At the time of writing this article, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW notes that there are 10 local government areas and 1 Sydney suburb listed as COVID-19 "hotspots" that required increased testing.
And unless local emergencies are declared by the NSW Government in those "hotspot" areas, negatively affected early childhood education and care services may be unintentionally overlooked/blocked from receiving already provisioned Federal Government assistance. Until 27 September 2020, such assistance could have included:
- waiver of gap fees so as to temporarily allow services to continue receiving Child Care Subsidy (CCS);
- the equivalent of top up payments of an additional 5% to up to 25% should attendances reduce below 30%;
- 30 extra days added to the 42 allowable days of absences; and
- extension of the Additional Viability Support Payment for out-of-school-hours-care services.
Since 1 September 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has highlighted the inconsistencies of state governments in their responses to COVID-19 "hotspots" as compared to much larger geographic areas that have Stage 3 and Stage 4 restrictions imposed in Victoria. Yet, services in Stage 3 and Stage 4 restrictions continue to have access to the abovementioned additional Federal Government assistance, whereas services in "hotspots" to date do not.
Now that the Federal Government has confirmed the scheduled expiry of the Transition Payments on 27 September 2020, ACA NSW (through ACA National) are interested to ensure that both tiers of governments are aligned to address the consequences of COVID-19 "hotspots".
ACA NSW members can contact us on 1300 556 330 or via nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.
PUBLISHED: 22 SEPTEMBER 2020