Inside the Senate Inquiry on CHSP transition to Support at Home

Home care providers are calling for the Government to delay, and in some cases reconsider altogether, the transition of the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) into Support at Home.

Appearing before the Senate Inquiry into the transition on Monday, Joel Reading, acting CEO of Ozcare, representing peak body Catholic Health Australia (CHA), said the CHSP is one of “the most effective and best value investments that we have in the Australian aged care system”.

“It’s light touch, it’s preventative. It helps people remain independent, maintain their wellbeing and particularly avoid premature entry into the higher cost streams of the system,” he said.

While transitioning the CHSP to Support at Home presents an opportunity to strengthen the system, the removal of block or grant funding could risk services closing. If grant funding goes, day respite centers, dementia advisory services, and remote Queensland services would be at risk, he said.

Don't repeat rushed transition

Ageing Australia CEO Tom Symondson said the peak body for aged care providers is “very, very worried” that rushing the transition of a program the size of the 830,000-user CHSP could be catastrophic for both providers and consumers.

He said the strain following the introduction of Support at Home providers is already “extremely noticeable”, and warned imposing a similar timetable on the average CHSP provider – many smaller and regionally based – would have an even greater impact.

Joel echoes his concerns. The rushed Support at Home transition “burnt a lot of staff goodwill” and consumers a “great deal” of capital. “We do not want to go through that again,” he said.

Tom told the Senate Inquiry hearing that the workforce is already under extreme pressure. Executives, middle managers and frontline staff are “leaving in droves” and a spate of CEOs resignations in the last two months is the highest number he’s seen. “A lot of that is because of burnout,” he underlined, calling for sector stabilisation before further structural reform.

Stabilise before transition

Ageing Australia is asking for 12 months of clear air before the CHSP is transitioned into Support at Home, said Tom. Implementation issues with of Support at Home must be resolved, including billing, and waiting lists brought down to the Government’s three-month target.

“We need to have waiting times in Support at Home that are much more reasonable before we make any change,” Tom told the Inquiry, cautioning the system relies on people, not robots.

Layering further reform onto unresolved operational issues would impose substantial organisational and individual strain, he said.

Elements of CHSP should be retained

Tom said features of the CHSP should be retained including its reablement focus, block and pooled funding, local responsiveness, lower costs per hour, use of volunteers, and organisations working together in local communities.

“The costs of moving to the very compliance-heavy Support at Home system is going to bury a lot of those providers,” Tom said.

Confidence in the transition is low. An Ageing Australia survey found 85% of CHSP providers not currently delivering Support at Home are not confident they could implement the changes.

Opposition to the merger is growing

Professor Kathy Eagar, who helped design the AN-ACC funding model, told the hearing she does not support the transition. In her submission she said, the 40-year-old program has performed consistently well. Getting rid of it would “simply make no sense”, she said.

Consolidating programs would risk design flaws similar to those seen in the NDIS, constrain consumer choice, increase fiscal pressure and ultimately shift demand into a more expensive model the Commonwealth may struggle to sustainably fund.

Adrian Morgan, Managing Director of Queensland home care provider Flexi Care shared Kathy's concerns, warning absorbing the CHSP into Support at Home would involve significant disruption to hundreds of thousands of people.

He cautioned it could destabilise a system that is essentially working well – with no compelling policy rationale beyond administrative simplification.

With the transition slated for no earlier than 1 July 2027, and no information yet about the proposed program design, the timeframe for implementation is becoming increasingly compressed.

The Senate Inquiry reports on 15 April 2026. The Government must deliver certainty to CHSP providers soon thereafter.

You can access transcripts of the hearing here.