SupportNetworkHome Care in Sutherland Shire

Personal care, assistance with household duties, nursing and good company, provided by support workers based in the Shire, from Sylvania and Miranda through Caringbah to Cronulla and the bays.

• Workers who live in the Shire
• Cronulla to Sylvania and everywhere between
• You choose who supports you
• No agency margin on your rate

bounded by the Georges River, Botany Bay and the Royal National Park

you pay for nursing and allied health, whatever your income

personal care becomes fully funded for everyone

The Home Care Services We Provide in Sutherland Shire

All of your funding covers, organised around your schedule. Increase your visits from once a week to daily, or a combination of both; it's up to you.

Showering, dressing, grooming, continence support and mobility assistance, provided with patience by someone you know and trust.

Domestic assistance

Domestic support with the household tasks that get more difficult, such as cleaning, laundry and changing beds, keeping the home in the order you like.

Shopping and preparing meals that you like to eat, including the food you liked as a child, in the manner you like to prepare them.

Social support & community access

The companionship that sustains life at home, on outings, at appointments, clubs or church, the connection that keeps life feeling like your own.

Getting to medical appointments, the shops, family visits and errands, with someone who comes in with you if you would like.

Scheduling rest periods so the person who does most of the caring can rest, work, or have an afternoon of their own.

Overnight & sleepover support

Someone in the house overnight, for safety, assistance, or to provide a family carer with a continuous night's sleep.

Fully funded wound care, medication management, continence support, dementia care and health monitoring, with clinical oversight by registered nurses, so it's all free.

Allied health & therapy

Occupational therapists, physiotherapists and podiatrists, including home assessments, which can cut down on the amount of paid support you need.

Clinical services cost you nothing

Nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and podiatry, delivered with clinical expertise, are fully covered by government funding under Support at Home, with no contribution based on income or assets. Also, from 1 October 2026, personal care is 100% funded.

Why Home Care in the Shire Works Differently

The Sutherland Shire, both geographically and socially, is unique compared to the rest of Sydney, and these factors determine what a good home care service looks like here.

A peninsula with three ways in

To the north the Shire is surrounded by the Georges River, to the east by Botany Bay and to the south by the Royal National Park. In reality it means just a few entry points: Tom Uglys Bridge, Captain Cook Bridge, the Woronora and the Princes Highway, and traffic that concentrates hard at peak times.

This is one overwhelming effect on home care. A support worker travelling in from other parts of Sydney can spend an hour each way for a one-hour visit. They arrive late, travel gets charged, and eventually they refuse to take the shift. It is by far the most frequently encountered cause of Shire families cycling through support workers, and it is totally preventable.

So this is where we begin. We are seeking employees who are already residing in the Shire, Miranda, Caringbah, Sylvania, Sutherland, Engadine, Menai, Cronulla or the surrounding suburbs. Not workers who will service the area. Workers who live in it. Experience has shown us that the biggest determinant of the life of an arrangement is that single decision.

A community that stayed put

The Shire has an unusually settled population. People live, work, raise families and retire in the area, often within a few kilometres of where they began. People we support often have lived in the same home for a long time, and they know their neighbours properly.

That has genuine advantages. Informal support networks are stronger here than in most of Sydney, somebody knows when the bins aren't taken out, somebody drops in, the club rings when somebody doesn't show up again. Those networks do real work and they keep people at home longer.

They also create a particular vulnerability though. The informal support thins out all at once when a street ages together. The neighbour who cut the verge is now 80 himself; the friend who drove everyone to appointments has given up her licence. When a well-supported situation becomes unsupported, families tend to be caught off guard, because it's happening to everyone at once.

The lesson to be learned is that the time to commence formal help in the Shire is often earlier than families realise, while informal help is still working, so a worker is in place and trusted before the neighbours become unable to cope.

Where we work across the Shire

Coverage and the practical issues vary by pocket, and it is worth knowing which applies to you.

Miranda is the commercial and transport centre, with more unit living than anywhere else in the Shire. Building access is the recurring practical issue.

Caringbah holds Sutherland Hospital and the medical precinct around it, which makes appointment logistics easier than almost anywhere in southern Sydney.

Sylvania and Sylvania Waters are waterfront and largely bus-dependent, with larger homes and, in the canal estate, some genuinely unusual access considerations.

Cronulla sits at the end of the peninsula with real parking pressure and a large downsizer population in units near the beach.

Sutherland, Engadine, Loftus and Kirrawee sit along the rail line with a mix of older brick homes and newer development.

Menai, Illawong, Alfords Point and Bangor are on the western side, further from the rail line and more car-dependent.

Bundeena and Maianbar are reached by ferry from Cronulla or a long drive through the Royal National Park, and need specific planning, we cover them, but with more lead time.

Home care in specific Shire suburbs

We have separate pages covering the suburbs we are asked about most, each with the practical detail that applies there:

• Home care in Cronulla, parking, unit access and the end of the peninsula
• Home care in Caringbah, the hospital precinct and Caringbah South
• Home care in Miranda, units, downsizers and building access
• Home care in Sylvania, waterfront properties and no train line

Tell us when you call

Whether it is a house, townhouse or unit.

Local hospital

Sutherland Hospital at Caringbah is the Shire's public hospital, with St George at Kogarah nearby for specialist work.

If a discharge is coming up, call before it happens rather than after.

Why Families Choose Us

The majority of providers send the one who is rostered. We do things differently, and it affects both what you pay and who comes through your door.

01  Local workers, not dispatched ones

We consider first the people who are living close to Sutherland Shire. A worker travelling across Sydney arrives late, charges travel, and eventually ends up not taking the shift. A local one lasts years.

02  You choose your own support worker

Speak with or meet people before making any arrangements, and you make the decision. If someone doesn't seem to be a good fit, we continue searching, that's normal, not a complaint.

03  Your funding buys more hours

Because there is no agency margin between you and your worker, our rates are approximately $45 to $70 an hour, while traditional agencies charge $70 to $95 an hour. On a mid-level classification, that is approximately three additional hours of support per week.

04  The same person, week after week

Support work is all about continuity. Someone who knows your routine knows when something is different, which is how problems are caught before they become an emergency.

05  Straight answers about money

We provide a comprehensive written price list prior to engagement, clarify the scope of the funding, and tell you plainly if we are not the right fit for you.

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Already with a provider?

Changes are allowed at any time. No exit fees, and your funding follows you. We take care of the transition process without interruption in your support.

Tell Us Your Suburb and We Will Tell You Who Is Available

No cost and no obligation. We will tell you if we are not able to find an appropriate person in the area.

What Home Care Costs in Sutherland Shire

Very few aged care providers have rates listed. We do, because comparing them is the best thing you can do, and because ours hold up.

Service	With Support Network	Typical full-service agency
Personal care, weekday	$45–$70/hr	$70–$95/hr
Domestic assistance	$45–$62/hr	$65–$88/hr
Social support & community access	$45–$65/hr	$68–$90/hr
Overnight sleepover	Flat rate, from ~$280	$280–$450/night
Nursing & allied health	Fully funded, $0 to you	Fully funded, $0 to you

Indicative Sydney ranges for 2026. Loadings for weekends and public holidays apply. We provide you with a comprehensive written price list prior to committing.

What that difference is worth

Let's take a Classification 5 participant: $39,697 per year, or $9,924 per quarter. After the 10 percent care management deduction, about $8,932 per quarter is left for care services.

Hourly rate paid	Hours per quarter	Hours per week
$88, typical agency rate	101.5	about 7.8
$62, with Support Network	144	about 11.1

That's about an additional three and a quarter hours of assistance weekly, from the same funding.

What you contribute

The out-of-pocket contribution is a percentage of the service price, based on an income and assets assessment by Services Australia. All people are entitled to clinical care without cost. Personal care and other independence services cost 5 to 50 percent based on means; everyday living services like cleaning and gardening 17.5 to 80 percent.

A full pensioner who pays for a $65 hour of personal care contributes $3.25. A self-funded retiree without a health card contributes $32.50. No one pays anything for nursing.

One piece of paperwork worth doing

If you have not had your income and assets assessed by Services Australia, you are considered “means not disclosed” and pay the maximum contribution rate, no matter how much you earn or have in assets. Others avoid it, and pay self-funded-retiree rates on their pension income.

Do not let funding go to waste

Support at Home funding is quarterly, and only $1,000 or 10 percent of the quarterly budget may be carried over. Anything above that is returned to the government at the end of the quarter. On Classification 6, underspending by $5,000 in a quarter loses approximately $3,825 for good.

This is monitored by us for the people we support and flagged while there is still time to bring services forward.

No hidden charges

Providers are not allowed to charge an administration fee, an entrance fee or an exit fee. The total price is the service price.

Price caps were legislated for 1 July 2026 but were deferred in May 2026, so rates vary between providers. Comparing published price lists is your protection.

Funded separately

Equipment and home modifications come from a separate stream, so there is no additional service time used for them.

Restorative Care, approximately $6,000 for up to 16 weeks, typically following a hospital stay or fall.

It takes four steps, the first being a free phone call.

1.  Tell us what you need

Call 1300 671 931. Provide your suburb, street, the type of house, your classification (if applicable) and the support you expect. If you currently don't have any funding, we will provide guidance on what to expect from My Aged Care.

2.  We look for workers nearby

We begin with people who live in the immediate area and match what you've requested: times, gender, language and experience. You do not get assigned to somebody, you see who's available.

3.  You meet them and decide

Talk with or meet the individuals we recommend before finalising anything. You choose. If the first person is not right, we continue searching until we find the right person.

4.  Support starts, and we stay in touch

Your worker starts on the schedule you agreed. Our care coordination checks it is working, watches your quarterly budget so no money is lost, and fine-tunes as necessary.

Do not have funding yet?

Start with My Aged Care on 1800 200 422. Approval to funding generally takes three to six months, so it is better to initiate the process before you desperately need help. Many families use us privately during that waiting time and just proceed with the same worker once the plan starts.

The most important tip: at your Aged Care Assessment, talk about the worst day of a normal week, not the best. Assessments frequently occur on a good morning, families gloss over the facts for their own protection, and the classification becomes a score rather than a life.

Coming home from hospital?

Call before discharge, not after. Support put in place during the hospital stay is far more effective than post-hospital support that comes piecemeal, and is the most important factor in preventing a readmission.

Questions People Ask Us

Yes. We place support workers in the Sutherland Shire and surrounding areas such as Caringbah, Caringbah South, Miranda, Sylvania and Sylvania Waters. We specifically seek to hire workers close to where you are and don't send someone across Sydney, in our experience this is the single biggest determinant of the quality of an arrangement.

All of them. Cronulla, Caringbah, Caringbah South, Miranda, Sylvania, Sylvania Waters, Sutherland, Kirrawee, Gymea, Engadine, Loftus, Jannali, Como, Oyster Bay, Bangor, Woolooware and the bays, plus Bundeena, Maianbar and Alfords Point with additional planning. When you call we look for workers in your local suburb.

We can, and it must be planned. Both are accessible by ferry from Cronulla wharf, or by a long trip through the Royal National Park, so support has to be built around the ferry timetable or over a longer period. This typically involves arranging for a resident of the village to work there. Please give us a call, and we will let you know what is realistic and what we cannot do.

The prices of our support workers in Sydney usually range from $45 to $70 per hour for domestic and personal assistance, whereas traditional full-service agencies in Sydney charge $70 to $95 per hour. Loadings are applicable to weekends and public holidays. Nursing and allied health are fully government funded, so there is no charge, no matter what your income or assets are, under Support at Home. Before entering into any agreement, a complete written price list is sent out.

No. We work with Support at Home participants, those who have moved from a Home Care Package, families using the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, and privately funded families. Many begin with us privately while planning their funding, and then continue with the same worker when their plan begins.

Home Care Packages were superseded by Support at Home on 1 November 2025. There are eight classifications, ranging from about $10,731 a year at level 1 to about $78,106 at level 8, released in quarterly budgets. The first 10% of each quarter is used for care management before services are purchased. The amounts are indexed on 1 July each year, check the current amounts with My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.

Yes, and this is a key element in our practice. Before making arrangements, you speak with or meet workers, you choose who supports you, and you can change if it is not the right fit. Support is personal work, and compatibility is as important as qualifications.

Under the current rules you can change at any time and your funding follows you, with no exit fees. We deal with the transition, with no service gaps, and we liaise with your old provider. Switching is much easier than most people think.

From 1 October 2026, personal care moves to the clinical support category, meaning it is 100% funded by the government, with no participant contribution from your budget allocation.

Prefer to just talk?

The majority of questions can be answered on the phone, and there's no hard sell at the end of it.

Let's Find the Right Support Worker Near You

Please provide your suburb, your classification and requirements. We will let you know exactly who is available in the area, what it will cost, and how soon we will be able to get started.

Monday to Friday. There is no charge or commitment.