"Can aged care funding pay for a gardener?" A husband-and-wife gardening business in Ballarat typed that into Google. Their spring is chaos, their winter is thin, and quoting one-off jobs eats their evenings. Their favourite clients are the older regulars they see every fortnight, year-round. When one mentioned her Support at Home budget could pay for the visits, they wondered if their steadiest work was also their biggest market.

This example is illustrative, created to show how the local partner model works in practice.

If you run a cleaning or gardening business, aged care could be your best-fit client base.

Your services are on the funded list

Support at Home, which replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025, funds three categories: clinical supports, independence supports and everyday living supports. That third category includes domestic assistance (cleaning, laundry), meal preparation, and home maintenance including gardening.

Recurring work beats one-off jobs

One-off jobs mean quoting, travel between scattered addresses and revenue that resets to zero each month. Aged care clients are the opposite: a weekly or fortnightly clean, a regular garden round to keep paths safe and yards manageable.

Funding arrives in quarterly budgets, which encourages clients to set up regular services and stick with them.

Self-managing clients choose their own suppliers

Small local operators have the advantage. Support at Home participants who self-manage choose their own workers and suppliers. They pick the cleaner their neighbour recommends, or the gardener who's done their street for years. That's your home ground.

Support at Home funding can only be claimed by a registered provider. Your business becomes bookable by working through one; that's the local partner model. Partner with Care carries the provider obligations and handles claiming and compliance, while you keep your brand, your clients and your pricing.

How to become bookable

You get in touch, complete documents and checks, and sign the partner agreement. New partners are typically live in around two weeks.

Before you call, have these ready:

  • Your ABN and business details.
  • Current insurance certificates for the work you do.
  • Screening checks for anyone on your crew.

More at become a partner and why us.

The regulars you already love working for? There are suburbs full of them.