CHSP Extended to 2029: Software Planning for Providers

CHSP is not a short-lived data migration into Support at Home. On 21 August 2026, the government announced that the Commonwealth Home Support Program would be extended to 30 June 2029, with consultation on its longer-term design. The announcement does not give every client a new migration date of 1 July 2029. See the official announcement.

For provider teams choosing software, our recommendation is to evaluate CHSP as an operating program in its own right. This guide sets out a practical buying brief, not a prediction of future funding rules. Government sources checked 6 September 2026.

Start with the services your organisation actually delivers. List your individual visits, group activities, meals, transport and any other funded activities. For each, identify who accepts the referral, records the agreement, schedules the work, records delivery, collects contributions and reviews the reporting.

A useful requirement names a record and an owner. For example: a coordinator needs to see which agreed services have not started, the reason for the delay and the next follow-up. That is more testable than asking whether software has a client management module.

Do the same exercise for branch managers and finance teams. Separate a service that has been scheduled from a service that has been delivered, a contribution that has been invoiced from money collected, and an exported file from externally accepted reporting.

For organisations delivering both CHSP and Support at Home, shared client records are useful only if the program context remains clear. Your buying brief should ask where an operator sees the applicable service, funding arrangement, agreement and reporting route.

Test a person receiving services through more than one program. Pause or end one service in the demonstration and check that the other remains visible to the right team. Ask how history is retained when a program, service or provider arrangement changes. These are suggested acceptance scenarios, not claims about a particular vendor.

Do not make SAH quarterly budgets or means-tested contribution percentages the default model for CHSP. Your CHSP grant and reporting requirements need their own treatment.

1. A referral that cannot start immediately. Record capacity, the provider's response, a named follow-up owner and the eventual service commencement. Check that accepting a referral does not make it disappear into an unattended list.
2. A group with a changed attendance list. Use fictional clients, change an attendance record and inspect what changes in reporting and contributions. Ask how the system prevents counting a person twice.
3. A corrected reporting record. Export a test file, record a rejected row, correct the source and follow the replacement through reconciliation. Check whether the original submission and correction remain distinguishable.

Use the same scenarios with every shortlisted vendor. Ask your own coordinator and reporting officer to perform the work, rather than relying only on a presenter clicking through prepared screens.

Ask for a written first-phase scope. It should identify the records to migrate, interfaces to retain, data owners, reconciliation checks and the evidence needed before go-live. Establish what will happen to historical records that will not be imported.

Run a small representative migration before deciding that a full import is ready. Compare source and destination counts, sample histories and unresolved exceptions. Include role-based access and the ability to provide records to clients in the acceptance checks.

The extension gives a planning horizon; it does not remove today's reporting or agreement work. Review the DEX checklist and agreement and care-plan checklist alongside your software requirements.

Our CHSP software page sets out the client, service, contribution and reporting workflows available in Statura Care. Arrange a walkthrough with your provider team and agree the reporting pathway and implementation scope.

You can use the software evaluation workbook to compare scope, implementation and evidence. Bring your service mix and reporting process to a discussion, without including identifiable client records.