OSHC for Preschool Kids
Outside School Hours Care services can now provide care primarily to preschool-aged children, before and after preschool sessions.
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
Standalone kindies/preschools provide children with amazing experiences in the years before big school, but their hours can be really tricky for working parents.
Although some places, like Ashgrove Memorial Kindergarten, do offer after care to help out nine-to-five families, a lot of community kindies/preschools operate within school hours, meaning long day care is the only choice for many working parents.
This can be a great outcome, because lots of long day cares offer high-quality kindy/preschool programs, with the benefit of wrap-around care before and after the program.
However, thanks to a recent law change, parents now have another option.
A change to the Child Care Subsidy Minister’s Rules 2017 means that Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services which, previously, could only provide care primarily to school-aged children, can now also provide care primarily to preschool-aged children, before and after preschool sessions.
This change is now in effect, and it promises flexibility and choice when it comes to preschoolers’ care.
Families can claim the Child Care Subsidy for the OSHC care provided before and after a preschool session, when their child attends a preschool program in the year before big school.
And when it comes to the kindy/preschool program, the funding provided at a state/territory level continues to apply to make the program cheap or free (depending on where you live).
Keep in mind, though, that providers can’t just suddenly start offering preschool OSHC.
Instead, they have to get approval from their state/territory regulatory authority to operate a centre-based day care service at the preschool premises, and apply for Child Care Subsidy approval for the new OSHC service.
The government has set out eligibility rules to ensure preschool OSHC and preschool programs are different things.
Specifically, they say:
An OSHC delivering care to preschool children:
- Must not deliver an education program that’s similar to the preschool service, and
- Must not spend most of its time on educational activities.
The OSHC service and preschool can’t operate from the same location at the same time.
And when it comes to staffing, there must be a clear delineation between the roles and duties performed by educators at the OSHC service and teachers at the preschool service.
The government also says an OSHC service is more likely to meet the service eligibility rule if it provides care for both preschool-aged children and school-aged children.
The other thing to be aware of is that an OSHC service can’t provide care for a preschool child on a day they don’t usually go to preschool.
So, if a child attends preschool every Monday and Tuesday, they can go along to their OSHC service on Monday and Tuesday, for full days, during their preschool holidays, but can’t turn up on Wednesday, Thursday and/or Friday for vacation care.
It’s good to see families getting more options for before and after preschool session care, and another change that’s relevant to families relates to fees.
From 1 September 2024, early childhood education and care providers will be obliged to tell the government about their fees twice a year.
This change is designed to improve fee transparency and make it easier for families to see what’s happening with fees.
And, of course, we look forward to seeing whether super cheap childcare for all is on the way, and how much of a wage increase early childhood educators can expect.
Stay tuned!
