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.
By now all early learning approved providers should have received an email from the Department of Education and Training (DET) regarding device activation codes that were generated during the transition to Child Care Subsidy (CCS) earlier this year.
The generated code is unique for each PRODA device (i.e. the child care software) that interacts with the department’s Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS). Your software provider used the code in the set up of your child care software product.
These codes are set to expire soon – you need to take action to ensure payments continue.
Under the new Child Care Subsidy, as of Monday 14 January 2019, approved providers will be required to report drop off and pick up times for each child for whom Child Care Subsidy is being claimed, when submitting their weekly session reports to the Federal Government.
This can be done via an electronic solution or entered manually into your third party software.
However you should consider the huge administrative burden associated with manualy data entry, which makes an electronic solution a viable alternative.
As the MyChild.gov.au website is being replaced by a new "Child Care Finder" website, all early learning service providers must update their details on the new website for the following reasons:
1/ in order to comply with the Family Assistance Law, which specifies that service providers must keep fee information, vacancies and operating hours up to date in the Child Care Subsidy System. Financial penalties may apply; and
2/ to ensure that your service gets priority placement in the search result rankings on the Child Care Finder.
As Christmas 2018 approaches, ACA is proud to join forces with our friends at Foodbank to support this year's fundraising initiative for families doing it tough this festive season.
Many families with young children across Australia experience food insecurity (a lack of access to a sufficient supply of affordable and nutritious food).
According to the Foodbank Hunger Report 2018, over 4 million Australians have experienced uncertainty around where their next meal is coming from in the last 12 months. This is an in increase of 400,000 people since the 2017 report.
Australians living in regional and remote areas are 33% more likely to have experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months than those living in cities.
Sadly children represent 22% of all food insecure Australians.
This year's "Bringing the heart of Australia together this Christmas" appeal aims to allow those families struggling to put food in their cupboards to enjoy some essential food items this Christmas, enabling them to bring their family together, celebrate and create new memories.