Child care providers

Child care fee assistance

We have payments to help families with the cost of child care fees. In most cases, we pay these to you as the child care provider.

Our payments include both:

• Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
• Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS).

To get payments on behalf of a family, you must be an approved child care provider.

As an approved provider, you can apply for ACCS Child Wellbeing. Read about this additional subsidy on the Department of Education website.

Approved child care providers

You need to apply to the Department of Education to be an approved provider. You must be one of these:

• Centre Based Day Care, including long day care and occasional care
• Family Day Care
• Outside School Hours Care, including before, after and vacation care
• In Home Care.

Once they approve you, you can get CCS on behalf of families.

Read about applying to becoming a CCS approved provider on the Department of Education website.

Remember, approval to get CCS on behalf of a family isn’t the same as approval to provide child care.

Online services

The Provider Entry Point (PEP)

This is part of the secure CCS System. Approved providers can use the PEP to:

• access information
• add or remove a service
• give notice of a change in their circumstances
• give enrolment notices and session reports to get the subsidy for families.

To access the PEP, you need to register with Provider Digital Access (PRODA).

PRODA

PRODA is an online authentication system. You can use it to securely access government online services.

To get a PRODA account you need to:

• create a username and password
• set up security questions and answers
• verify your identity using documents such as a passport, driver’s licence and Medicare card.

If you’re a manager

The person with management control of your child care service must:

• create their own PRODA account
• register the organisation in PRODA
• link the organisation to the PEP.

From the My linked services screen, select the PRODA Organisations tab on the top right. From here you can register or manage your organisation’s details.

We’ll check your organisation’s details against the Australian Business Register (ABR). Your individual PRODA account name must match an associated member name on the ABR.

Once you register you organisation in PRODA, you can link CCS as a service and access the PEP.

If you’re a staff member

All child care staff need to create their own PRODA account.

Once you register, you’ll get a PRODA Registration Authority (RA) number. We’ll send yours to the email address in your PRODA account.

You then need to give your RA number to the person with management control of your organisation. They’ll link your account to your organisation in PRODA. You can then do updates for your organisation using the PEP or a software product.

You can read more about child care providers on the Department of Education website.

Other government services

There is other government help for child care providers.

Read about child care and educational policies and programs on the Department of Education website. They can help you with questions about:

• procedure
• policy
• approval of services
• the PEP.

Child care educators and providers can go to the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority website. There are links to regulatory authorities in each state or territory.