Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) reforms

Aged care reforms

We are making changes to improve aged care in Australia for all, now and in the future. These changes will deliver safety, dignity and respect for older people across aged care.

The reforms will change in-home aged care, including the CHSP from 1 July 2025, through: 

• a new Aged Care Act 2024, which will start from 1 July 2025
• theSupport at Home program, which will replace the Home Care Packages (HCP) Program and Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) Programme on 1 July 2025, with the CHSP transitioning no earlier than 1 July 2027
• the Single Assessment System, which helps older people more easily access aged care and adapt services as their needs change.

Changes to the CHSP

The new Aged Care Act will:

• regulate CHSP providers the same way as other aged care programs
• standardise the CHSP service list which will mean new service type names and descriptions – we will align providers’ current contracted services to the new service list over the coming months.

We will implement changes gradually to help providers and clients prepare for the transition to Support at Home.

We held a provider webinar on 13 March 2024. We will publish answers to frequently asked questions from the webinar soon.

We also held a survey with CHSP providers in November 2024 to seek feedback on proposed changes.

For more information about changes to CHSP, see:

• CHSP 2025-27 extension – provider update
• Proposed changes to CHSP service list from 1 July 2025 – Fact sheet
• CHSP 2025–27 service catalogue
• Proposed changes to CHSP Data Exchange from 1 July 2025 – Fact sheet.

Next steps

In the lead up to 1 July 2025, we will update providers about:

• the changes 
• any actions they need to take
• upcoming consultations and information sessions.

Transitioning CHSP clients under the new Aged Care Act  

Under the new Act, CHSP clients must be assessed as eligible for CHSP through a My Aged Care assessment to receive government-subsidised CHSP services. 

The vast majority of CHSP clients will be transitioned under the new Aged Care Act because they have previously been assessed as eligible for CHSP.  

We are supporting current CHSP clients who have not had an aged care assessment to get an assessment before the new Aged Care Act commences on 1 July.  

We are contacting and providing guidance documents to CHSP providers that have historically provided CHSP services to unassessed clients. 

If your organisation provides CHSP services to clients who have not had an aged care assessment, you will not be able to keep providing services to these clients unless they apply for and have an aged care assessment by 30 June 2025. 

As it can take time to receive an aged care assessment, please support your impacted clients to request an assessment through My Aged Care as soon as possible. Additional assessors are available to support these clients to get assessed in a timely manner. 

For more information, please read: 

• CHSP client transition letter for providers
• CHSP client transition provider fact sheet 
• Letter template for unassessed CHSP clients 

CHSP funding extension

The CHSP is being extended from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2027. 

We have sent all eligible currently contracted CHSP providers an invitation to apply to the CHSP 2025-27 Funding Extension Grant. 

This invitation outlines:

• their proposed 2025–27 funding and outputs 
• details on the application process and steps they need to take. 

Refer to the Grant Opportunity Guidelines on GrantConnect and lodge your application via email to CHSPextension@health.gov.au before 2pm (AEDT) 30 April 2025. 

Find more information in the CHSP 2025-27 extension – provider update.

Additional grants and rollover funding

The 2025–27 extension is not an opportunity to request additional funds.

Providers will not be allowed to roll over any unspent 2024–25 funds or any other funds related to their current grant agreement into 2025–27.

To support the additional requirements for data collection and entry, the Support at Home and new Aged Care Act Transition Support 2024-25 Grant Opportunity (G07421) is now open. CHSP providers can apply for $10,000 in one-off funding to assist with the cost to update IT systems. Apply online via GrantConnect before 25 February 2025.

We are looking at additional funding opportunities for 2025–27. We will provide more information in the coming months.

CHSP manual 2025–27

The new CHSP manual 2025–27 will be available in the coming months and include further detail about the program changes.

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