is fully government funded.
Independence - a contribution applies at the assessed rate. Personal care moves to clinical supports on 1 October 2026, changing the contribution position from that date.
Everyday living - a contribution applies, and most participant-sourced gardening, cleaning and home maintenance lands here.

Subcontractor Due Diligence Before You Agree

Build this as a gate with a documented decision at the end. Subcontractor due diligence should test at least the following:

Worker screening. Providers must comply with the worker screening requirements in the Aged Care Rules 2025, generally a police certificate or an NDIS worker screening clearance, and check the banning order register. Someone who does not meet them cannot work in aged care, including through a third party.
Qualifications and registration. Verify currency with the registering body for allied health and nursing roles. A participant's assurance is not evidence.
Code of Conduct coverage. The Code reaches independent contractors, employees of contractors and workers engaged through an associated provider, and you must take reasonable steps to ensure compliance. Flow code of conduct expectations for everyone delivering care through the engagement document, not your induction alone.
Incident reporting reach. The worker must know how to escalate and your incident management system must capture it. The Commission's guidance on reportable incidents requires notification within 24 hours for Priority 1 and 30 days for Priority 2. A sole trader who does not know your escalation path will blow those clocks.
Insurance and indemnity. Sight current certificates of currency for public liability and professional indemnity, with expiry dates diarised. This is a commercial control, not a program requirement, and the one most often waved through.
Records and access. Agree what the worker records, in what format, how it reaches you, and that you may audit it.

Run these consistently rather than case by case. A third-party and subcontractor management policy gives the gate a documented standard and your governing body something to monitor.

Write the Arrangement Into the Care Plan

The department tells providers to make self-management activities and third-party workers clear in the participant's care plan. Interpret that generously. The entry should name the service as listed, identify the worker or organisation, record the split between actual cost and overhead, state the contribution category, bound what the worker will and will not do, and set out the escalation path and a fallback if the worker becomes unavailable. That fallback is a continuity obligation.

Who Reviews the Arrangement and When

Name the reviewer. In practice the care partner carries it, through the direct care management activity of at least 15 minutes delivered to every participant at least monthly, including those who self-manage. Use that contact as your assurance point: is the worker attending, has anything been raised, does the arrangement still fit.

Add hard review triggers: any incident involving the worker, any change in screening or registration status, any change in scope or price, insurance expiry, and every care plan review. Keep a register of third-party arrangements with next-review dates so clinical governance sees the whole exposure, not one arrangement at a time during an audit.

Provider Liability Does Not Follow the Worker

Every incentive in the moment points towards saying yes. The participant is attached to their worker and the service looks straightforward. The governance question is narrower: can you discharge your obligations through this arrangement, and can you evidence it. If yes, document it, price it correctly and review it on a schedule. If no, declining with a written reason is defensible. Agreeing to an arrangement you cannot govern is not.

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we refuse a participant's request to use their own worker?

Yes. The department states that where regulatory requirements or provider obligations cannot be met, you should not agree. Record the gap that drove the decision, offer an alternative from your own workforce or a contracted provider, and tell the participant how to seek a review or complain.

Is the 10 per cent overhead cap a legislated figure?

It is departmental program design published on health.gov.au and in the Support at Home program manual, stated in the context of self-management arrangements. Treat it as binding program policy there, and do not cite a Rules provision number for it.

Does the cap apply when we broker through an organisation?

The 10 per cent figure is published for third-party worker arrangements where the participant self-manages. For services brokered through an associated provider as part of your normal delivery model, the cost sits inside your set price. Check the current program manual first.

Do third-party workers need worker screening?

Yes. The Commission is clear that registered providers must ensure all aged care workers have met the screening requirements, including where services are delivered through an associated provider. There is no exemption for a worker the participant chose.

Who reports an incident that happens during a third-party visit?

You do. The notification obligation sits with the registered provider, so your incident management system must reach the worker. Build the escalation contact into the engagement document and confirm they understand it before services start.