The final findings from Enkindle Consulting’s 2026 Home Care Provider Outlook Survey portray a home care sector struggling to keep pace with the governance, operational and technology demands of aged care reform.
Around 64 per cent of providers say their digital systems do not meet their needs or do not exist.
“What we are hearing is, in many cases, a step back in the stability of many vendor systems,” said Jennene Buckley, Director at Enkindle Consulting.
“Leading into the go-live of Support at Home, providers and vendors had to rebuild systems at pace, working with incomplete and last-minute information. That impacted system readiness. Combined with government systems that were not fully ready, and limited time for adequate user acceptance testing, it has created significant challenges for everyday operations,” she said.
Across core functions such as budgeting, claiming, reporting and care management, systems are not consistently supporting delivery.
Providers are manually managing gaps, implementing workarounds and spending significant time troubleshooting issues in real time. This includes resolving claiming failures, data inaccuracies and system integration problems.
When systems do not perform as expected, providers and vendors are left to identify and resolve issues themselves, reporting that they have spent hours on government help lines to work through problems.
The survey also points to a lack of transparency around known system issues, with limited visibility of what is understood or being resolved across government platforms. The impact is being felt by older people.
Many home care systems are struggling to produce accurate budgets and statements, resulting in confusion, frustration and increased complaints. Importantly, providers are working extensively to manage these challenges.
However, where systems are not functioning as intended, there are limits to what can be resolved at the provider level.
“These findings reinforce the role that both government and home care vendor IT systems need to play in making reform workable,” Ms Buckley said.
“Technology needs to do the heavy lifting, to support efficiency, manage regulatory requirements and enable providers to operate within a complex Support at Home model. At the moment, that is not consistently happening.”
Enkindle says the findings reflect a sector that continues to adapt, but in which system capability has not kept pace with the scale and complexity of reform.
Five-part survey
The technology findings form part of the final three reports in Enkindle’s five-part survey of more than 300 home care leaders, which also examined providers’ experiences implementing the new Aged Care Act and preparing for the transition of the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) to Support at Home.
The findings build on the survey’s earlier report into the rollout of Support at Home, which identified widespread concerns about the design of the new program, claiming processes and increasing administrative burden.
“What we’re hearing is that providers are putting in a huge amount of effort to make this work, while still trying to deliver day-to-day care,” said Tash Edwards, Director at Enkindle Consulting. For many providers, this also represents a fundamental shift, with some operating under the Aged Care Act for the first time.
“There is a significant amount of work required to work through the primary and subordinate legislation and understand what it means in practice,” Ms Edwards said.
Providers report that embedding the Aged Care Act has been more resource intensive and complex than anticipated, with organisations navigating new governance expectations, increased compliance requirements, and significant operational change all at once.
A consistent theme is the growing administrative and compliance burden, with organisations required to implement new policies, reporting frameworks, documentation, and oversight processes.
The survey also paints a clear and consistent picture from CHSP providers. While the intent of reform is understood, respondents expressed little confidence that the Support at Home system is ready to absorb CHSP, warning this could threaten access to care.
CHSP currently supports the largest number of older people receiving care in the community and includes a significant number of providers, many of whom operate in rural, regional, and remote areas.
Providers consistently described CHSP in the survey as the safety net of in-home care. It enables flexibility, responsiveness and continuity of service in a way that is difficult to replicate under an individualised funding model.
A central theme in the survey responses is the role of block funding in sustaining this model.
Providers highlighted that block funding supports viability and service continuity, particularly in thin markets where demand is variable, and the cost of delivery is higher. The survey findings also reflect a strong view that these elements are not yet embedded in the current Support at Home model.
At the same time, providers do not believe the system is stable enough to take on the scale and diversity of CHSP services and providers.
“There is a need to ensure the Support at Home system is stable and capable of supporting the scale and diversity of CHSP services and providers before any transition proceeds,” Ms Buckley said.
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