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Support at Home (SAH) agreements replace Home Care Package (HCP) agreements for aged care clients. This article covers SAH agreement setup and key differences between the two funding models.

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Overview

The Support at Home Program is the Australian Government’s funding model that replaced:
  • Home Care Packages (HCP) - transitioned 1 November 2025
  • Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) - transitioned 1 November 2025
  • Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) - transitioning in 2027

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Key differences between HCP and SAH

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SAH funding structure

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Budget types

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Short-term pathways

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Care management

  • 10% of the ongoing budget is automatically allocated to care management
  • The Care Management Pool (CMP) is quarantined for care coordination activities
  • Care Partners deliver and record care management activities

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SAH service types

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Participant contributions

Contributions depend on the type of service and the participant’s financial situation:
  • Clinical Supports (for example, nursing) - no contribution required
  • Independence (for example, personal care) - 5% to 50% contribution depending on financial status
  • Everyday living (for example, domestic assistance) - 17.5% to 80% contribution depending on financial status

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Agreement management tips

Extending an agreement end date is possible, but consider:
  • If services need to be removed, creating a new agreement is cleaner so the old one cannot be rostered
  • Agreement and service budgets may be affected
  • Recurring services in rosters need to be extended manually or through the Roster Template Wizard
If a shift includes both Everyday Living and Independence services, you have two options after mapping services:
  • Split the shift into two segments within one roster entry
  • Create two separate shifts
Split shifts with no gap between them do not trigger the broken shift allowance. For a genuine break, use the standard break method in the roster.
Participants receiving HCP on or before 12 September 2024 have protected contribution rules. All participants move to SAH claiming through Visualcare. Transitional rules apply for grandfathered participants - refer to government guidance for details.
There is no change to how external expenses are processed under SAH. Continue to add the item as an Expense in the participant profile, mark it as a Charge, and link it to the relevant agreement and service item. If using an import file, make sure all required details are included.

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Bulk creating agreements and adding services

If you need to set up SAH agreements for multiple clients at once, use the bulk agreement and service tools.
1

Filter and select clients

Go to the client profile list. Use the column chooser to add any filters you need, then tick the clients you want to create agreements for. Click Bulk Create Agreement.
2

Set agreement details

Select Support at Home as the Agreement Type. Set the Start Date and End Date, then add a reference to help identify the batch - for example, “AT” for Assistive Technology or “HM” for Home Modifications. Click Create.
3

Find the new agreements

Navigate to the client agreement list. Filter by Agreement Type and the reference you used in the previous step to locate the agreements you just created.
4

Add services in bulk

Tick the agreements you want to update, then click Bulk Edit. Click the down arrow and select Add Services. Filter for the service type you need, select the relevant services, and click Add Selected Services. Click Confirm to save.
Using a consistent reference (for example, “AT” or “HM”) makes it easy to filter and locate bulk-created agreements in the agreement list.

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Running into issues?

See Client management troubleshooting for common errors and fixes.

SAH financials

Manage budgets, statements, and financial exports for SAH clients

Care plans and service agreements

Track care management time and activities

Creating agreements for rostering

General guide to creating client agreements