The Child Care Access 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.
Since 1 July 2006, approved child care services have been required to report availability and usage data to the Child Care Access Hotline. Collecting availability information improves the ability of the Child Care Access Hotline to help parents find suitable child care.
Parents can find out information about all the services in their area, and they can also be told information on whether or not the service has a vacancy, the age groups that the service caters for i.e. 0 - 2 years and school age, and whether there is a vacancy in the specific age groups that the parent is looking for. This also helps services to fill any vacancies, and reduce the number of enquiries to services during times when they have no vacancies or if the service doesn't offer care to a specific age group.
Reporting of your vacancy and usage details to the Australian Government Child Care Access Hotline is a mandatory requirement under the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999- Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2006 (No.1).
Other organisations may approach you to request your vacancy information. You do not have to provide information to these organisations, however this is a business decision for you to make.
Services can submit their vacancy and usage information in the following ways:
- Electronically via the Internet - Services with access to the internet should report directly into the Child Care Access Hotline system. Instructions for providing information in this way can be found on the Reporting of child care availability and usage details to the Child Care Access Hotline.
- Automatically via existing software systems -The Department has consulted with software providers to enable them to modify their software programs. Please contact your software provider to discuss whether you are able to lodge your information in this way.
- Telephone - Child care providers, who do not have Internet access, can report via the Child Care Access Hotline. Please contact the Child Care Access Hotline on 1800 795 433 to arrange this. If you report your information via the Child Care Access Hotline, operators will always identify themselves as the Australian Government Child Care Access Hotline. The Child Care Access Hotline operators can arrange a time to contact you each week to collect your information. (N.B Services who use this reporting option should note that irrespective of what arrangements they put in place with the Child Care Access Hotline to provide their vacancy and usage information, it is their responsibility to ensure that this information is submitted prior to the deadline).
- Email - Large organisations can send a consolidated list of their vacancy and usage data via email to the Child Care Access Hotline. Please contact the Child Care Access Hotline on 1800 795 433 to make arrangements to report via this method.
Services have until 8pm local time on the Friday of each reporting week to report and update their vacancy and usage data. After this time, no further changes can be made to the information via the Internet. Child care services who miss the deadline for reporting may still provide their vacancy and usage information by contacting the Child Care Access Hotline on 1800 795 433.
Any vacancy, usage or contact information you provide to the Department, either through the internet or through the Australian Government Child Care Access Hotline, is used only by the Child Care Access Hotline, or by the Department for program monitoring and reporting purposes.