chsp-stage-3-what-changed

# CHSP Stage 3 — What Changed on 11 August 2026 At **midnight on Tuesday 11 August 2026**, the Department of Social Services turned on a new set of mandatory fields — the **Stage 3** fields — on every CHSP session submitted through the Data Exchange. There is no optional phase and no transition period. From that date, a session for an affected service type will be **rejected by DEX** unless the new fields are included. DSS also expects the data to have been captured **for every service delivered from 1 July 2026 onwards**. That's the part that catches most providers by surprise: the obligation is retrospective by about six weeks. This article explains what changed, which services are affected, and exactly what you need to do — both for sessions going forward and for sessions already delivered. > _**Note:** If your organisation doesn't submit to DEX (i.e. you have no DSS-funded services), Stage 3 does not affect you._ ## What actually changed DSS added **15 new fields** to the CHSP session record. They describe things DEX previously didn't ask about: - **Who delivered the session** — was it a sub-contractor? A volunteer providing the service directly? - **Where and how the session was delivered** — home or community? Did it include overnight support? - **Engagement and travel time** — time spent building connectedness with the client, plus trip time and distance for transport. - **Meals** — was a meal provided? Cooked off-site? Texture-modified? How many mains, light meals, desserts, beverages and snacks? You won't see all 15 on every Progress Note. DEX gates the fields by the `(Program Activity, Service Type)` pair on the note — so a Meal Delivery note asks about meals, a Domestic Assistance note doesn't. Comm.care shows only the fields DEX requires for the service type you've picked. For the field-by-field walk-through, see [Recording Stage 3 Fields on a Progress Note](dex-stage-3-fields.md). ## Which activities are affected Nineteen CHSP activities carry at least one Stage 3 requirement. If you deliver any of these, you're in scope: - Allied health and therapy services - Therapeutic services for independent living - Community cottage respite - Community and centre-based respite - Flexible respite - Domestic Assistance - Group social support - Hoarding and squalor assistance - Home maintenance and repairs - Individual social support - Meal delivery - Personal Care - Nursing - Specialised Support Services - Goods, Equipment and Assistive Technology - Social Support — Individual (Direct transport) - Social Support — Individual (Indirect transport) - Transport - Assistance with Care and Housing > _**Note:** The exact requirements for each activity are held by DEX, not by Comm.care. Comm.care asks DEX at the moment you open a Progress Note, so if DSS changes what's required for a service type, you'll see the updated question set the next time you open a note against it — no software update needed on our end._ ![[Dex-stage-3-new-fields-home-repairs.png]] *The two Stage 3 fields DEX requires for this activity — Subcontractor delivered, and Volunteer involved in direct service delivery — should be visible as toggles at the bottom of the DSS section on the Progress Note* ## What you need to do ### For sessions delivered from 11 August 2026 onwards **Nothing extra to learn.** Open the Progress Note as you always have, answer the Stage 3 questions when they appear, and click Save. Comm.care will submit the session to DEX with the new fields included. - Mandatory fields are marked with a red asterisk (`*`). - Fields without an asterisk are optional — you can leave them blank. - If DEX rejects the session, the reason appears in the DSS Sync Tracker on the note. The wording comes straight from DEX and usually names the field it's unhappy about. For the step-by-step, see [Recording Stage 3 Fields on a Progress Note](dex-stage-3-fields.md). ### For sessions delivered between 1 July and 10 August 2026 This is the retrospective part. DSS's position is that providers should have been **recording this information in their own systems** from 1 July, even though DEX only started accepting it on 11 August. So if you delivered a CHSP service on an affected activity in that six-week window, the corresponding Progress Note in Comm.care needs the Stage 3 fields filled in. The good news: **you don't need to delete anything, recreate anything, or contact support to unlock old notes.** Comm.care handles this automatically: **Step 1**: Open the Progress Note in the Calendar or Timeline as normal. **Step 2**: When the note opens, the Stage 3 fields for its service type will appear — even though the note is older than 11 August. Comm.care re-checks the DEX requirements every time you open a note, so any note delivered against an affected service type will now render the extra questions. **Step 3**: Fill in the answers based on what actually happened at the time, and click **Save**. **Step 4**: Comm.care re-submits the session to DEX with the Stage 3 data attached. Watch the DSS Sync Tracker on the note to confirm the update was accepted.  > _**Note:** Comm.care uses the note's date of occurrence, not today's date, when working out which fields apply. That's important: if a service type has since been retired or its requirements have changed, the note still sees the requirement set that was in force when the service was delivered._ ## How do I find the notes that need backfilling? Any DSS-funded Progress Note dated between 1 July and 10 August 2026, on an affected service type, is a candidate. Practical ways to find them: - **Filter your Calendar** by staff and date range for those six weeks and step through the DSS-funded appointments. - **Filter Progress Notes** in the organisation's Circles view by service, then by occurrence date. - **Check the DSS Sync Tracker** on notes you know were submitted before 11 August — anything successfully submitted then almost certainly needs Stage 3 data added now. > _**Note:** If your organisation was on our early support list, our team has already sent you a spreadsheet identifying the exact set of Progress Notes to backfill. If you can't find that email, [submit a support case](../../support/submit-a-case.md) and we'll re-send it._  ## What if I miss the deadline? Sessions submitted to DEX **without** the required Stage 3 fields for their service type are rejected. That means: - The session isn't counted in DSS's records. - Any downstream reporting or funding calculations DSS runs on that session's data won't include it. - Your DSS Sync Tracker on the note will show the rejection with DEX's error message. Comm.care will keep retrying failed submissions and every re-open of the note gives you another chance to fill in what DEX needs. There's no penalty for a delayed correction from Comm.care's side — the constraint is DSS's expectation that the record is eventually complete and accurate.  ## Frequently asked **Why did DSS make this retrospective to 1 July?** The Stage 3 fields were confirmed in the February 2026 DSS update, with staging environments open from 23 February and the go-live date confirmed on 22 June for 11 August. DSS's view is that the information should have been captured in providers' own systems from the start of the new financial year, then entered into DEX once the fields went live. **Do the Stage 3 fields apply to NDIS Progress Notes?** No. Stage 3 is a CHSP / DSS change only. NDIS notes are unaffected. **Will Comm.care ever submit a session that's missing a mandatory Stage 3 field?** No. Comm.care validates the required fields locally before submission, so you'll see the error in the note before it reaches DEX. If DEX later changes what's required for a service type, Comm.care will pick up the new requirement automatically on the next sync. **A field I expected to see isn't there. What's wrong?** Most likely nothing. DEX doesn't require all 15 fields for every service type — the set is different per `(activity, service type)` pair. Check that the Related Service on the note is what you intended; changing the service type will refresh which Stage 3 fields appear. **Where can I read the DSS source documents?** The primary reference is the CHSP Data Exchange Guide from 1 July 2026, published by DSS. Your DSS Funding Arrangement Manager (FAM) can send you a copy, or you can request it via the [DSS Data Exchange helpdesk](mailto:[email protected]) on 1800 020 283. ## Related articles - [Recording Stage 3 Fields on a Progress Note](dex-stage-3-fields.md) — the field-by-field how-to - [Progress Notes for DSS Funded Services](../progress-notes/dss-funded-services.md) — general DSS Progress Note workflow - [Automatically Report to CHSP Data Exchange](dex-reporting.md) — end-to-end DEX integration - [Troubleshooting CHSP Funded Participants for Better DEX Reporting](dex-troubleshooting.md) — resolving common DEX errors