The Support at Home Monthly Contact Rule, Explained

A plain-language guide for providers. Not legal advice.

Since 1 November 2025, every Support at Home participant must receive at least one direct care management activity each month, of at least 15 minutes. It is one of the few quantified contact requirements anywhere in the new aged care framework, and it is also one of the most misquoted. This article sets out exactly what the rule says, where it comes from, who it applies to, and what a defensible record looks like.

What the rule actually says

The requirement sits in the Support at Home program manual (v4.2, December 2025), not in the Aged Care Act 2024. The manual mandates at least one direct care management activity per participant per month, with a minimum duration of 15 minutes. A direct care management activity means a real interaction — a call, a check-in or a meeting with the participant — not administrative work performed about them.

• • It applies to all Support at Home participants, including those who self-manage.
• • It is delivered by the provider's care partners.
• • It may be delivered to the participant or to their registered supporter.
• • It is funded through the 10 per cent care management deduction from each participant's quarterly budget.

Who it does not apply to

The rule is a home care rule. It does not appear in the Aged Care Act 2024, and it does not apply to residential aged care. The Act and the Strengthened Quality Standards contain no contact-time target at all; they frame connection and wellbeing qualitatively, through the Statement of Rights and the Standards' outcome statements. The only quantified time targets on the residential side are workforce care minutes — an average of 215 minutes per resident per day, including 44 registered nurse minutes — and those are staffing averages that explicitly exclude social-connection activities.

What a defensible record looks like

Because record-keeping is a condition of registration, the practical requirement is not only doing the monthly activity but being able to prove it, participant by participant, month by month. A defensible record answers four questions: did the activity happen, when, for how long, and what was its outcome. For participants who could not be reached, the record should show the attempts, the escalation, and the follow-up. For participants who declined, it should show the refusal.

In practice that means one row per participant per month with one of a small set of outcomes — completed, refused, unreachable and escalated, or no consent — plus a time-stamped summary of the conversation itself.

How technology helps, and where it stops

This requirement scales badly by hand. A provider with two thousand participants needs two thousand documented, 15-minute-plus interactions every month, with retries and escalations for everyone who does not answer. That is precisely the shape of work that scheduled, documented AI wellbeing check-in calls do well: the call happens, it is time-stamped, it clears the duration floor, the summary is written into the record, and anyone who is not reached is retried and escalated to a human.

Two honest caveats. First, the provider's care management system remains the record of truth; a check-in platform feeds it. Second, technology evidences the activity — accountability for care management stays with the provider's care partners. See our full requirements map and the dedicated Support at Home page for how careplans implements this.

Frequently asked questions

Does an email or a text message count? No. The manual requires a direct care management activity — a real call, check-in or meeting.

Can the monthly contact go to a family member? It may be delivered to the participant or to their registered supporter, within recorded authority.

Is the 15-minute rule in the Aged Care Act 2024? No. It is program guidance in the Support at Home manual. It binds providers operationally through the program, and records remain a condition of registration.