What Is a Support at Home Associated Provider? (Previously: Subcontractor)

If you deliver aged care services on behalf of another provider, you may already be an associated provider. You just haven't heard the term.

Under the Aged Care Act 2024, which started on 1 November 2025, what many providers call a subcontractor or third-party organisation is now called an associated provider. Here's what that means, who counts, and what registered providers will expect of you.

What is an associated provider?

An associated provider is any organisation that has an arrangement with a registered provider to deliver funded aged care services on that provider's behalf.

A few examples of what that can look like:

A gardening service delivering Support at Home services for a registered provider
A nursing organisation delivering services for several registered providers
A transport, personal care or domestic assistance business working under an agreement with a registered provider

The Aged Care Rules list every funded aged care service. If you deliver any of them for a registered provider, you're an associated provider.

Who is not an associated provider?

The Commission is clear that these aren't:

Corporate service suppliers, such as training, accounting or labour hire
Organisations delivering services that aren't funded aged care services
Suppliers of goods, such as a supermarket where a person buys continence aids
Aged care workers, meaning the people a registered provider employs or engages

If your organisation engages another business to help deliver services, that business usually isn't an associated provider either. It doesn't have an arrangement directly with the registered provider.

Do you have to be registered?

No. Associated providers don't have to be registered providers. You can be, but you don't need to be.

That's a big part of why the model matters. It's a way to deliver Support at Home services without taking on registration yourself.

What still applies to you

Not being registered doesn't mean nothing applies. As an associated provider, you must:

Deliver funded aged care services in line with the Act, the Aged Care Rules and your arrangement with the registered provider
Meet quality and safety requirements
Uphold the Statement of Rights
Follow the Aged Care Code of Conduct

The people you employ or engage to deliver those services are aged care workers of the registered provider. So they need to be screened, suitably trained and ready to follow the Code of Conduct.

Who is accountable?

The registered provider. It stays responsible for the quality, safety and compliance of services you deliver, even though you deliver them. It must have processes to oversee your services.

In practice, that means registered providers will expect you to run your own incident, risk and complaints processes, and to tell them when something happens. They can't oversee what they can't see.

The registered provider must also list the services you deliver in its service agreement with the person, and name you on their monthly statement. The person will know who's delivering their care.

The Commission can still act against an associated provider to protect older people. It deals with concerns and complaints through the registered provider.

Is your business an associated provider? A quick check

Do you deliver a service on the funded aged care list in the Aged Care Rules?
Do you deliver it on behalf of a registered provider, under an agreement with them? If the answer to both is yes, you're very likely an associated provider.

How Comm.care helps

Registered providers will ask what you can show them: invoices, incidents, complaints, risks and worker checks. Comm.care lets you keep those in your own account, in one place, so you do the work once and can share what's needed.

You keep your own account and your own data.

This article is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Always confirm your obligations with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and your registered provider.