• Occasional Care
• How an approved Occasional Care service must operate
• Allocation of Occasional Care places
• Occasional Care Operational Support
• More information

Occasional Care

Occasional Care is centre-based child care that supports families by providing flexible care for children. Families can access occasional care regularly on a sessional basis, or irregularly. Occasional Care allows the flexibility to leave children for short periods of time in an early childhood learning environment to socialise and interact with other children.

Occasional Care services must comply with applicable state and territory regulations when providing care to children.

How an approved Occasional Care service must operate

An approved Occasional Care service must ensure that:

• Most of the children provided with care will not have started school and
• It operates for a maximum of nine hours per day.

Further legislative criteria for Occasional Care are set out in the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Determination 2007. This instrument is subject to change from time to time. The current compilation is available on www.deewr.gov.au.

Allocation of Occasional Care places

For a service to become approved, Occasional Care places must be available to allocate to that service. Occasional Care is a capped program and there are a limited number of Occasional Care places available for allocation to services.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) is currently seeking applications from operators of Occasional Care services, or persons applying for approval of such services, interested in receiving an allocation of Occasional Care places, or an additional allocation of such places. Further information, including the applicant guidelines and application forms, can be found on the In Home Care and Occasional Care Allocation page.

Additional information on the allocation process can be found on the In Home Care and Occasional Care Allocation page.

Occasional Care Operational Support

All services approved for Child Care Benefit purposes as an Occasional Care service, are eligible to receive Operational Support.

More information:

• Child Care Service Handbook
• Occasional Care Funding Program Guidelines 20010-11 ( PDF 280KB | RTF 567KB)
• By calling 1300 363 079 and requesting the DEEWR child care team in your state or territory.