Carer Gateway — National Digital and Phone Support Service for Unpaid Carers

Carer Gateway is the Australian Government's national support service for unpaid carers, rolled out in two stages from July 2019 (online and phone-based counselling, peer support and self-guided coaching) to April 2020 (in-person coaching, planning and respite services delivered through a Commonwealth-funded provider network). It replaced a fragmented landscape of state-based carer programmes with a single digital front door — carergateway.gov.au and a companion app — backed by a phone line staffed 8am-8pm weekdays and 24/7 for emergency respite bookings.

The Department of Social Services (now Health, Disability and Ageing) commissioned a multi-stage evaluation — baseline research, ongoing monitoring, a 2020-21 process evaluation and wellbeing survey, and a July 2025 impact evaluation.

The Australian Government has committed over AUD 550 million to the service over four years, on top of an earlier AUD 103.4 million boost announced in the 2021-22 budget. The impact evaluation concluded Carer Gateway is a 'successfully implemented, preventative, cost-beneficial programme' and found that every service type — coaching, counselling, peer support and respite — improved carers' wellbeing, with respite producing the largest gains.

The evaluation is also candid about gaps: in the 2022 population survey, the majority of Australia's roughly 3 million carers were either unaware Carer Gateway existed, had never looked at the website, or had not accessed a service, and the process evaluation flagged confusing registration and long waits between sign-up and first service. The impact evaluation additionally reported mixed results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers, an equity gap the Department has flagged for further work. Carer Gateway therefore illustrates both the promise and the limits of a digital-first model for a population — often older, time-poor and juggling caregiving duties — that can be hard to reach online.