Care Partner & Care Plan Policy Template

Care Partner and Care Plan Management Policy Template for Support at Home Providers

A fill-in-the-blanks policy that names who holds each participant's care plan, when it gets reviewed, and what evidence sits behind both.

Key Takeaways

Every participant is linked to one registered provider, and that provider allocates a named care partner who holds the care plan from first contact to exit.
Care plans are developed with the participant and must be formally reviewed as often as needed and at least annually.
There is no single mandatory credential: a Certificate IV in Aged Care is the preferred example for non-clinical care partners, while clinical care partners need a tertiary health-related qualification.
Ten per cent of each participant's ongoing quarterly budget is allocated to a care management account, pooled across your service delivery branch and held by Services Australia.
Standard 3 of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards puts monitoring and review of the care plan squarely in scope at audit.

Why the Care Partner Role Changed on 1 November 2025

Support at Home commenced on 1 November 2025 under the Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth), replacing the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. Care managers became care partners, and the change runs deeper than the title. Under the single provider model, one registered provider holds the service agreement, coordinates and delivers every service, claims for them, and answers for the result. The care partner is where that accountability lands day to day.

Most home care providers already had care plan documents. What many did not have was a written rule stating who is allocated and how quickly, what qualification the role calls for, which events force a review before the annual date, and how care management time is recorded against a pooled account held by Services Australia. An auditor asks for that rule, then asks for the records that show you followed it.

The gaps show up in predictable places. A participant goes to hospital and the plan is not touched until the scheduled date. A care partner leaves and nobody tells the participant who replaced them. Care management time gets claimed from the pooled account with no progress note behind it. Each of those is a documentation failure before it is a care failure, which is why the fix starts with a written policy and a review trigger list your team actually uses.

What This Template Includes

Title block plus a policy control table ready for your own document numbering
Purpose, scope and policy statement written for Support at Home delivery in the home
Definitions for care partner, clinical care partner, care plan, quarterly budget and the care management account
An allocation procedure covering timing, system records, written notice to the participant, leave cover and reallocation requests
Qualification, supervision, scope of practice and competency expectations for clinical and non-clinical care partners
Collaborative care planning steps that include supporters, advocates, interpreters and recorded consent
A documentation standard listing the eight things every care plan must record
A review cycle plus nine named triggers that bring a review forward
Standard 3 monitoring duties, progress note content and clinical escalation
Care management account rules for recording activity and reconciling claims
Roles and responsibilities table, related policies, legislation list and a sign-off block

Who Should Use This

Registered providers holding Category 4 registration with the Care management service type
Care partner team leaders writing or rewriting their care planning procedure
Quality and compliance managers assembling Standard 3 evidence before an audit
Smaller home care providers moving off Home Care Package paperwork
Boards that need one document showing where care plan accountability sits

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Does every participant need a named care partner?

Yes. Each participant is linked to one registered provider that coordinates and claims for all their services, and the care partner is the person who holds that relationship. Name them in writing and record who covers planned and unplanned leave.

What qualification does a care partner need?

There is no single mandatory credential. A Certificate IV in Aged Care is the preferred qualification example for non-clinical care partners. A care partner carrying clinical responsibility needs a tertiary health-related qualification such as nursing, physiotherapy or social work.

How often must a care plan be reviewed?

As often as the participant's circumstances require, and formally at least once in every 12 months. The template also lists triggers, including a hospital admission, a classification change or a significant incident, that bring the review forward.

How is care management work funded?

Ten per cent of each participant's ongoing quarterly budget is allocated to a care management account. Those amounts are pooled across participants in a service delivery branch and held by Services Australia, and you claim care management services from the pool for work actually performed.

Does this still apply when a participant self-manages?

Yes. A participant may manage their own services, budget and workers based on their approved support plan, but they still partner with a provider for support and oversight, and accountability for regulatory obligations stays with the registered provider.

Put a Named Care Partner Behind Every Care Plan

Download the template, replace the bracketed placeholders with your own roles, review timeframes and system names, and take it to your governing body for approval. Then test it: pull five current care plans and check that each one has a named care partner, a formal review inside the last 12 months, and progress notes that match what your policy now says you do.