When your loved one receives their new Support at Home funding allocation, one of the first decisions you will face as a family is how involved you want to be in organising their care. You can choose to self-manage some or all of their services. This means you handle coordinating workers, bookings, and invoices yourself. Alternatively, you can have a provider fully manage these day-to-day tasks on your loved one’s behalf.
In all cases, your funding is held and administered through an approved Support at Home provider. The choice is simply about how much of the administrative heavy lifting you want to take on.
Understanding what goes on behind the scenes of home care is essential to making the right choice for you and your family. This article gives a clear breakdown of self-managed versus fully managed care under the Support at Home program.
What Does Care Management Actually Include?
Under the Support at Home program, 10% of your quarterly budget is automatically set aside for Care Management. This amount is fixed, meaning it applies even if you decide to self-manage all or some of your services.
It is common to view this as an “admin fee,” but it actually pays for clinical oversight, budget management, safety risk reviews and responding to changes in your loved one’s health. Care Management is essentially the project management of their aged care. For example, a dedicated Care Manager ensures that communication flows smoothly between their support workers, nurses and allied health professionals.
Even if you choose to self-manage, a care partner at your provider must still deliver care management activities and oversee the mix of services you receive. They are there to help keep the aged care safe, coordinated and compliant with government rules.
Read more about the Support at Home program
Compare Your Options
Feature | Self-Managed Care | Fully Managed Care |
Choice of Workers | You select and negotiate directly with independent workers. | The provider supplies their own fully vetted staff. |
Scheduling | You manage the roster and coordinate directly with workers. | The provider manages all schedules and times. |
Emergency Cover | You are responsible for finding a replacement if a worker is sick. | The provider automatically supplies a backup worker. |
Admin Workload | High. You handle timesheets, invoices and compliance checks. | Low. The provider handles all government admin. |
Budget Value | Can stretch further if you negotiate lower hourly rates. | Standard provider rates apply to all services. |
Care Management Fee | Standard 10% allocation still applies. | Standard 10% allocation applies. |
The Reality of Self-Managing Your Care
Self-managing your Support at Home services gives you more hands-on control. You have the freedom to choose your own independent support workers, negotiate their hourly rates directly, and decide exactly when they visit your home. By securing lower hourly service rates, you can often make the remaining 90% of your budget stretch further to cover more hours of care.
However, this control comes with significant responsibility. When you self-manage, you take on the daily coordination of your loved one’s care. If your regular worker calls in sick at 6:00 AM on a Tuesday, it is entirely on the family to scramble and find a replacement so your parent can have a shower.
You will also spend more time liaising with your provider. While you get to choose your independent workers, your provider is still legally responsible for quality, safety and compliance. This means you must work with the provider to ensure every worker you hire has current police checks, first aid training and appropriate insurance before they can start. For adult children who are already juggling full-time jobs and their own families, the invisible load of coordinating this care can quickly lead to burnout.
The Benefits of a Fully Managed Provider
Choosing a fully managed Support at Home provider offers something invaluable: peace of mind. The provider acts as the safety net for your loved one’s health, handling all the logistical headaches so you can go back to just being a daughter, son or spouse.
A fully managed provider takes on the responsibility of ensuring all staff are thoroughly vetted, police-checked and clinically trained. If a carer is sick or goes on annual leave, the provider automatically organises a backup worker to ensure the service is never interrupted. They also handle all scheduling, budget tracking and the complex invoicing required by My Aged Care.
When you use a fully managed provider, you are leaning on an established infrastructure that keeps your loved one safe when things go wrong. It is the comfort of having a dedicated professional team in your corner, ready to problem-solve at a moment’s notice.
Compare Your Aged Care Management Options Today
Every family’s situation is different. Some have the time and administrative skills to take on the daily coordination of self-directed care, while others need the reliability and completely hands-off approach of a fully managed provider.
If you are not sure whether you want to take on the workload of self-managing, you do not have to figure it out alone. Aged Care Decisions can help you navigate your options.
Our 100% Free, independent matching service connects you with top-rated, fully managed providers in your local area who have current availability.
Let us do the leg work for you. Contact Aged Care Decisions for your FREE personalised Options Report today and find a provider that perfectly suits your family’s specific needs.
Here’s how Aged Care Decisions’ FREE aged care matching service works:
