Support at Home: worker compliance for providers

The Support at Home program replaced Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care from 1 November 2025, and it sits under the Aged Care Act 2024. For providers, this is more than a funding rebrand. The full Aged Care worker screening regime now applies to people delivering care inside someone's home, and the home setting raises the stakes on supervision and record keeping.

This guide explains what changes for in-home workforce compliance, who the screening rules reach, and how to keep your records audit ready.

What changed on 1 November 2025

Support at Home consolidated the older in-home programs into a single program governed by the Aged Care Act 2024. The practical compliance points for your workforce are:

• The Act's worker screening requirements apply to in-home care, not just residential settings.
• The Aged Care Code of Conduct applies to in-home workers and contractors.
• A future national Aged Care worker screening check is expected to commence in mid-2026, which will further tighten who can work in the sector. Plan for it, but it does not change today's two screening options.

Until that national check arrives, the screening rules you apply today are the ones to get right.

The screening rules that apply to in-home workers

For Aged Care worker screening there are only two acceptable options:

• A National Police Check (Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check) issued in the last 3 years, or
• A current NDIS Worker Screening Clearance.

That is the whole list. There is no third option. AHPRA registration is never a substitute for screening: a registered nurse or allied health professional delivering Support at Home still needs one of the two screening outcomes above. You check registration and screening separately.

A note on the NDIS Worker Screening Clearance: it already includes a police history component, so you do not treat a police check as a separate item when a worker holds a current clearance. The clearance covers it.

The broad worker definition reaches more people in the home

In residential care it is usually clear who is a worker. In the home, the boundary is wider. The worker definition reaches people who enter a client's home in a role connected to the delivery of funded care, which can include:

• Direct care and personal care staff.
• Care managers and coordinators who visit the home.
• Subcontractors and labour-hire staff supplied to deliver funded services.
• Domestic support workers, cleaners and gardeners where their role connects to funded care delivery and they have access to the client.
• Platform or gig workers engaged to deliver in-home services on the provider's behalf.

The test is about the role and the access, not the job title. Where a person enters a client's home in a role connected to care, screening and the Code of Conduct apply. When you are unsure, screen the worker. The safer default protects the client and the provider.

This is where many providers carry hidden risk. Direct employees usually move through a structured onboarding process. Contractors, agency staff and platform workers often do not, yet they may have the same unsupervised access to a vulnerable person in their own home.

Why the home setting raises the stakes

A residential facility has colleagues, shift handovers and physical oversight. A home visit has none of that. The worker is alone with the client, often the only person present, sometimes for an extended visit. That changes the compliance picture in two ways:

• Supervision is thinner, so the upfront screening and the ongoing currency of that screening carry more weight.
• Verification of who actually attended matters more, especially when work is subcontracted to an agency or fulfilled through a platform.

Practical steps for in-home workforce assurance:

• Keep a complete record for every worker who enters a client's home, including subcontractors and platform staff, not just direct employees.
• Track expiry dates. A National Police Check is point in time and ages out at 3 years. A clearance can lapse or be revoked.
• Confirm screening before the first visit, and re-confirm currency on a schedule rather than only at onboarding.
• Apply the Code of Conduct to contractors in writing, and keep evidence that they have acknowledged it.

Contractors, labour hire and platform workers

If you engage another organisation to deliver Support at Home services, you do not transfer your obligation by signing a contract. You remain accountable for the workforce delivering care to your clients. That means you need a way to confirm that every supplied worker is screened and current, and to keep that evidence on hand for an audit.

The hard part is visibility. Screening evidence often sits with the agency or the individual, not with you, and it changes over time. A spreadsheet snapshot taken at onboarding does not tell you whether a clearance is still valid six months later.

How Koora helps

Koora is a Career Passport platform for care-sector workers. A worker builds one portable Career Passport, and Koora checks their credentials against the role so providers see a clear current-state picture when they need it.

For Support at Home providers, that means:

• Koora verifies credentials at source where an authoritative source exists, such as the AHPRA register and public state Working With Children Check lookups (VIC, QLD, WA, TAS and the NT). Police checks and NDIS Worker Screening Clearances have no source to query, so the compliance engine checks them against the requirements for the role, and a person reviews the documents themselves once a worker shares their passport with you, or across your own records through the Crew service. NDIS clearance verification at source is on the roadmap.
• One record per worker, including contractors and platform staff who hold a Career Passport, with expiry tracking so a lapse surfaces instead of going unnoticed.
• Current-state compliance status when you run a report, so audit evidence reflects the workforce as it is right now.

Koora checks credentials against the role. It does not replace your legal responsibility for who you engage to work in a client's home. The work of running a compliant in-home workforce stays with you. Koora's job is to make that work faster and the evidence easier to find, without lowering the rigour.

To go deeper, see Aged Care worker screening requirements, the Aged Care Act provider screening checklist, and the future Aged Care worker register.

Frequently asked questions

Does Support at Home use the same worker screening as residential Aged Care?

Yes. The Aged Care Act 2024 screening regime applies across Aged Care settings. An in-home worker who delivers care, or who enters a client's home in a role connected to care delivery, needs either a National Police Check issued in the last 3 years or a current NDIS Worker Screening Clearance. The setting does not change the two acceptable options.

Do cleaners and gardeners under Support at Home need screening?

It depends on their role and access to the client. The worker definition reaches people who enter a client's home in a role connected to the delivery of funded care. Where a contractor, cleaner or platform worker has that access, providers should screen them. When in doubt, screen the worker. The provider carries the legal obligation to decide.

Is AHPRA registration enough to clear an in-home Aged Care worker?

No. AHPRA registration confirms a professional is registered to practise, but it is never a substitute for worker screening. An in-home Aged Care worker still needs a National Police Check issued in the last 3 years or a current NDIS Worker Screening Clearance. Registration and screening are separate requirements and you check both.