Support at Home Cutover, 1 November 2025: What Providers Need to Know

The Support at Home reforms are set to go live on 1 November 2025, and aged care providers face significant operational and compliance changes.

Below, we’ve outlined the key considerations, challenges, and practical steps that emerged from a recent discussion on provider readiness.

What Providers Must Complete Before the Deadline

Approved aged care providers will need to address a myriad of operational changes before cutover. Among the most critical:

  • Claiming processes with Services Australia
    • Does your software have an API for claiming?
    • Or will you need to rely on a bulk upload via CSV?
  • Service alignment and mapping
    • Ensure scheduling through to billing aligns with Support at Home services.
  • Compliance with the new Aged Care Act and strengthened Quality Standards
    • Review and update policies and procedures.
    • Deliver training to staff on new requirements.
  • Pricing review
    • Update pricing for both directly delivered and brokered services.
    • Ensure alignment with pricing guidance and consider future pricing caps.
    • Ensure the removal of travel charges.

How to Assess Readiness

Providers should conduct a gap analysis against the Support at Home program requirements, including:

  • Claiming requirements.
  • Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
  • Responsibilities under the new Act.

Helpful tools include:

Commonly Overlooked Areas

At Take 5 Learning, aside from the big key points listed above, we encourage you to review:

  • Late or evolving information: The Department continues to release updates, making it hard to fully map workflows.
  • Gap analysis delays: Providers can struggle to implement new procedures in time.
  • Change management challenges: Policies, procedures, and operational changes are difficult to embed under tight timelines.
  • Frontline staff training: Often not overlooked intentionally, but difficult to deliver smoothly and consistently.

Notes on Smaller and Regional Providers

Not all providers face the same challenges. Larger organisations often have more back-office capacity, while smaller and regional providers can struggle with resourcing change management.

For regional, rural, and remote services, there’s an added complexity: the new rules on travel. With travel now included in unit pricing, providers must find ways to present this clearly in their fee schedules so that older adults and families can understand how costs may vary in different regions.

Training Your Staff

With such large-scale reform, training is non-negotiable. Providers should consider:

  • Bite-sized, regular education: Research shows this is the most effective for change management.
  • Pre– and post–November 1 training: Staff must be supported both during the transition and once the new system is live.
  • Reinforcement and refreshers: Regular, consistent learning helps staff adapt to new workflows.

Governance, Management, and the Role of Leadership

Preparing for reform requires action across all levels of an organisation.

  • Boards must ensure oversight, compliance, and resourcing. They carry legal responsibilities under the Aged Care Act and need to be confident their organisations are meeting obligations.
  • Executives and managers are tasked with operationalising change—training staff, embedding new workflows, and adapting systems.
  • Care staff rely on leadership to provide clear communication and practical guidance.

One of the most effective approaches is to establish a dedicated project team with responsibility for tracking progress against actionable items. This creates accountability and helps organisations stay on top of the reform timeline.

Governance vs Management: Who Does What?

Reform requires collaboration across all levels of an organization:

  • Boards and governance bodies:
    • Responsible for oversight.
    • Must ensure the organization is compliant and resourced to manage change.
    • Must meet obligations under the Aged Care Act for responsible persons.
  • Executives and management teams:
    • Responsible for operationalising change.
    • Leading staff through transition.
    • Ensuring new workflows, policies, and systems are embedded.
  • Key success factor: Establishing a clear project team with measurable, trackable items to manage reform implementation.

Role of Take 5 Learning

Take 5 Learning specialises in bite-sized training for the aged care and NDIS sectors. Their modules include:

  • Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
  • Statement of Rights.
  • Serious Incident Reporting Scheme.
  • Support at Home program essentials.

This ensures both frontline staff and managers have easy, repeatable learning pathways to reinforce what they need to know.

Want to learn more about our courses? Browse them here, or get in touch with any questions.

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