Childcare services must have a licence to operate as a service offering childcare places to children. The licence is a requirement for accreditation under the guidelines of the National Quality Framework (NQF), and for approval to receive subsidies. The childcare service must display their licence, which states the required staff to child ratios for the service, and the service’s accreditation level.

To be accredited, early childhood services must follow the guidelines of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) in their practice.

Practice in early childhood and child care is developmentally appropriate and play-based, and recognises the importance of relationships in child development. Childcare operates best as a partnership between the service, the family and the child.

Workers in early childhood and child care are called educators and must have a minimum level of qualifications in childcare (Certificate III). Educators must maintain a high level of professional skill development to continue to practice.

There are three types of childcare available to children in early childhood (birth to five years) that can be subsidised by the government:

Centre-based childcare (CBC)

Centre-based care is usually a purpose-built centre that provides more than 7 places for children to receive care. Childcare centres usually provide long day care for children and have set hours (usually 7 am – 6 pm) but may be flexible and also provide occasional care, and/or overnight care.

The centre may charge fees as a daily rate or as an hourly rate. It is useful to know how you are being charged as this relates to the subsidy the centre receives for your child.

The centre may group the children according to age. The number of staff available in the centre to care for children depends on the ages of the children. For children under 24 months, there should be one staff per 4 children.

Family day care (FDC)

Family day care provides care for up to 7 children in the educator’s home. Family day care is a homely environment for your child and can be flexible to provide occasional care, and /or overnight care.

In-home care (IHC)

This is care for your children provided by an educator in your home. This type of childcare is restricted to 3,200 places nationwide. Therefore, you need to meet eligibility criteria to receive this type of care. The criteria include complex or challenging circumstances such as illness, disability, financial hardship, and living in a rural and remote area.

In Tasmania, the In-Home Care Support Agency will process your application for In Home Care and assist you to arrange appropriate care. See Get Started for the link and contact details for the In Home Care Support Agency Tasmania.

Access to In-home care might be limited if there is a lack of available educators.

About the Child Care Package

The government subsidises Early Childhood and Child Care (ECCC) directly through the Child Care Package. The Child Care Package consists of the Child Care Subsidy and the Child Care Safety Net.

To activate the Child Care Package to the service for your child or children, you must link to the childcare service through your myGov account. If you do not have a myGov account and want your childcare fees to be subsidised, you must create a myGov account. See Get Started for links to the myGov website to assist you with this.

The childcare service or service agency can assist you, or you can get assistance at a Centrelink office.

The Childcare Subsidy

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Childcare services have a license to access the Child Care Package.

Families must meet the following criteria to benefit from the Child Care Package

– at least one parent must be an Australian citizen or a permanent resident of Australia, have a special category visa or a certain temporary visa, be a government sponsored foreign student in Australia, or be in a situation of hardship;

– the child must be up to date with child immunisations as per the list on the Department of Health’s National Immunisation Program Schedule. Make sure you schedule immunisations with your doctor promptly, as a delay can cause your child care subsidy to be cancelled.

The level of subsidy the service receives for a child depends on:

– the family income. Your level of Child Care Subsidy is based on the incomes of you and your partner;

– the level of activity of the parents. The hours of subsidised care you can get per fortnight depends on the hours of recognised activities you do.

– and the type of childcare service they access. Rates differ for the different services. Centre-based child care is subsidised up to $12.31 per hour; Family daycare is subsidised up to $11.40 per hour and for in-home care the subsidy is up to $33.47 per hour per family.

The eligible hours you receive as approved by Centrelink are based on a fortnightly pattern and are determined by the operational hours of that service. For example, if you are eligible for 72 hours and your chosen childcare service operates 12 hour days, you will be entitled to 6 days per fortnight or 3 days a week (whether your child attends for the full 12 hours or not). Your childcare provider will support you to plan your child’s attendance pattern.

Child Care Subsidy and caring for a person with disability

If you are on Carer Payment your activity level will be deemed 100 hours per fortnight. If you are providing constant care for someone but don’t qualify for Carer Payment, because of the income or assets test requirement, your activity level will also be 100 hours per fortnight.

If you receive Carer Allowance you will meet the activity level test and have an automatic entitlement to 72 hours per fortnight. This can be increased to 100 hours per fortnight if combined with another recognised activity. If you have a partner, they will also need to meet the activity test, and the hours of subsidised care per fortnight you will be entitled to as a family, will be based on whichever of you has the lower activity level.

The Childcare Safety Net

The Child Care Safety Net provides the Additional Child Care Subsidy if needed for families to maintain their children’s safety and wellbeing, reduce costs if they are experiencing financial hardship, support grandparents who have their grandchildren in their full-time care, and/or assist families where one or both parents is transitioning to work.

The Child Care Safety Net also provides support for ECCC in disadvantaged, rural and remote areas through the Community Child Care Fund.

If your child has a disability, the Child Care Safety Net provides the Inclusion Support Program to services. The childcare service may apply to the Inclusion Support Agency and receive support to increase their capacity and capability to include a child with disability in the centre. The program provides funding to the service for an additional educator in the childcare room, training for educators, and advice on inclusion practices from a professional inclusion facilitator.

Subsidised Care for low income families is also available for families earning less than $69,390 a year. They can access 24 hours of subsidised care per child per fortnight without having to meet the activity test.