Understanding suspension of approvals – regulatory and compliance insights

Freya Lucas

Jul 26, 2022

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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) approved providers may on occasion have their National Law or Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approval canceled or suspended for failing to comply with obligations under the National Law or Child Care Subsidy stipulations, or following a voluntary request.

The following piece unpacks:

What happens if National Law approval is suspended?

If a service’s National Law approval is suspended:

The service cannot provide care to children for the duration of the suspension
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) will automatically suspend CCS approval (because a condition of CCS approval is that providers are approved under the National Law).

Contact the relevant state or territory regulatory authority for more information about National Law approval.

What happens if CCS approval is suspended?

If a providers CCS approval is suspended:

The service will not get CCS for the duration of the suspension
The service may still provide care as long as its National Law approval has not been suspended.

Non-compliance suspensions

Approved providers must comply with the rules under Family Assistance Law. DESE may take compliance action if a service fails to meet its obligations. Compliance action could include:

putting conditions on CCS approval;
issuing an infringement; or,
suspending or cancelling CCS approval.

DESE has prepared information and resources about a service’s responsibilities to help services to comply with obligations and avoid compliance action.

Voluntary suspensions

Services may occasionally need to voluntarily suspend their CCS approval, such as on occasions where they will not be able to meet minimum operating requirements due to a temporary closure.

In the above scenario, a service would only need to request a voluntary suspension of CCS approval if:

they are not also suspending your National Law approval; or,
the service is out of scope of the National Law.

This, DESE said, is because the Department will automatically suspend CCS approval if National Law approval is suspended.

Request a voluntary suspension of CCS approval here.

For further information and support in relation to suspensions please see here.

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