The importance of compliance for Family Day Care services

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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.

2 – Family Day Care Compliance Family Day Care Services Education & Support Project

Child care paymentsFamily 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); andl 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

❝�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?❞

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 ProgrammeBecause 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:

1 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;

2 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:

1 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.

2 Detection. Identifying claims for funds such as CCB and CCR that are fraudulent, or wrongly claimed.

3 Deterrence. Discouraging services from doing the wrong thing, by ensuring there are consequences for those that have done the wrong thing.

Family Day Care Services Education & Support Project Family Day Care Compliance – 3

How high is non-compliance in child care payments in FDC? 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.

What do FDC services have to do to be compliant? l 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.

The new rules for FDC servicesIn December 2014, the Government introduced new rules* for Family Day Care services to address non-compliance in the sector. These three rules were introduced to improve transparency, strengthen child safety and apply conditions consistently across Australian states and territories.

1 THE RULE: Only operating in one state or 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.

2 THE RULE: Complying with conditions on 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.

l Why was it brought in? To ensure that conditions of

approval are applied consistently across the National Law and the Commonwealth.

3 THE RULE: Linking care with 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

4 – Family Day Care Compliance Family Day Care Services Education & Support Project

Do you know about non-compliant practices?

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Want to find out more? l���FAMILY 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

l���THE NEW RULESRead more about the new rules for Family Day Care: www.education.gov.au/family-day-care

l���KEY OBLIGATIONS AND EXPECTATIONSYou 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

l���THE CHILD CARE HANDBOOKThe 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-service-handbook

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.

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: tipoffline@education.gov.au

DISCLAIMERThis 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.

CONTACTEmail: info@fdcsupport.org.au

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.

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For more information go to:www.fdcsupport.org.au