Department of Education issues important reminders about session reports and CCS

Although a lot of attention has been placed on occupancy and viability, as well as managing health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are various functions and features of early childhood education and care (ECEC) business administration that remain, including submitting session reports in an accurate and timely manner, ensuring details are accurate in the child care subsidy (CCS) system, and being aware of newly updated inclusion support program (ISP) guidelines.

Firstly, session reports. The Department of Education reminds all providers that it “is vital that you submit accurate session reports on time. Child Care Subsidy cannot be paid until a session report is received.” 

Session reports can be submitted in the following ways: 

• Via third party software.
• Via the Provider Entry Point (PEP). Please refer to the Task Card on the department’s website for further assistance on how to update session reports in the PEP.

In the event that the department needs to contact a provider about a session report, or any other matter, they will use the details in the Child Care Subsidy System. As such, providers have been asked to ensure their details are up to date, with a particular emphasis on email contact. For those who have charge of Family Day Care schemes, special attention should be paid to ensure that the details of educators are current.

As with session reports, details can be updated via third party software or via the Provider Entry Point (PEP). 

In addition, the Department advised providers of the recent updates to the Inclusion Support Program Guidelines, which have now been published, providing support for more children with additional needs to participate in ECEC.

The ISP is part of the Child Care Safety Net, which supports services to improve their capacity and capability to implement quality inclusive practices and also supports parents and carers of those children to participate in the workforce.

Key changes include:

• addressing feedback that services with children who do not have a disability are missing out on Inclusion Support

• aligning to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Early Childhood Early Intervention approach to provide a collaborative framework of support for children with additional needs and their families.

The Department has developed an information sheet that covers all of the changes, which is also available on the department’s website.