Consider an NDIS support provider in Melbourne's west with twenty support workers and a good reputation for in-home care. Nearly all of its revenue depends on one scheme, and every NDIS policy review sends a ripple of anxiety through the leadership team. Meanwhile, its workers already do exactly what older Australians need — personal care, community access, domestic help — and families of ageing parents keep calling to ask if the team can help someone who's 80, not 40.
This example is illustrative, created to show how the local partner model works in practice.
If your NDIS business gets those calls, you're looking at the most natural diversification available to you. Here's how the two schemes relate — and how to serve the older cohort without taking on a second registration.
The overlap: your workforce already has the skills
Support at Home — the aged care program that replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025 — funds services across three categories: clinical supports, independence supports (personal care, transport, social support) and everyday living supports (domestic assistance, meal preparation, home maintenance). Look down that list and you'll see most of an NDIS provider's existing capability: the same in-home skills, the same duty-of-care mindset, the same scheduling and supervision muscle.
The differences worth understanding
The schemes serve different cohorts under different logic. The boundary sits around age 65: broadly, the NDIS supports people who acquire disability before 65, while Support at Home serves older Australians. Funding logic differs too — Support at Home allocates participants to one of eight funding classifications, releases budgets quarterly, and ties spending to the government service list and each person's care plan.
The cohort also behaves differently. Older clients tend to want steady, relationship-based support that helps them stay in their own home — often building gradually as needs change, which suits providers who think in years, not service bookings.
Expansion without a second registration
Here's the catch most NDIS providers hit: aged care has its own regulator (the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission) and its own registration regime under the new Aged Care Act, and your NDIS registration doesn't carry across. Registering separately means a second compliance framework and a second audit exposure.
The alternative is the local partner model. Businesses can deliver services to Support at Home participants by working through a registered provider that carries the provider obligations. Partner with Care is that registered backbone: we handle claiming, compliance and the government-facing work, while you keep your brand, your client relationships and your pricing power. The structure is set out at become a partner.
Built for established providers: PWC's partner model fits businesses of all sizes, and it moves at your speed — new partners are typically live in around two weeks once documents are complete, and established providers can activate clients in hours. If a family calls on Monday, you don't have to tell them "maybe next quarter".
Diversified revenue, same mission
Australia's ageing population and government policy both favour care at home, so aged care demand is a long-run tailwind rather than a policy bet. For an NDIS provider, adding Support at Home clients spreads scheme risk across two funding streams while keeping your team doing the work they signed up for. And because self-managing participants choose their own workers and suppliers, the reputation you've built in disability support becomes your marketing in aged care. See what we carry on your behalf at why us.