Fact sheet 5: Childcare
The Australian Government says parents will have "unprecedented access to Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) and Family Day Care (FDC) places" in one of the biggest changes to child care in Australia.
Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said today the 2006-07 Budget will see the removal of the cap on OSHC and FDC places from July 1, 2006, resulting in 99 per cent of all child care places now being uncapped.
All new OSHC and FDC services will therefore be automatically eligible for Child Care Benefit (CCB), provided they meet relevant criteria, including state and territory licensing requirements.
The Minister says that the move "will provide parents with more options and allow the child care sector to be more flexible, and more responsive to demand for child care in the local community".
Mr Brough said parents will benefit from subsidised child care places through CCB as services will now be able to set up at any location provided they meet criteria, including state and territory licensing and regulation requirements.
"Australian families will have greater access to child care as the Government has committed $60.2m over four years to support parents who will use the extra OSHC and FDC places," Mr Brough said.
Previously, OSHC and FDC places were limited and allocated by the Australian Government to areas of demand.
"The changes mean that the Howard Government will not restrict Outside School Hours Care and Family Day Care places. This will then be consistent with Long Day Care (LDC), which is currently uncapped," Mr Brough said.
"Importantly, the changes mean that child care services wanting to expand will have instant access to places.
"Services which have applications in for the additional 14,650 places currently available will have these approved from July 1, 2006, provided they meet all the requirements and standards.
"Parents should be reassured that there will be no compromise on quality as services will still have to meet the required state and territory regulations to ensure families receive the standard of care they expect and deserve."
Additional information: Ministerial media release: 2006-07 Budget - More child care places in Australia
National Child Care Management System
The Australian Government is to establish a National Child Care Management System.
The Budget provides funding for increased IT to provide a "more responsive and reliable child care system". It aims to provide families with up-to-date information on services and availability in their local area that will support approved child care services to implement a more streamlined process, cutting unnecessary red tape and providing parents with improved access to information on child care availability.
The Government says that, currently, there is, by and large, sufficient funding to provide places to meet demand, but there are "hotspots of undersupply".
The Government seeks to create a reliable, centralised and independent source of child care market data to ensure that the movements in supply and demand can be accurately tracked.
The Child Care Management System builds on my the Government's announcement of 2 April 2006, that the Child Care Access Hotline will be expanded to include information on child care vacancies. From 1 July 2006, families can ring the Child Care Access Hotline and get up-to-date information on vacancies in their local area.
The Child Care Management System, expected to be implemented over a five year period, will provide services with access to technology, systems and information exchange that many services have never had access to before.
The Australian Government says that better systems for providers, especially small community and out of school hours services, mean that those carer resources can be better directed to quality care, rather than cumbersome manual administrative processes.
The Australian Government will commit $50.8 million to implement a more rigorous compliance strategy, ensuring that maximum "bang for the buck" was achieved from every dollar of taxpayer funds, and to underpin public confidence in the integrity of child care providers.
The compliance strategy includes an information and awareness campaign for families and services and an increased level of monitoring and checking of child care services to improve fraud detection.
As well as more rigorous financial compliance, the Government has committed to further improve the Quality Assurance system providing greater certainty for families that their children are receiving quality child care.
The Australian Government has announced a commitment to making a significant investment in the development of a Child Care Management System for the child care sector. The introduction of such a system will provide families and the Government with more timely and reliable information than ever before on child care availability, supply and use.
For information about ALGA's analysis of the Budget regarding Childcare please contact: