How Support at Home Care Management Pooling Works

Support at Home care-management funding for ongoing services is pooled at service delivery branch level. Ten percent of each participant’s quarterly funding contributes to that account, but the participant’s care-management activity does not have to equal exactly their contribution. Pooling allows the provider to respond to changing needs while managing the available branch funding.

That distinction matters when reviewing budgets or choosing software. A dashboard that treats ten percent as a fixed personal spending ceiling can discourage necessary support for a participant with more complex needs. Conversely, a pooled balance is not permission to claim general administration as care management. The Department’s funding guidance, checked on 12 October 2026, sets out the allocation, activity and carry-over framework.

For ongoing services, the deduction from each participant’s quarterly budget is allocated to the provider’s care-management account. Services Australia holds that account, and the provider claims eligible care-management services from it. All participants must be connected to a service delivery branch.

The pooled account is separate from the individual participant’s direct-service budget. A branch balance should therefore not be added to the participant’s remaining direct-service funding or shown as money the person can spend on another service. Keep the allocation and account boundaries clear in statements and staff training.

The amount available depends on the participants connected to the branch, their classifications and the applicable allocation timing. Any care management supplement is also credited to this account, and funding is allocated at the start of each quarter except for new accounts. New accounts and changes in participant arrangements need attention during reconciliation. Review the actual account position rather than assuming the pool is always the previous quarter’s total multiplied by ten percent.

A participant with stable arrangements may need a modest amount of care-management activity during a period, while another needs more support because of changed health, risks or services. Pooling permits this variation within the available account. Providers remain responsible for managing funding and delivering at least one direct care-management activity (communicating or meeting with the participant or their registered supporter) to every participant each month.

Do not describe a participant as having exhausted their personal ten-percent care-management allowance merely because their activity exceeds their notional contribution. Review the person’s needs and the branch funding instead. Equally, do not treat an unclaimed contribution as a promise of a refund or a direct-service balance.

Explain the model in plain language when discussing the budget. Keep individual care-management records so the provider can understand who received support, what was done and why. A branch total without participant context can hide gaps in delivery even when overall spending is within funding.

Pooling changes where ongoing care management is funded; it does not change which activities may be claimed. The Department lists care planning, service planning and management, monitoring or review or evaluation, and support and education. Detailed conditions remain in the program manual.

Staff scheduling, training, travel, provider governance or compliance or record-keeping, and human-resources work are excluded. A branch meeting does not become claimable for all participants simply because it discusses the pooled balance. Separate participant-focused activity from administration where the same staff member performs both.

Record the actual activity, duration, staff member, participant purpose, outcome and follow-up. A recurring fee or automatically generated note is not a substitute for delivered activity. Finance needs sufficient information to review eligibility, while care partners need a useful record of the person’s support. Design one record that serves both purposes without adding unrelated sensitive information.

Assume a fictional branch has ten ongoing participants, each with an illustrative quarterly allocation of $10,000. These rounded amounts are chosen only to explain pooling; they are not an official classification schedule. Each contributes $1,000, giving a $10,000 care-management pool for the example.

Suppose nine participants each receive eight hours of eligible activity during the quarter, while one participant whose circumstances changed receives eighteen hours. At a hypothetical agreed $100 hourly price, eligible activity totals ninety hours and $9,000. The participant receiving eighteen hours is not limited to ten hours because their notional contribution was $1,000.

The provider still checks monthly delivery for every participant and the eligibility of each activity. The unclaimed $1,000 is a branch account balance, subject to the applicable carry-over rules. This is not a promise that those hours or prices are appropriate for any real person, or that a particular claim will be accepted.

Care-management funding carries forward between quarters within a financial year. The maximum carried into the next financial year is equivalent to the care-management funding allocated for the April–June quarter. This is different from the individual direct-service carry-over rule, so the two balances need separate review.

At quarter end, reconcile the opening account, allocations, eligible claims and adjustments. Identify unprocessed activity and rejected or corrected claims without assuming every draft item has reduced the external account. At year end, calculate the relevant limit from the actual April–June allocation and retain the reconciliation.

Do not copy the participant rule of the greater of $1,000 or ten percent into the branch care-management pool. Nor should retained unspent HCP funds be folded into that pool. Those legacy funds sit alongside the participant’s quarterly budget under their own rules. A shared software screen should preserve these distinctions rather than merging every balance into a single total.

Care management for the Restorative Care Pathway and End-of-Life Pathway is claimed against the participant’s relevant pathway budget. The Department says these services must be proportionate and in the participant’s best interests; they do not use the ongoing ten-percent pooled allocation rule.

AT-HM has separate arrangements for sourcing items and wraparound services. The Department does not permit ordinary care-management claims from AT-HM funding. Check the pathway and service purpose before selecting a funding route, particularly for a participant who has more than one funding arrangement.

Care management is clinical support, so the participant does not contribute to its cost. Keep that contribution treatment distinct from other service categories. A correctly identified branch or pathway account does not settle every pricing or claiming question; reviewers still need the actual service date, eligibility, record and any relevant program instructions.

Statura’s Support at Home care-management software page describes activity records, participant context and budget review. Use a fictional branch scenario to confirm how staff distinguish individual direct-service funding, the care-management pool and pathway activity. Ask the team to review a correction rather than only an uncomplicated new entry.

Check whether missing monthly activity and unresolved follow-ups can be inspected from the underlying participant records. Confirm who reviews funding, who approves claims and where external acceptance is recorded. An internally prepared record does not prove that Services Australia accepted a claim.

Keep the product evaluation within capabilities described in the site. Do not infer automatic government submission, guaranteed claiming outcomes or complete audit coverage from a budget dashboard. The useful demonstration shows how a care partner and finance reviewer can explain the same activity from participant purpose through funding review.

Who is connected to the branch, and are their classification and allocation records current? Has every participant received an appropriate monthly activity? Which delivered activities remain unreviewed? Are administration and staff travel excluded? Does the reconciliation distinguish approved internal records from externally accepted claims?

Check the opening balance, allocations, claims, adjustments and carry-over separately. Investigate differences while source records are still available. Give each unresolved item an owner and next action rather than closing the quarter with an unexplained adjustment.

The Support at Home program guide and financial compliance guide provide related context. Read them alongside the latest Department schedule and manual. Pooling works best when staff understand both its flexibility for participant support and its boundaries as a distinct, accountable funding arrangement.