The Only Support at Home Program Handbook Tailored to Newbies
A dedicated Newbies Bundle to welcome your newest participants.
Created by
industry experts
Tailored information for your participants, families & staff
Trusted by leading
home care providers
The Newbies Are Here — Are Your Resources Ready?
Since November 2025, a brand new cohort has begun entering Support at Home: the Newbies.
These older Australians aren’t transitioning from HCPs, they’re starting from scratch. And the Department’s “one-size-fits-all” materials only make things harder, mixing Newbie information with pages of legacy protections and HCP rules that don’t apply to them.
The result?
More confusion. More questions. More time spent explaining what Support at Home actually means for them.
Your Newbies deserve information that speaks directly to their situation, and your team deserves resources that make their job easier.
That’s exactly why we created the Support at Home Newbies Bundle.
Welcome Newbies With Confidence - No Guesswork, No Mixed Messages
A Clear, Simple Way to Welcome Your Newbies
Our Newbies Bundle is the only resource designed exclusively for older Australians entering Support at Home for the first time.
It helps Newbies feel informed and supported, while giving your team the clarity they need to answer questions with confidence.
Here’s why providers are choosing the Newbies Bundle:
- Tailored specifically for Newbies
- Written in plain, relatable, jargon free language
- Helps reduce confusion and unnecessary calls
- Supports participant onboarding and welcome packs
- No unnecessary references to legacy protections or outdated rules
What’s Inside the Newbies Bundle
- A beautifully designed 50+ page PDF specifically for Newbies
- Clear explanations of how Support at Home works for new entrants
- Simple breakdowns of assessments, fees, services and eligibility
- Pages you can easily separate and share individually
Your SaH Participant Guides are just brilliant! The way you have broken down the messages for each cohort makes so much sense and the tables of funding and co-contributions are much clearer than the department resources.
Support Your Care Partners & Support Workers
Care partners and support workers are the first in line for questions, so they need simple, up-to-date resources they can count on.
The Newbies Bundle helps your team:
- Understand what applies to Newbies (and what doesn’t)
- Respond with confidence and certainty
- Reduce back-and-forth and unnecessary escalations
- Stay aligned with consistent messaging across your whole workforce
Your Participant Cohorts at a Glance
Participants now fall into three groups, depending on the date of their first formal assessment by the ACAT or SAS workforce.
Newbies
Participants who are new entrants to Support at Home from
1 Nov 2025
Grandfathered
Participants who were already receiving HCPs
or waitlisted as of
12 Sept 2024
Hybrids
Participants who were newly assessed from
12 Sept 2024 to
31 Oct 2025
Each group has different rules, fees and entitlements – which is why they each need tailored communication.
Looking After All Three Cohorts? We’ve Got You Covered.
If you’re like most providers, you’re now supporting all three cohorts, Grandfathered, Hybrids and Newbies – all at the same time.
And because each group falls under a different set of rules, one-size-fits-all communication (like the Department’s now-retired participant handbook) inevitably leads to confusion.
That’s why we created the Complete 3-Bundle Collection: a set of three colour-coded booklets, tailored specifically to the rules and entitlements of each cohort, so your participants and staff never have to guess what applies.
It’s the simplest way to keep your communication accurate and consistent across your entire participant base.
Here's What's Included in Your Resource Bundles:
- Comprehensive colour-coded handbooks, covering all aspects of Support at Home, tailored to each participant cohort
- Each topic can be separated and used individually to support onboarding and welcome packs
- Professionally graphic-designed and ready to share
- A second complete set of fully editable resources in Word format to use for re-branding into your own templates
Done-for-you participant resources you won’t find anywhere else.
Trusted by leading home care providers.
Start with Newbies or get all three cohorts covered – the choice is yours.
Participant Resources Pricing
Newbies
Participant Bundle
(Standalone Resource)
Includes the full Newbies handbook
-
A 50+ page PDF booklet of curated, tailored information for your Newbie participants, their families and your staff.
Entire Collection (Grandfathered + Hybrid
+ Newbies Resources)
Includes all 3 cohort bundles
-
Three colour-coded PDF booklets (40–50 pages each) tailored to Grandfathered, Hybrid and Newbie participants.
Meet Anna Millicer:
Your Home Care Expert
Anna has spent more than 30 years helping older Australians and their families make sense of aged care, including five years with COTA Australia. As a consultant, presenter and advocate, she’s built her career on translating complex reforms into clear, practical information that genuinely supports participants.
She’s also the creator of the Home Care HQ newsletter, which now reaches over 100,000 participants and staff each month. Her expertise underpins these Support at Home resources, so you can be confident everything is accurate and participant-friendly.
Absolutely! We understand how important it is to have more information about what’s included in your investment, and we’d be happy to send you some sample pages.
Simply get in touch via: anna@GetSmartConsultancy.com.au and we’ll look after you. 😊
Our resources are totally different! The Department’s resources combine all cohorts into one small summary booklet.
By contrast, we have carefully tailored the content in each resource to ONLY be applicable to the particular participant cohort you’re working with at the time.
Absolutely! If there is anything we haven’t included that you think is super important for participants to know, then get in touch and we’ll consider creating a bonus page to share with everyone else who has purchased our resources. You’ll be doing everyone a favour. 💕
We hear you. We’re committed to getting these resources into the hands of participants and families, regardless of the size or budget of their provider. So, if you are feeling the pinch as a very small provider, please reach out to us via: anna@GetSmartConsultancy.com.au and we will look after you. 🙏
Of course. Simply get in touch via email: anna@GetSmartConsultancy.com.au and we’ll organise it for you.