The Inclusion Support Program (ISP) supports child care services so they can welcome and include all children, including those with additional needs.
Children with additional needs include those from diverse cultural and language backgrounds, those with a disability, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
It is part of the larger Inclusion and Professional Support Program (IPSP) which supports child care services to provide high quality care.
Under the Program, 67 regionally based Inclusion Support Agencies (ISAs) employ Inclusion Support Facilitators (ISFs) to work directly with child care services to build and develop skills.
ISFs are trained specialists in early childhood and inclusive practices.
ISFs:
- develop plans for 'inclusion readiness' which support child carers so they are ready to include children with different types of needs
- develop Service Support Plans so the child care environment - whether it is at a centre, a home or elsewhere - can support all children
- identify the need for and facilitating 'bicultural support', which helps children with different languages and cultures 'settle in comfortably' to their child care
- recommend specialist equipment to be bought through the Inclusion Support Subsidy (ISS), for example, hoists, special change tables, special toilets, support swings, positioning blocks, and sensory mats
- identify where the ISS is needed and assist in completing ISS forms.
All Australian Government approved child care services are eligible regardless of care type or location. Types include:
- Long Day Care
- Outside School Hours (including Vacation Care)
- Occasional Care
- Family Day Care
- In Home Care.
Some Australian Government funded non-mainstream child care services (non-Child Care Benefit) are also eligible. These services include:
- flexible/innovative services
- Multi-functional Aboriginal Children's Services (MACS)
- non-mainstream Outside School Hours Care
- non-formula funded Occasional Care (100 per cent Australian Government funded)
- mobile children's services.
It helps families by:
- supporting child care services to include all children, regardless of their background and including those with additional needs
- giving families access to better child care and greater choice in child care.
For more information on all aspects of the Inclusion Support Program visit the Child care main page.
Key points
The ISP:
- supports child care services to provide high-quality child care
- supports child care services to include all children, regardless of their background and including those with additional needs
- gives families confidence that those who work in child care have access to the skills they need to do their jobs well
- covers all types of Australian Government approved child care
- is for some Australian Government funded non-mainstream child care services (non-Child Care Benefit)
- is a coordinated, national approach for child care services in regional, rural and remote Australia.