Long Day Care FAQs

An orientation appointment is a compulsory appointment where you and your child will attend the service prior to enrolment.

At the orientation

• Your child will have an opportunity to play and interact with the children already in care, while educators go through your enrolment form with you to determine whether they can meet your care needs
• You will be able to get a feel for the educational environment and find out more about the service routines and educational learning programs before you proceed to commence enrolment and start care.

High quality education and care delivered through individualised educational programs, provided by qualified early childhood educators.

Each service has a trained cook

• Our trained cooks prepares nutritious breakfast, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea each day for the children.
• Our cooks will cater for your child's special dietary requirements (e.g. allergies, vegetarian and Halal).

Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is an assistance from the Federal Government to help families using approved child care, with the cost of their child care fees.

Apply for CCS

You will need to register and complete a Child Care Subsidy assessment using your Centrelink online account through myGov, or you may not receive any child care fee assistance.

Once assessed, you will receive a notice from the Department of Human Services to confirm your eligibility.

All families are required to have a holding deposit held on their account.

The holding deposit is the equivalent of one week's fees and is used to pay the last week of care provided your account is up to date, you have given two weeks written notice to cease care and your child attends their last booked day of care.

Our policy is that at a minimum, child care accounts are kept one week in advance (holding deposit).

Families may choose to pay their fees weekly, fortnightly or monthly, however, this must always be in advance, not arrears.

If your account is not up to date, you will be contacted to advise of the arrears and a date that they are to be paid by.

If your fees are still not paid by the date and you have not spoken to the Administration Team to make alternative arrangements, the service will not be able to accept your children into care until payment is made or a payment plan has been arranged.

If a payment is not received, your child’s place at the service will no longer be available and any outstanding fees will need to be paid in full before any future enrolments can be considered.

All of your child's belongings need to be labelled with their name:

• A sun hat (legionnaires or bucket type) for all year round clearly labelled with your child’s name
• Spare clothes, 1 to 2 sets (including undies and socks)
• Bed sheets for rest time, in a pillow case
• A bag for belongings that your child can undo and do up
• Soft toy for rest time, if your child needs one
• Supportive closed in shoes that fit (sandshoes, sneakers or sandals in summer). No thongs, reef shoes or crocs please
• A top with sleeves (singlet tops and strappy dresses do not provide adequate sun protection).

In winter please also provide:

• Warm coat, sloppy joe or jumper
• Gloves
• Blanket and sheet for rest time.

For babies and toddlers please also provide the following:

• Enough baby formula made up for the day in your baby’s plastic bottle or a bottle with boiled water in it and a segregated container with formula correctly measured. Please label bottles and container with your child’s name and give them to staff when you get to the service so they can place the bottles in the fridge
• 3 complete sets of clothes
• 2 dummies (if needed)
• Favourite rest time toy (if needed)
• Disposable nappies (at least 5 per day)
• Numerous pairs of training pants (when necessary).

Child Care Subsidy is paid for a child's absences from care for up to 42 days, per financial year.

Once your child has reached 42 days of allowable absences, a medical certificate must be provided for Child Care Subsidy to be paid.

If you wish to cease care, you are required to provide two weeks written notice.

You will need to complete an electronic refund form which can also be made available to you at the service. The electronic refund form should be completed and submitted at the same time as your ceasing care form.

The following procedure will be implemented for one or more occasions in a calendar year:

First time

• The first time you pick up your child late, you will be given a reminder about the service’s hours of operation.
• Children enrolled for 'Reduced Hours' will automatically have their booking updated to a 'Full Day' session.

Second time

• If this occurs a second occasion within the same calendar year, a charge as per Council's Fees and Charges will be added to your child care account.

Third time

• If you are late picking up your child a third time, a charge will again be added to your child care account and your child’s position at the service will be reviewed.

To help us save the environment:

• We'll ask you to provide an email address when you enrol in our services
• Statements, parent newsletters and other information will all be sent to you electronically.