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The importance of
compliance for
Family Day Care services
What is compliance for Family Day Care?
Family Day Care services have to comply with a
variety of different laws and regulations, including
those that govern child care payments – the
payments your service receives from the Australian
Government.
The Department of Social Services Child
Care Payments Compliance Programme
helps prevent, detect and deter
compliance breaches by Family Day
Care services.
family
services
daycare
EDUCATION & SUPPORT PROJECT
❝Did you know that
the Australian
Government will be
spending almost
$8 billion a year on
early education and
care over the next
four years?❞
Child care payments
Family Day Care services receive money from the
Australian Government on behalf of families. These
include payments such as:
l Child Care Benefit (CCB);
l Child Care Rebate (CCR);
l Special Child Care Benefit (SCCB); and
l Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee
Assistance (JETCCFA).
Why is compliance such an
issue?
Did you know that the Australian Government
will be spending almost $8 billion a year on early
education and care over the next four years?
Because child care payments are made by the
Government from funds collected from tax payers,
the Government has as an obligation to ensure
that services receiving the money are complying
with the laws that outline who can receive these
payments and what they can receive them for.
The Department of Social Services is the Australian
Government department with responsibility for
ensuring that CCB-approved services, such as Family
2 – Family Day Care Compliance
Day Care services, that receive these payments on
behalf of families, are doing the right thing.
While the Department knows that many child
care services and educators are in the sector for
the right reasons and are providing high quality,
accessible and affordable child care to Australian
families, it is becoming more and more obvious that
some services are not. Unfortunately, these actions,
called ‘non-compliance’, are increasing in the
Family Day Care sector.
Child Care Payments Compliance
Programme
Because more and more services are not
complying with the laws surrounding child care
payments, and because more services have been
found to be engaging in fraudulent behaviour, the
Department of Social Services has created the Child
Care Payments Compliance Programme.
The Programme tries to do two things:
Make sure that the payments made by the
Australian Government to support families
accessing quality child care are actually used
for this, and are used in an honest way;
Promote behaviour by child care services
which is compliant with the Family Assistance
Law under which the payments are made.
The Child Care Payments Compliance Programme
does this in three ways:
Prevention. Stopping fraud before it happens,
especially by educating child care services
about what they should be doing and what
will happen if they are found to be doing the
wrong thing.
Detection. Identifying claims for funds such
as CCB and CCR that are fraudulent, or
wrongly claimed.
Deterrence. Discouraging services from
doing the wrong thing, by ensuring there are
consequences for those that have done the
wrong thing.
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Family Day Care Services Education & Support Project
How high is non-compliance in
child care payments in FDC?
What do FDC services have to do
to be compliant?
l
l
The latest departmental data shows that almost
half of Family Day Care services in Australia are
at high risk of potential non-compliance.
l Non-compliant claims by Family Day Care
services last financial year are estimated to have
cost taxpayers at least $250 million.
The new rules for FDC services
In December 2014, the Government introduced new
rules* for Family Day Care services to address noncompliance in the sector. These three rules were
introduced to improve transparency, strengthen child
safety and apply conditions consistently across Australian
states and territories.
RULE: Only operating in one state or
1 THE
territory without permission or approval.
A service must not provide care in a state or territory,
other than where the service was approved. Where a
service wishes to operate in multiple states or territories,
they must apply to each Regulatory Authority for
approval.
l When it comes into effect: 4 June 2015.
l Why was it brought in? To make sure that Family Day
Care services check, train and monitor educators in each
state or territory in which they operate and ensure they
are complying with the Family Assistance Law.
RULE: Complying with conditions on
2 THE
licence.
Services must comply with any conditions on the
service’s approval.
Where a state or territory Regulatory Authority placed
a condition on a Family Day Care service (such as a
limit on the number of educators), the service must
also comply with that as a condition under the Family
Assistance Law and National Law.
l When it comes into effect: 4 December 2014.
To receive Australian Government child care fee
assistance, Family Day Care services and their
educators must comply with a range of laws and
regulations, including the Family Assistance Law.
approval are applied consistently across the National Law
and the Commonwealth.
RULE: Linking care with the
3 THE
educator’s ID who provided it.
Family Day Care services need to assign a Service
Provider Personnel ID to each educator in their CCMS
(Child Care Management System) Software, once their
software allows this. Services then need to link each
session of care to a specific educator.
l When it comes into effect: 4 December 2014.
l Why was it brought in? To assist services to remain
compliant with Family Assistance Law, in particular in
submitting accurate reports on the provision of care.
Want to know more? Go to:
www.education.gov.au/family-day-care
* When the new rules were implemented in
December 2014, there were four in number. On 30
January 2015, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, Minister
for Social Services, announced that one of them,
the ‘child swapping’ rule, would be postponed to
allow for further consultation with the FDC sector but
he remains committed to addressing the issue of
unscrupulous FDC operators exploiting loopholes in
the Family Assistance Law to maximise profits through
the practice of ‘child swapping’. The three rules
that are still in place are the ones outlined above.
Further information on the consultation process
about the ‘child swapping’ rule will be made on the
Department’s website: www.dss.gov.au
l Why was it brought in? To ensure that conditions of
Family Day Care Services Education & Support Project Family Day Care Compliance – 3
Do you know about non-compliant practices?
Anyone who is aware of practices that could be incorrect, illegal or non-compliant
with the Family Assistance Law can contact the Department by phone:
1800 664 231 or by email: [email protected]
Want to find out more?
DAY CARE SUPPORT PROJECT FLYER
This leaflet is the second in a series of leaflets
the Family Day Care Support Project has
released about compliance. You can read the
first leaflet here:
www.fdcsupport.org.au/wp-content/uploads/
FDC-Support-Project-Compliance-Brochure.pdf
family
services
daycare
EDUCATION & SUPPORT PROJECT
l F
AMILY
l T
HE
NEW RULES
Read more about the new rules for Family Day
Care: www.education.gov.au/family-day-care
l KEY
OBLIGATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS
You can read about key obligations and
expectations of Family Day Care services, in
English, Arabic and Somali here:
www.education.gov.au/family-day-care
CHILD CARE HANDBOOK
The Child Care Service Handbook provides
guidance and assistance to Child Care Benefit
(CCB) approved child care services (including
Family Day Care) operating under the Child Care
Management System (CCMS):
www.education.gov.au/child-care-servicehandbook
CONTACT
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (02) 9779 9926
Fax: (02) 9779 9998
This project is funded by the Australian
Government Department of Social Services
and is being managed by NSW Family
Day Care Association (lead agency), in
partnership with Family Day Care Association
Queensland.
family day care
l THE
Prior to December 2014, the Department of Education
was responsible for child care. The majority of material
FDC services needs to consult is still on the Department
of Education’s website, but it will shortly be moved to the
Department of Social Services website.
4 – Family Day Care Compliance
inspiring wonderful childhoods
For more information go to:
www.fdcsupport.org.au
DISCLAIMER
This is a general guide to some (but not all) of the
legal obligations of FDC services approved for the
purposes of the Family Assistance Law and is not
a complete description of your legal obligations.
This also does not cover all the legal obligations
of approved FDC services. You should consult
the relevant legislation for full details of your legal
obligations. You may also wish to obtain your own
independent legal advice.
Family Day Care Services Education & Support Project