Important notes and updates from the Department of Education 

The Department of Education released an update yesterday covering information about the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) Provider Helpdesk, public holiday arrangements and allowable absences. 

Helpdesk closed for Easter

The CCS Provider Helpdesk will be closed on Friday 18 April (Good Friday) and Monday 21 April (Easter Monday) for the holiday period. The helpdesk will reopen at 9 am AEST next Tuesday 22 April.

Providers can email the helpdesk anytime at [email protected] , with emails to be responded to during business hours. 

Public holiday arrangements and allowable absences 

CCS payments may be affected by the public holiday. On public holidays, providers can report an absence if their service would have been open otherwise. 

For example: 

• a service that is open on Mondays can report absences for a public holiday on a Monday 
• a service that only operates from Wednesday to Friday cannot report absences for a public holiday on a Monday. 

Services can only report absences and charge families for children who would have normally attended care on that day. This will be considered an allowable absence and will be deducted from a family’s 42 allowable absences.

If a provider does report an absence for a public holiday, they must still collect the gap fee from families. 

Once a family has used their 42 allowable absence days, they cannot claim a public holiday as an additional absence reason.

Read more about absences from child care on the Department’s website.