The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is a not-for-profit, member-funded organisation advocating for the future of Australia's children.
We work on behalf of long day care owners and operators to ensure families and their children have an opportunity to access affordable, high quality early learning services throughout Australia.


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Coronavirus - Early Childhood Education & Care Relief Package

DESE15 1

On Thursday 2nd April the Prime Minister announced an Early Childhood Education & Care Relief Package, aimed at allowing struggling service providers to keep their doors open, especially to vulnerable children and those parents who need to keep working, particularly those on the healthcare frontline.

THE DETAILS

• The Government will pay 50% of all fees based on attendance at services in fortnight ending 1 March 2020, with the funding applying from 6 April.
• Services can waive gap fees from Monday 23 March
• No income and activity tests apply during this 6 month period.
• The new system replaces the existing Child Care Subsidy system for a period of 6 months, consistent with the JobKeeper Payment package.
• It will be reviewed after one month to ensure it is working effectively.
• The key aim is to support working families and vulnerable children.
• Services will still be supported in the event of forced closure

Almost every service provider is now eligible for the JobKeeper Payment package, announced earlier this week.

Software providers have been consulted by the Australian Government and are currently working on changes to accomodate these new financial measures.

You can read more about the ECEC Relief Package on the DESE webpage here.

ACA has produced a set of Q&As about the ECEC Relief Package based on member queries, available here. 

 

 

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