The Coming Storm in Home Care

Change is on the horizon. The Support at Home program, slated for July 2025, isn’t a tweak to the existing system. It’s a wholesale rewrite of Australia’s rules for in-home aged care. For providers, it’s not just a new framework; it’s a storm that will demand resilience, reinvention, and relentless focus.

At its core, the program promises great things: more autonomy, tailored support, and a system built to empower older Australians to live independently at home. But promises don’t pay bills, and good intentions don’t streamline operations. For care providers, these reforms aren’t just about meeting the needs of their clients—they’re about surviving the system itself.

The Realities Behind the Promises

Beneath the government’s goals lies a brutal equation: deliver more care, more personally, at capped prices and hours. Sticking to old methods is a recipe for inefficiency and a broken business.

Capped Prices and Hours, Unlimited Expectations: Caps are coming for every service. That might sound like a win for fairness, but it’s a test of ingenuity for providers. Can you deliver high-quality care while meeting the cap? Can you map out worker schedules, cluster services and manage compliance without running yourself into the ground? You’ll need systems that don’t just work but work smarter and harder.
The Workforce Pressure Cooker: Care work is personal, hands-on, and unpredictable. And now, there’s more personalised work to go around. Workers already stretched thin will be tasked with tighter schedules, more clients, and greater demands. Providers can’t ignore this pressure. Burnout and losing workers aren’t costs easily absorbed.
Thin Markets, Thick Challenges: Serving a rural client isn’t the same as serving one in the suburbs. Thin markets, where clients are few and far between, make travel times a logistical nightmare. But those clients matter just as much as the ones in denser areas. Are you prepared to handle these disparities without breaking your budget or workforce?

The Hard Truth

Here’s the reality: hope isn’t a strategy, and survival isn’t guaranteed. Providers sticking to legacy systems and manual processes will be outpaced and outpriced. What’s needed isn’t just adaptation; it’s transformation.

Tools that offer automated scheduling and route optimisation aren’t luxuries anymore—they’re lifelines. But tools alone aren’t the answer. Providers need the courage to change how they think about care delivery, the will to try new things, and the focus to continuously improve.

This is also a challenge for software providers supporting the aged care industry. Change is exhausting. Care organisations undergoing a digital transformation need solutions that are fast to set up, intuitive to use and deliver immediate value. Tools must go beyond functionality—they must respect the humanity at the heart of this work, easing the burden on care teams while empowering them to succeed.

The Path Forward

The storm is coming, but it doesn’t have to be catastrophic. Providers who embrace this as an opportunity to innovate can emerge stronger. This isn’t about doing the same thing faster—it’s about doing it better.

Cut travel inefficiencies to give workers more time with clients. Use real-time data to make smarter decisions. Build systems that respect your workforce’s humanity while enabling them to deliver care at scale. And the time to start doing this is now.

This storm could be a win-win-win outcome for older Australians, workers, and care providers. The rewards will be worth it for those ready to lead this transformation. Here’s the thing: change isn’t just a challenge—it’s also an opportunity. It forces us to rethink, retool, and rise to meet the moment.

Yes, this will be hard. But hard isn’t always bad. It sharpens our focus, drives innovation, and reminds us why we do what we do: to provide care that truly matters.