Long day care is a centre-based form of child care service. Long day care services provide quality all day or part-time care for children of working families and the general community. Private operators, local councils, community organisations, employers or non-profit organisations may run these services.
The Australian Government funds long day care services to provide care predominantly for non-school children, whose parents are working, undertaking vocational study, training or looking for work.Some services provide care for limited numbers of primary school children before and after school, and during school holidays.The service must:
- provide care to children, the majority of whom are under school age and who attend the service on a regular basis. If there are vacancies at the beginning or end of the day, the service may provide care for school children if this meets state or territory licensing guidelines
- be open to the general public. This is not applicable to employer-operated services or employer-sponsored places in funded services unless they are under-utilised (see below).
Non work-related cares
Services may provide respite care and other non work-related child care but should always give attention to families needing work-related care.
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