Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells (pictured) issued the surprise announcement on Wednesday night, revealing that the new Support at Home Program will now be delivered in two stages.
Under the new plan, Support at Home will replace the existing Home Care Packages (HCP) Program and Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) Programme from 1 July 2025.
But the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) will transition to the new program “no earlier than 1 July 2027” – suggesting this date is open to again being changed.
“I have listened to CHSP providers who have advocated for more time to prepare for reforms to ensure they can transition their operations and clients smoothly,” said the Minister in a statement.
“The staged approach will give all CHSP providers time to change their business systems and adjust to new payment arrangements,” added the press release.
10 years since single-in home care program was flagged
While it makes up a smaller proportion of the Government’s aged care funding – $3 billion in the last financial year – CHSP has the lion’s share of aged care consumers.
According to the latest 2022-23 Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act Report released this week, 1,334 organisations were funded to deliver CHSP services to 816,132 care recipients as of 30 June 2023.
In contrast, there were just 258,374 home care recipients serviced by 923 providers.
The decision is yet another delay in the transition to the new Program.
In July 2022, the Labor Government delayed Support at Home to 1 July 2024 after it was earlier brought forward to mid-2023 by the Coalition in its response to the Aged Care Royal Commission’s Final Report.
In this year’s Federal Budget, the commencement date was again pushed back to 1 July 2025.
If CHSP does transition to the new Program as planned, it will almost mark 10 years since the single in-home care program was originally mooted by the previous Government.
