In July 2018 there will be significant changes to the way the Federal government funds child care in Australia. In this blog I will try to tackle the changes affecting TRANSITIONING.
If you haven't done so, you need to get your skates on and set up your PRODA ID.
Your PRODA ID basically replaces the old CCMS Personnel ID and comes with a bonus online identity check (a bit like the banks 100 point ID check but how the government would design it).
If you haven't done that already its time to stop reading this and go and do it. You need it to get your new approval and you need that to keep running a childcare centre after 2 July 2018. More information on how to here.
If you are still reading this you already have your PRODA ID set up. You will receive a letter (via the actual postal service, not just embedded in an email) in the next week or so with instructions on how to set up your service and get your new approval. Does CCMS have your correct Operator Address ?
About half of the current software providers are now registered for transition (we were one of the early ones through that gate). If yours isn't, it might be time to be asking questions. The list is updated regularly as other software providers straggle through. A whole bunch were added today.
So you have your PRODA ID, you know your software provider is transition ready and you are waiting for your letter. Is there anything else you can do to get ready?
Turns out the answer is 'YES YOU CAN'. In a nutshell - 'formalise the heck out of any enrolment you can'. The department will only migrate across formalised enrolments. Its not the end of the world if an enrolment is informal but its much easier if you start off in the new system already formalised.
So any of those parents who have been procrastinating about checking back with Centrelink to confirm their child's registered date of birth (for example) need to get that done and in the system and submitted before the end of April.
After that date we are in 'new enrolment' territory with the hoopla around confirming fee agreements before subsidies are paid. I would go so far as to recommend that if you have new starters for April you see about getting them in and formalised before the cutoff date too.
Will your families be better off or worse off under the new system ?
Invite them to try the government's Child Care Subsidy Estimator and find out.
