The provision of home care in Australia is not scaling to meet the growing demand. While supply-side policies have improved short-term access to care, wait times for home care packages have increased, and the projected shortage of aged care workers continues to worsen.

Recognising these challenges, in 2022, Anglicare Southern Queensland, a provider of home care services to more than 25,000 people, partnered with Umps, an Australian-based developer of AI and smart home services, to design, develop, and pilot a new technology platform. This platform is intended to be deployed alongside traditional aged care services to enhance care outcomes and accessibility for older Australians in the context of the Support at Home reforms.

Over 12 months, Umps’ product and technology team were embedded within Anglicare’s service delivery organisation, establishing direct relationships with clients, care workers, care managers, and team leaders. Both organisations leveraged their complementary expertise to identify key challenges in delivering home care services and explore opportunities to scale AI and sensor-based technology.

The result? The Anglicare Home Hub—a concept that uses AI and sensors to provide clients with 24/7 proactive support at home, enabling seamless communication with their Anglicare case managers and driving truly client-centred outcomes. In 2024, the Anglicare Home Hub was piloted among nearly 50 clients on home care packages, with an acceptance rate of nearly 100% and high levels of ongoing client engagement.

Session Goals
In this presentation, Sue Cooke, CEO of Anglicare SQ, and Adam Jahnke, CEO of Umps, will provide an overview of their partnership, the co-design methodology, and the outcomes of piloting the Anglicare Home Hub. This session aims to empower attendees with insights into:
• Enabling effective, focused, and outcomes-driven partnerships with innovative technology partners;
• Harnessing internal organisational knowledge to catalyse the design of new technology products;
• Leveraging advancements in AI and sensor-based technology in a home care context;
• Navigating operational considerations when piloting technologies to maximise the likelihood of successful technology deployments at scale.