Take a home maintenance operator in Melbourne's north who's been asked by two long-standing clients whether their new Support at Home budgets can pay for his fortnightly visits. He's keen but wary — the last time he joined a panel arrangement, onboarding took four months and a folder of paperwork, and by the end the client had found someone else. Before he commits, he wants one thing spelled out: exactly what happens, in what order, and how long each step takes.

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

Fair question. Here's Partner with Care's onboarding path, step by step — and what you can do before you enquire to make it faster.

Step 1: Enquiry and fit conversation

It starts with a call or an enquiry through our become a partner page. We talk through what services you deliver, where you work, and how they map to the Support at Home service list — clinical supports, independence supports, or everyday living supports like domestic assistance and home maintenance. Partners of all sizes fit the model, from sole traders to established providers, so this conversation is about fit and expectations, not gatekeeping.

Step 2: Documents and checks

This is the step you control, and the one that sets the timeline. Because Partner with Care is the registered provider carrying the compliance obligations under the new Aged Care Act, we need your paperwork in order before clients are connected. Have ready:

  • Business basics — ABN and business details.
  • Insurance — current certificates of currency appropriate to your services.
  • People checks — the screening relevant to working with older people, for everyone who'll enter clients' homes.
  • Qualifications and registrations — where your service is clinical (nursing, allied health).

Step 3: Agreement and go-live

With documents complete, you sign the partner agreement and we set you up in our systems. New partners are typically live in around two weeks once documents are complete. If you're an established provider with compliance paperwork already at hand, it moves much faster — clients can be activated in hours.

The fastest onboardings share one habit: the partner gathers every document before the first call. Chasing an insurance renewal or an expired check is what stretches two weeks into six. Get the folder ready first, and the process moves at whatever speed you set.

Step 4: Your first client

Once live, the client side is straightforward — because under self-managed Support at Home, clients choose their own workers and suppliers. In practice most partners' first clients are people who already know them: existing customers moving onto Support at Home funding, or local word-of-mouth referrals. When a client chooses you, PWC activates the arrangement, and from then on we handle the claiming, compliance and government-facing work. You deliver the service and get paid reliably, with nothing to chase.

From that point, growth compounds the way local business always has: do good work, get recommended, stay bookable. What you're really joining is a structure where the registered backbone does the paperwork and the local partner keeps the relationship — you keep your brand, your clients and your pricing throughout. More on how we work at why us.