Self-managing: what you can do, and what your provider still has to do

“Self-managed” sounds like you’re on your own. You’re not. You still have a registered provider, and they still hold the budget and the legal responsibilities. Self-management just means you take on some of the organising, usually because you know the person, the town and the workers better than a call centre does.

In a place like Mallacoota, most of a day’s drive from Melbourne, it’s often the only way care happens at all. Few big providers have staff here. The cleaner, the gardener and the person who drives Mum to appointments out of town are locals, and families find them by word of mouth.

What the rules let you do

The government’s own guidance for providers lists what self-managing participants can do. Depending on what you agree with your provider, that can include:

choosing and coordinating your services, based on your needs and budget; managing your own workers and setting their schedules; paying invoices yourself and claiming the money back from your provider; keeping an eye on your budget; finding your way around the system; and sourcing equipment and home modifications.

You can also choose third-party workers: people who don’t work for your provider, such as a local cleaner, gardener or support worker with their own ABN.

Whatever you take on is agreed with the provider and written into your care plan. That’s worth asking for in writing, because it settles arguments later.

What the provider still has to do

Self-managing doesn’t take the provider out of the picture. They still have to:

• carry out care management, including at least one direct care management activity each month
• take 10% of your budget for care management, whether you self-manage or not
• agree any third-party worker arrangement with you, and record it in your care plan
• meet all their regulatory obligations even when someone else delivers the service, such as making sure workers are screened

That last one matters. The guidance tells providers plainly that if they can’t meet their obligations for a third-party worker, they shouldn’t agree to the arrangement. So a provider saying no to a particular worker isn’t always being difficult. Ask them what’s missing. Often it’s a police check, insurance or an ABN, and those can be fixed.

The 10% overhead cap

When you use a third-party worker, the provider can add an overhead to cover their admin. For self-managed third-party services, that overhead is capped at 10% of the actual cost, and it has to be included in the final price, not added on as a surprise.

So if your cleaner charges $66 an hour, the most the provider can take from your budget for that hour is $72.60. If your statement shows more, ask why.

Government rule or provider policy?

This is where a lot of the confusion comes from. Providers each have their own forms, invoice templates, deadlines and approval steps. Some are required by the rules. Many are the provider’s own policy.

A useful test: when a provider says “you can’t” or “you have to”, ask “Is that a Support at Home rule, or your policy?” and “Can you show me where it says that?” A good provider won’t mind. A provider’s policy can be perfectly reasonable, but it’s something you can discuss. And if you’re not happy, you can change providers.

Usually a government rule	Usually provider policy
10% of the budget for care management	Which invoice template a worker must use
Overhead on self-managed third-party services capped at 10%	How many days before they pay an invoice
Worker screening and the provider’s responsibility for it	Whether you can pay first and claim it back
Your contribution rates	How much notice they need for a new worker
Monthly statements	Minimum visit lengths

What one country town did

In 2022 the ABC told the story of Bell, a small town on Queensland’s Western Downs whose nearest service centre was 45 km away. Locals set up Bell Cares, a community group that finds local carers so older residents can stay at home. It works with a registered provider, Trilogy Care, and uses the Mable platform to match people with workers. The organisers expected around 50 packages to bring more than $1 million into the town.

It’s a good picture of what self-managed care can look like in the country: local people, paid fairly, doing the work for their neighbours. You can read the ABC story, and it also ran on ABC Landline as “Home Grown Care”. It was made under Home Care Packages, before Support at Home, so the funding details have changed but the idea hasn’t.

A sensible way to start

Pick one service you already know a good local for, such as cleaning or gardening. Ask your provider, in writing, what they need to approve that person as a third-party worker. Then pass that list to the worker. Our guide for workers and the invoice checker will help them get it right first time.

If the provider is slow or unclear, keep a note of who you spoke to and when. The claims tracker is a simple place to do that.