Additional Child Care Subsidy

Additional Child Care Subsidy - Child Wellbeing

Additional Child Care Subsidy - Child Wellbeing can be accessed for a child at serious risk of neglect. This is the equivalent of the old ‘CRK’ that could be claimed on an attendance.

Note the following:

  • You must submit an ACCS certificate to start accessing ACCS for a child
  • The initial certifcate runs for a maximum of 6 weeks
  • To continue to access ACCS beyond 6 weeks for a child or if this child will take you above the 50% cap you must complete a full determination

Accessing ACCS - Child Wellbeing

  1. Create a CWA enrolment (not an ACCS enrolment) in SmartCentral for the child in question with their CRN and submit it
  2. Go to the ACCS TAB on the enrolment and create the ACCS certificate for 6 weeks linking up the CWA enrolment
  3. Start submitting attendances as normal

Notes for the ACCS cert and determinations;

  • Once the Enrolment is PENDEL/PENDIN/Active, go to the enrolment’s ACCS TAB and create the 6 week ACCS certificate
  • Make sure the paperwork to support CRK, has been already loaded onto the child’s documents TAB.
  • start date must be a monday, on or prior to the first session attended
  • end date must be a Sunday 6 weeks (or less) later
  • initial certificate can be for up to 6 weeks
  • once approved it will appear on the drop down cert box for a new determination and the ACCS % will be on the enrolment
  • when required, you can add a new determination to submit for approval under the ACCS TAB and link it to the 6 week ACCS cert

CCS ACCS TAB

ENROLMENT ACCS TAB

ENROLMENT ACCS FIELD

Enrolments with a TYPE ACCS must only be used when you determined there is no one eligible to claim for the child and you the service provider will be the ‘parent’ for the purpose of this enrolment. For more information on ACCS Enrolments see below.

Other types of ACCS

Other types of ACCS are :

  • Grandparent
  • Temporary Fincancial Hardship
  • Transition to Work

These types are applied for by the carer directly to centrelink and show up in the subsidy calculations.

ACCS Enrolments

ACCS Enrolments are the equivalent of the old Service SCCB and are only to be used when no parent can be identified who is eligible.

A provider may identify a child at risk of neglect or abuse who meets relevant criteria but may be unable to identify a parent or carer - an individual or claimant - who is eligible for Additional Child Care Subsidy (child wellbeing). In these cases, as a last resort, the provider may enrol the child under an ‘Additional Child Care Subsidy (child wellbeing) - provider eligible arrangement’. This arrangement will end once the child is no longer at risk.

In this situation, the provider effectively becomes the individual in relation to that child, although a different arrangement will apply to the enrolment.

Where a provider is making themselves eligible (where there is no individual), the system process is as follows:

  • Create an ‘ACCS (Child Wellbeing) – Provider Eligible’ enrolment (the CRN field will be left blank) – not always
  • Complete the ‘Request for a child’s Customer Reference Number (CRN)’ form and email this to the Child Wellbeing team at child.wellbeing@education.gov.au. The form can be provided by the helpdesk or the service can request for the form by emailing child.wellbeing@education.gov.au. The form is not public at this stage, however it has been provided to services who were using the equivalent option under S-SCCB
  • The Child Wellbeing team will request for a CRN from DHS. This will, on average take about two working days
  • The Child Wellbeing team will update the child’s enrolment with the new CRN and services will receive an email to let them know this has been completed

Resources

Certificate Rules

  • Child must be uniquely identified, using either CRN or Enrolment ID. Note, enrolment ID will not be returned in any of the query services as it is merely another way to identify child’s CRN.
  • Child at risk must start on a Monday.
  • Child at risk can be backdated for 28 days, 4 weeks.
  • Evidence must be kept for all children at risk and should be provided upon request by DHS.
  • Cancelling/revoking or varying a certificate/determination may trigger reassessments for session reports, which may adjust entitlement causing a debt to be raised to the Provider.
  • A certificate can only be for a single child at a single service. This means:
  • If a child attends multiple services from the same Provider, a separate certificate must be submitted for each service.
  • If multiple enrolments exist for the same child in a service, a certificate would cover all enrolments for that service as long as the Enrolment is linked to the CRN.
  • Certificate can be for a maximum length of 6 weeks.
  • Certificate start date cannot be in the future.
  • Certificate periods for the same child/service cannot overlap.
  • Certificate periods for the same child for different services can overlap.
  • Details of the 204K notice can be provided when a Certificate is first submitted.
  • 204K notice is not required if the same Provider has already given a 204K notice within 6 weeks of the certificate submission date for the same child under a different service.
  • 6 weeks does not need to be used up in one certificate.
  • Maximum of 6 weeks of certificate for a particular child/service can be submitted within a 12 month period.
  • Request to cancel a certificate can be lodged any time after the certificate has been made.
  • If cancellation is requested within 4 weeks from the start date of the certificate, it will auto apply. Otherwise, a work item will be generated for staff to action.
  • Provider/service cannot amend a certificate once it is submitted, hence no update certificate service available.
  • Instead, Provider can cancel the certificate needing amendment and create a new certificate, which will be known as a replacement certificate.
  • A replacement certificate is identified if a new certificate has an overlapping at risk period comparing to a cancelled certificate, for the same child/service.
  • A replacement certificate cannot have a start date earlier than the original certificate start date. Instead, Provider can submit a separate certificate to cover for the earlier period.
  • A replacement certificate will not be accepted, if the original certificate was cancelled by DHS staff. Instead, Provider needs to request a 109A review of the decision.
  • If the child is no longer at risk, and It is within 4 weeks from the start date of the certificate, then Provider must use the cancel service and submit a replacement certificate, otherwise “the no longer at risk service” must be used and a work item will be generated for staff to action if it is more than 4 weeks have elapsed from the start date.
  • Australian Government/DHS staff will be able to vary Certificates, with certain restrictions. Australian Government/DHS staff will be able to cancel Certificates.
  • Where a staff has varied or cancelled a certificate, a notification will be sent to Provider, via the messaging interface
  • Evidence of child being at risk is optional as part of certificate. Provider may be requested to show evidence at any time.