//
© 2026 Zoe. All rights reserved.
Zoe is a legal information platform. Always consult the official source for authoritative text.
Commonwealth legislation
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
This instrument sets the rules a child care service must meet to be approved, and to keep that approval, for the purposes of family assistance payments. It applies to a range of service types (centre-based long day care, family day care, in‑home care, outside school hours care and occasional care) and to the people who run, staff and use those services.
Approval and ongoing eligibility: The Secretary can only approve a service if the service and the applicant meet suitability and operational rules (Part 2 and Part 3). The Secretary assesses the applicant’s fitness to run a service using a list of factors including management, compliance history, financial standing, criminal matters and governance (section 7). Approved services must continue to meet those standards (section 16).
Checks on people involved: The rules require services to take reasonable steps to ensure staff and carers are suitable, including criminal‑record checks and other checks as required (sections 8–9, 16(5)). Services must notify the Secretary of relevant events that may affect suitability (e.g. charges, convictions, bankruptcy, changes in key personnel) within specified timeframes (section 19(3)–(4)).
Operational undertakings: Applicants must give undertakings about how the service will operate (section 10 and following). Examples include operating at least 48 working weeks per year, offering at least 8 continuous hours of care on operating days, and ensuring most enrolled children fit the service type (e.g. pre‑school for long day care) (section 10(1)–(3)). In‑home care approvals must restrict who can be cared for by reference to listed circumstances (section 10(1B)–(1C)).
Want the full deep dive?
Zoe can write the in-depth analysis on top of the summary above: how it works, who it affects and what each part actually does.
Direct links to the current provisions in Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Rules 2017.
Zoe has indexed the source text for search and analysis. Use the official register for the original document and download formats.
View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Recordkeeping and registers: Family day care services have specific additional recordkeeping duties to monitor certain eligibility exemptions and Inclusion Support Programme status (sections 10A and 10AB). Those duties include collecting customer reference numbers (CRNs), documentary evidence of eligibility, maintaining a Secretary‑approved register and keeping documents for inspection.
Electronic interface and reporting: Applicants and approved services must have the capacity to use the approved electronic interface and registered software for reporting and transactions under the family assistance law (section 14C). The Secretary may specify forms, the way information is given, and may request ongoing information and surveys (sections 21–21A).
Privacy, inspections and insurance: Services must protect client personal information and comply with the Privacy Act (section 22), allow agency officers to inspect premises during operating hours (section 20), and hold required insurance (workers’ compensation and public liability) (section 12).
Priority of access and employer arrangements: Services must follow the priority-of-access guidelines when filling vacant places (section 13 and Schedule 1). The rules allow certain employer‑funded services to give priority to employer’s children, and allow arrangements where a service agrees to reserve a number of places for an employer’s employees (section 13(2)–(3)). Schedule 1 sets the three priority tiers and priority subgroups to be used in filling vacancies.
Limits on movement and continuity obligations: Services that have been allocated places under the Family Assistance Act generally must not change location without Secretary approval, and the Secretary must consider place‑allocation determinations when deciding on new locations (section 26). An approved service must continue to be operated by the applicant who applied for approval (section 18).
Transitional savings: The instrument replaces an earlier 2000 instrument but carries over some existing approvals, registers and determinations and continues to apply the old Part 2 for applications already in progress at commencement (Part 4, sections 29–30).
Why the instrument matters (mechanics, incentives, costs and trade‑offs)
Who pays: The immediate administrative costs fall on applicants and operators. They must perform criminal‑record checks, maintain approved registers, store documentary evidence, hold insurance, support electronic reporting (sections 8–9, 10A–10AB, 12, 14C, 21). Those are compliance costs that an operator must meet to obtain or keep approval.
Who decides: The Secretary has broad discretion to assess suitability (section 7), to approve forms and registers (section 10A(6), 10AB(1), 21A), to approve relocation where places are allocated (section 26) and to determine other matters under the family assistance law (section 2A reference). That creates a central administrative decision point for approvals and continued approval.
Behaviour changes and private‑sector effects: Operators may need to alter practices to meet undertakings (e.g. standard operating weeks/hours, 8‑hour minimum session availability, register maintenance) and to adopt registered software/electronic interfaces (sections 10, 14C, 27). These requirements can affect pricing and administrative overheads for independent providers and influence decisions about service hours, staffing and business location (sections 10, 12, 26).
Compliance burden and implementation risk: The instrument imposes recurring recordkeeping and reporting obligations (sections 10A–10AB, 21). Implementation depends on the Secretary’s specification of electronic systems and registers (sections 14C, 21A) and on services’ capacity to operate them, which creates operational risk and transitional adjustment costs.
Concentrated benefits and diffuse costs: The rules enable employer‑funded services and negotiated place reservations (section 13(2)–(3)), which confer a clear, concentrated allocation outcome for specified employees; compliance costs are borne more broadly by all applicants/operators due to uniform approval and reporting requirements.
Trade‑offs: The instrument trades administrative oversight and recordable eligibility checks for centralized control over which services qualify for family assistance‑linked approval. This increases bureaucratic discretion (section 7) and administrative duties for providers (sections 10A–10AB, 14C, 21), in exchange for consistent documentary evidence and the ability for the Secretary to verify eligibility and monitor service operation.
Key cross‑references and where to look in the instrument