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On this page you will find important information and topics related to day to day operations at the Business and Customer Support Centre. For more specific information follow the links below
If a child is absent at the start or end of an enrolment, CCS will generally not be paid on these days.
If you claim an absence, the family will be required to pay full fees.
There are some circumstances where families can get CCS if an absence occurs in the 7 days:
before a child’s first attendance at your service (inclusive of their first day), or
after their last physical attendance at your service (inclusive of their last day)
These circumstances are:
any of the additional absence reasons listed on the Australian Government Department of Education website
the service has changed ownership
the child’s usual service is closed, and the child attends a different service under the same provider
a family tragedy has occurred
the enrolment ceased incorrectly
What can educators do about absences on the last days of care in the below situations?
If you become aware that a child may be absent at the end their enrolment excluding the circumstances above there may be other options available to the family. Contact the BCSC for advice.
If a child in your service ends their enrolment on absences/s you can still submit the claim form/ attendance record with these absences. It will be processed as not eligible for CCS and the parent will need to pay full fees for those days
If a child in your service has their enrolment ended and absences were claimed on the last days before the enrolment ended, any CCS paid to you will be taken back.
If a child has not physically attended care for a period of 14 weeks the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) enrolment will be ceased by Centrelink and no CCS will be payable.
The parent is informed of a child’s ceased enrolment through their myGov Centrelink account
If timesheets are submitted after the CCS enrolment has ceased educators will not be paid any CCS for the child and we are unable to submit the care through to the Child Care Subsidy System
Any absences paid after the last physically attended day in the previous CCS enrolment will be recouped from the educator.
These enrolments affect:
Children who only attend in school holidays
Children who are only in very occasional care
Children on leave for 14 weeks and absences are claimed.
Educators must record how many weeks it has been since the child last physically attended care.
If a child has not attended care for 14 weeks or more and is recommencing care:
Explain to the parent or carer they must contact the Business and Customer Support Centre (BCSC) and speak with a customer service officer to re-enrol for their Child Care Subsidy before recommencing care.
A new booking contract is not required unless a permanent change to the care arrangement is requested or the child has been deleted.
The BCSC will send an Enrolment Confirmation to the parent by email. The parent must accept or decline this confirmation. The Enrolment Confirmation will provide the days and hours of the booking contract and the educator’s hourly fee. (This becomes the Complying Written Agreement (CWA) between FDC and the parent).
The BCSC will also submit the enrolment and booking contract to Centrelink through the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS).
Explain to the parent or carer they need to login to their myGov account, select Centrelink and confirm their enrolment with FDC.
Do not commence care until the above steps have been completed or CCS will not be paid.
Steps required when an Enrolment Confirmation is emailed to the parent or carer:
Open the email from the BCSC. This information is sent through our Harmony software and is from noreply@redbourne.com.au – check the booking.
Select 'I Agree' to confirm the enrolment information or
Select 'I Decline' to decline the enrolment information.
If the parent selects ‘I Agree’ they will go to a second screen and will need to record their name then select 'Submit' (this will become the Complying Written Agreement (CWA) between FDC and the parent).
If the parent selects ‘I Decline’ they will go to a second screen and will need to give a reason and select 'Decline Enrolment' then select 'Submit'.
The BCSC will contact you or the parent to discuss the problem with the enrolment.
The parent or carer must confirm CCS enrolment with Centrelink:
Log into myGov.
Select ‘Centrelink’.
Select ‘Child Care Subsidy’ from the menu.
Select ‘Enrolments’ from the menu.
Confirm the ‘Enrolment’ for each child.
The parent or carer will receive a receipt informing them that their entitlements will go to the educator.
Do not commence care until the parent or carer has completed the above steps as CCS will not be paid.
We are finding that the ceased enrolments after 14 weeks has been both confusing and frustrating for some educators and parents. We hope the following explanations will help:
You are unable to claim for absences for 14 weeks or more because the enrolment will cease and all absences that you have claimed will be taken back and CCS taken away - care must take place in the 14th week.
If the parent has informed you that the child will be absent from care for 14 weeks or more the following must be discussed:
ask the parent to pay full fee – still submit timesheets with a note – no CCS applies more than 14 weeks absences or
cancel the contract – no claims submitted or
submit a holiday request for the child for the period they will be absent or
negotiate a holding fee – no claims submitted.
The enrolment of children is an important step for Family Day Care (FDC).
It is a requirement under Family Assistance Law for all children who attend child care to have an enrolment notice regardless of their Child Care Subsidy (CCS) eligibility status.
For those eligible individuals and children, entitlement determinations will not occur without the correct enrolment in place. An enrolment links:
The child
The family
Family Day Care
BEFORE you provide care for a new family the following steps MUST be completed:
The parent makes a claim for Child Care Subsidy with Centrelink through their myGov account
The parent contacts the FDC BCSC, and a link to an online enrolment form will be emailed to the parent. The completed enrolment (including Centrelink Customer Reference Numbers and up to date immunisation records) is submitted back to the BCSC a minimum of one week prior to the Monday start date of the week care starts.
The parent and educator complete a booking contract. The start date of the booking contract needs to be the MONDAY of the week care starts
The educator must submit the booking to the BCSC a minimum of one week prior to the Monday start date
The BCSC will enter the booking into the Harmony Web software
The BCSC will send an Enrolment Confirmation to the parent by email. The parent must accept or decline this confirmation. The Enrolment Confirmation will provide the days and hours of the booking contract and your hourly fee. (This becomes the Complying Written Agreement (CWA) between FDC and the parent)
What does the parent need to do when an Enrolment Confirmation is sent to them?
Open the email from the BCSC, (sent through our Harmony Software and is from noreply@redbourne.com.au) and check the booking
Select I Agree to confirm the enrolment information or
Select I Decline to decline the enrolment information
If the parent selects the ‘I Agree’ they will go to a second screen and will need to record their name, then select Submit (this will become the Complying Written Agreement (CWA) between FDC and the parent
If the parent selects the ‘I Decline’ they will go to a second screen and will need give a reason and select Decline Enrolment, then select Submit
The BCSC will contact you or the parent to discuss the problem with the Enrolment.
7. The BCSC will also submit the enrolment and booking contract to Centrelink through the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS)
8. The parent needs to login to their myGov account, select Centrelink and confirm their enrolment with FDC
How does the parent confirm their CCS enrolment with Centrelink?
Log into MyGov
Select ‘Centrelink’
Select ‘Child Care Subsidy’ from the menu
Select ‘Enrolments’ from the menu
Confirm the ‘Enrolment’ for each child
Family Day Care (FDC) educators cannot claim Child Care Subsidy or Additional Child Care Subsidy when caring for any of the following children:
their own or their partner’s child
a foster child
an adopted child
a kinship child or any child for which they have legal responsibility, or
a brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, step brother or stepsister.
There are instances when an educator may be able to care for extended family such as a niece or nephew, cousin or grandchild/ great grandchild. It is a requirement for FDC to continue its registration as a service provider to ensure that FDC educators are providing more care to non-relative children than relative children in a CCS fortnight.
For example if an educator cares for two grandchildren the educator must also care for three non-relative children in the CCS fortnight.
This is known as the ‘less than 50% rule’.
A session of care is a minimum period for which a service charges a fee for providing care.
When claiming a session of care, the educator must be available for that whole session.
Allowable sessions for bookings with set hours:
hourly sessions within standard hours
hourly sessions within non-standard hours – non-standard hours bookings must be regularly attended, or no CCS will apply
daily session within standard hours only, to a maximum of 10 hours (Monday to Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm) - daily session information needs to be identified on all bookings
half day/part-time sessions within standard hours only (Monday to Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm) - part-time session information needs to be identified on all bookings.