Child Care under COVID-19 - Refused Attendance despite Already Being Enrolled

Jackson on 09/06/2020 - 14:01
Last edited 09/06/2020 - 17:52

Ok so I'm not usually the one in the family who deals with this stuff, but recently I got told by the child care centre my child goes to that all children who didn't attend child care on a certain week (starting 30th March) needed to reapply (26 pages worth) to the centre so that children of essential workers could be prioritised. I don't have anything against prioritising them, that's fair enough, however my kid needed to spend an extra 2 weeks at home while I work full time (you can imagine how that goes), then suddenly they tell me that my kid is fine to come in.

I get there today for first day back, and I'm asked to confirm that the kid was absent the last two weeks. When I told them they weren't absent and we were told we can't bring them in, they tell me "that's the way it is, if they weren't here you need to confirm that they were absent". That sounded strange to me.

So what I'm wondering as I hold for Services Australia to ask what's going on (30 minutes and counting - wow, 34min and I heard a ring and cycled back in the queue) is:

  1. Why would someone be asked to reapply if they didn't attend on a certain week when nearly the entire population wasn't sending their kids to child care?
  2. I thought the job keeper was contingent on them actually taking care of kids. Is this some way to get off the responsibility while still collecting money from the government? Or is it some other reason that's beyong my understanding?

Not wanting to throw stones, just trying to understand.

Toys & Kids

Comments

  • iampoor on 09/06/2020 - 14:46
    +7

    If I were to be cynical - https://www.education.gov.au/child-care-provider-handbook/re…

    Free money for them as they still get the government funding if it is put down as absent.

    • ESEMCE on 09/06/2020 - 15:05
      +1

      Bingo

    • Findo on 09/06/2020 - 15:43

      Under the ECEC relief package, services can't submit session reports:

      Providers and services will not be able to submit session reports for any sessions of care provided over the period 6 April 2020 to 28 June 2020 in either their third party software or the Provider Entry Point(PEP), including after 28 June 2020. see here

      There's a bunch of confusing answers to FAQs here but my guess would be the service was in receipt of the exceptional circumstances supplementary payment due to a higher number of attendances compared to the reference fortnight when the ECEC relief package subsidy was calculated.

      Have you checked whether your child is still enrolled through myGov? The service might've said your child stopped attending the service, but I'm not entirely sure on the process of ending an enrollment.

      • Jackson on 09/06/2020 - 17:25

        mate I tried to read that and it did my head in, no mean feat! Apparently the child was continuously enrolled according to centrelink staff who access the same data as in my mygov, their rep told me I could check all this myself there.

        The part I don't get, is why is my child continuously enrolled according to mygov, but then I'm told they can't attend (at least until I complete a form and wait 2 weeks) and then 10 days in we're told we can bring them in again? Especially considering it appears that they have marked the child absent. I did note that in your link it mentions I child can be absent 42 days without reason and the centre will still be paid, so that could be the reason, but then why not just let them attend those days?

  • barozgain on 09/06/2020 - 14:54
    +3

    Respect for OP
    for contacting Services Australia and not ignoring a potential dodgy act by the child centre even tho it won't harm OP directly

    • Jackson on 09/06/2020 - 15:27

      Just an FYI/CSR - I ended up needing to call Centrelink as SA doesn't handle child care, they handle child support :-)

      • Findo on 09/06/2020 - 15:46
        +1

        I've been advised families and services can report concerns about services not adhering with the conditions of the ECEC Relief Package to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment by phoning 1800 664 231 or by emailing [email protected].

  • elgrande on 09/06/2020 - 15:00
    +1

    My ears prick up whenever any sentence begins with "Just to confirm" or "Please confirm".

    Sounds like they were going to claim the payment for the period your kid was at home.

    Did you "confirm"?

    • Jackson on 09/06/2020 - 15:30
      +1

      hmmm, yes you might be right. I blindly confirm these things usually, I spend as much time looking at it as the Windows EULA. Usually it's just 'your kid was sick so click ok" but this time there was a screen full, and I needed to get back to work. It only occurred after I hit ok that it was odd.

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 09/06/2020 - 16:16

    we were told we can't bring them in

    Can you expand on this? Who told you not to bring them in and what was the reason?

    • Jackson on 09/06/2020 - 17:19

      Ok so I was holding off answering this til I spoke to the SO, we were clearly advised by the branch manager, that due to not having attended a single day for the week of the 30 March), the head office requires to reapply (along with everyone else in the state/country) so that we could be prioritised against kids who's parents are essential workers. I'm just about to get the form, but it sounds to me like they may have had a shortage of staff and were moving staff into different centres to cover for centres who had a high proportion of said kids.

      I wouldn't have thought there would be such disparity between the number of parents who are essential workers in different areas/centers, but maybe there is by random chance.

  • Hellfire on 09/06/2020 - 22:18

    Childcare centres were not making as much money under the free childcare scheme so weren't able to support the same number of children actually at the centre (due to minimum ratios). Sounds like they were trying to encourage parents to keep their kids away.

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