On 25 October 2011, the Minister for Employment Participation and Child Care Kate Ellis announced the creation of more than one and a half thousand new Occasional and In Home Care places.

Occasional Care services support Australian families by providing flexible centre-based care that families can access on a regular, or ad-hoc basis. In Home Care is a targeted form of child care aimed at families whose circumstances mean that other child care services are not suitable.

These places will be allocated across the country, according to relative need, early next year. Families will be able to access these additional places by mid-2012.

Further details about the allocation process will be available on the website in late January 2012.