The Child Care Access Hotline (the Hotline) is a telephone service funded by the Australian Government that provides families with information to help them choose a child care service that meets their needs.
The Australian Government announced changes to the service provided by the Hotline in June 2006. For the first time, parents now have access to a central register of child care availability across Australia. Since July 2006, parents contacting the Hotline to enquire about child care services in their area have also been able to access up to date information on vacancies within these services.
Feedback received from service providers, families and the community highlighted the need to provide information on vacancies for specific age groups, namely children aged 0-2 years and school age children. The Hotline has therefore been enhanced to enable services to report this information.
Since 27 November 2006, enhanced reporting requirements have been in place for Occasional Care (OCC), Long Day Care (LDC) and Family Day Care (FDC) services. These changes provide information on whether vacancies are for children aged 0-2 years or school age children. The new reporting requirements for these service types were detailed in letters sent to all OCC, LDC and FDC approved services. If your service requires an additional copy of the letter outlining the mandatory requirements please contact ccas@facsia.gov.au.
It is a mandatory requirement that all approved child care services report availability and usage data to the Hotline. Instructions for reporting this information are attached below.
- Reporting Instructions for Services - PDF
(1.3 MB)
This document is unavailable in RTF format. If you are unable to access the PDF version and would like a copy of this document please contact the Hotline on 1800 795 433.
Further information is available in the Reporting your vacancy and usage information to the Australian Government Child Care Access Hotline fact sheet -
HTML |
PDF (31.6 KB)
Introduction of the Civil Penalty and Infringement Notice Scheme
Under family assistance law, a civil penalty and infringement notice scheme has been introduced which applies to approved child care services from 1 July 2007.
Under this scheme, the Minister can pursue monetary penalties by seeking a civil penalty order from the Federal Court or the Federal Magistrates Court, where approved services contravene a civil penalty provision. Initially, the civil penalty provisions apply only to the requirement that services report child care usage and availability data to the Hotline on time. This means that from 1 July 2007, services that do not comply with their reporting obligations on time may have to pay a monetary penalty.
The maximum penalties are 60 penalty units ($6 600) for a corporation and 30 penalty units ($3 300) for individuals who operate a child care service. The scheme also provides for infringement notices to be issued for contraventions of civil penalty provisions. More details of the civil penalty and infringement notice scheme are set out in the Instruction Sheet attached below;
- Instruction Sheet - HTML | PDF (96.2 KB) RTF
(91.4 KB)
The civil penalty provisions are being implemented in a staged process with time allowed for services to familiarise themselves with current requirements and how they can be met.
Enhancements have been made to the Child Care Availability System in conjunction with the new civil penalties scheme so that receipt numbers are now issued when services have successfully submitted availability and usage information. Receipt numbers will also be shortly available to those services who submit information to the Hotline via phone or email. Services should record receipt numbers as proof that information has been correctly lodged. Information on receipt numbers is included in the Reporting Instructions for Services document -
PDF (1.3 MB).
Please contact the Hotline on 1800 795 433 if you have questions about your reporting obligations.