MAYORAL MINUTE NO 11/2021
TARGETED ASSISTANCE FOR CHILD CARE SERVICES DURING COVID LOCKDOWN
24 AUGUST 2021
Councillors,
Yesterday the Prime Minister, The Hon. Scott Morrison MP and the Minister for Education and Youth, The Hon. Alan Tudge MP released a joint media release that will provide additional targeted support for child care providers impacted by extended COVID-19 lockdowns, through new fortnightly payments.
This announcement follows the NSW Government’s advice encouraging families to not send their children to childcare to assist in reducing the spread of the virus.
Families who receive Child Care Subsidy (CCS) must make a co-contribution to their child care fees under Family Assistance Law. They do this by paying the difference between Council’s fee and the CCS subsidy amount. This is known as the gap fee and is typically around 50 per cent of the total cost.
Following yesterday’s announcement, child care centres in The Hills Shire are eligible to receive these payments. To access the targeted support, Council will be required to opt-in and waive gap fees for families whose children maintain their enrolment but are absent from the centre. Fees will not be required to be waived for children who still attend.
Council’s Children’s Services would receive fortnightly business continuity payments of 25 per cent of pre-lockdown revenue, calculated up to the hourly cap, plus the regular Child Care Subsidy (CCS). Payments will be based on revenue in a specified fortnight before the lockdown.
The support is contingent with Council’s childcare services:
having reasonable expectations attendance will drop below 50 per cent
not accessing other Commonwealth Government-funded business supports
waiving gap fees for all families whose children are not attending
maintaining staffing levels, and
agreeing to a fee freeze for the duration of business continuity payments.
Councillors, these new measures will supersede the resolution of 10 August 2021 as follows 1. Council provide Child Care gap fee relief for the duration of lockdown and future
lockdowns in this financial year, to individual families, on a case by case basis where families can conclusively demonstrate genuine financial hardship and cannot attend.
This support will improve the financial sustainability of Children’s Services operations, and the full impact is still being assessed. Ultimately, the financial impact will depend in continued enrolments and will be monitored regularly.
Accordingly, I move that:
MOTION:
1. This Mayoral Minute be received
2. The General Manager be authorised to assess the offer, when received, for targeted support for child care providers from the Federal Government, and if satisfactory, opt-in to the business continuity payments support program, and waive the gap fee for in accordance with the requirements outlined in this memo.
Dr Michelle Byrne MAYOR
