The Federal Government’s Care Finders Program (CFP), launched in January 2023 as a Royal Commission recommendation, has received a strong endorsement from clients – but not without warnings about persistent access issues.
The second commissioned evaluation, released by Australian Healthcare Associates, found 95% of clients were satisfied with the outcome they achieved.
Across 5,300 survey responses – equal to 22% of eligible clients – results were consistently positive:
- 92% found the program easy to access
- 96% said it was appropriate for their needs
- 92% were satisfied with referrals
- 97% found organisations trustworthy, and
- 95% were satisfied with the overall outcome.
“Navigating to nowhere”
Despite the positive scores, the evaluation reinforced that access challenges are undermining trust in the aged care system.
The report flagged long wait times for assessments and services, with some clients never receiving support at all. In these cases, “care finders have repeatedly raised the issue of ‘navigating to nowhere’, whereby a client cannot be linked to a service, causing them to distrust the aged care system and be reluctant to re-engage.”
One care finder told evaluators:
“The cohort of people we’re looking after have much higher needs than just linking them with a provider. We can be doing things like making sure they have smoke alarms, contacting someone to clean gutters, helping people with cognitive impairment to shop … but it could be an eight-month wait until they get CHSP services. They’re not covering all the details that someone needs.”
The evaluation also pointed to rising pressures on frontline staff. 70% of cases required at least five hours of support, and 30% needed more than 15 hours. About half of all services were delivered in person.
Program extended to 2029
The CFP connects older Australians with high care needs to the aged care system, from registering with My Aged Care to navigating assessments and finding services.
It currently operates through 164 service outlets nationwide – 12 fewer than the year before – with 550 full-time equivalent staff, up 34 on last year. Since launch, more than 40,000 cases have been opened and over 30,000 closed, with new cases averaging 5,700 per quarter in 2024.
In 2024, the Government extended the program until 30 June 2029, signalling confidence in its role – but with the evaluation raising concerns about wait times and workload, the challenge now is whether Care Finders can maintain trust while delivering real outcomes.
