Support at Home leaves providers reliant on spreadsheets
- Digital headache: More than half say systems aren’t fit for purpose
- Spreadsheet nation: Providers relying on manual workarounds
- Cost blowout: Tech upgrades running into hundreds of thousands
- Vendor frustration: Operators left bridging the gaps
Despite spending thousands on technology upgrades, many home care providers say their systems remain unfit for purpose under Support at Home.
More than half of Support at Home providers say their digital systems are not meeting their needs or do not exist at all, according to the final instalment of Enkindle Consulting’s Home Care Provider Outlook Report 2026.
Part 5 of Enkindle’s report, based on a survey of more than 300 home care providers found that despite spending thousands of dollars to upgrade systems for Support at Home, many operators regard the technology as unfit for purpose.
As a result, operators are increasingly relying on spreadsheets and other manual workarounds to manage budgeting, claiming, reporting and care management functions.
The most commonly reported issue since Support at Home went live on 1 November 2025 was that digital systems were not ready (55.6%). The second most reported issue was integration problems between provider systems and finance, payroll and rostering platforms (42.4%).
“Leading into the go-live of Support at Home, providers and vendors had to rebuild systems at pace, working with incomplete and last-minute information,” said Jennene Buckley, Director at Enkindle Consulting.
“That impacted system readiness. Combined with Government systems that were not fully ready, and limited time for adequate user acceptance testing, it has created significant challenges for everyday operations.”
Some operators reported the cost of technology upgrades ran to hundreds of thousands of dollars with little to no Government support.
Providers also expressed “strong frustration” with software vendors, saying they were often not informed of new Government requirements, leaving operators to bridge the gap.
The survey illustrates that lack of digital readiness is a significant drain on the home care sector.
Enkindle published Part 4 of their five-part series last week, which found the home care sector lacked confidence in the planned transition of CHSP into Support at Home.
Providers consistently questioned whether the new program is sufficiently stable to absorb the large CHSP client cohort. Many respondents called for the transition to be delayed, and there was also strong support for the CHSP to remain a separate block-funded program.
Read our earlier coverage of the Enkindle surveys here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. You can download the surveys here.
