Rural families may have “three days” on paper, but access still hinges on supply and In Home Care rules

Most of the early childhood sector is across the basics of the 3 Day Guarantee. The sharper question for rural and remote communities is whether a larger subsidy entitlement can be converted into actual hours of care when services are scarce, distances are long, and the only viable option is often In Home Care (IHC).

• the reform can increase demand for places in towns already operating at capacity
• families may still be unable to use their entitlement if no local service exists, or if available sessions don’t align with work patterns, including seasonal and shift work.

• “Multi-care” is outside program scope — care cannot be provided for children from more than one family in a session of IHC. 
• Educators cannot bring their own children to the care environment during an IHC session, and an educator’s own child cannot receive CCS for IHC on the same day the educator provides IHC. 
• IHC Support Agencies manage a waitlist for eligible families who have been assessed as in-scope but have not commenced care. 
• The national cap is stated as 3,200 places. 

• IHC may be the only realistic care type, yet its rules can limit staffing models that would make care viable in remote settings
• recruitment is harder when educators cannot bring their own children — a constraint that may be manageable in metro areas but can be a dealbreaker in isolated communities. 

• the 3 Day Guarantee can support those who already have a service to use
• but for communities without supply, the change may highlight inequity rather than resolve it.

• increased enquiries and waitlist pressure as families seek to use expanded entitlement 
• heightened frustration where “guarantee” is interpreted as “guaranteed place” 
• more families exploring IHC, and more disappointment when families encounter eligibility evidence requirements, capped places, and out-of-scope restrictions. 

• how governments address “thin markets” where private provision is not viable 
• whether IHC rules can be adapted for geographically isolated contexts without undermining program intent 
• what targeted workforce and service-viability measures are needed to turn entitlement into access. 

• Australian Government Department of Education - 3 Day Guarantee, provider information — “families are not guaranteed a place”. 
• ABC News. Mapping Australia’s childcare divide and childcare deserts. 
• Productivity Commission. Supplementary paper on availability of ECEC and “thin markets” . 
• Australian Government Department of Education. In Home Care National Guidelines.
• Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association of Australia (ICPA) (Aust). Comment on the Three Day Guarantee Bill 2025.
• Rural Doctors Association of Australia. Childcare in rural and remote Australia.