This Quick Guide provides an overview of Australia’s formal child care system – that is, regulated child care away from the child’s home. The Guide outlines key features of the regulatory framework, approval requirements for a service and describes the funding role of the Australian Government. It includes statistics relevant to the types, usage and costs of formal child care, as well as quality standards.

Introduction

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that, at 30 June 2014, there were 3.8 million children aged 0–12 years in Australia. Nearly one-quarter of these children (919,400) usually attended formal child care, with the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector providing families with the following choice of services:

• Long Day Care (LDC)—a centre-based form of ECEC that caters for children aged 0–6 years
• Family Day Care (FDC)—a flexible form of ECEC (all-day, part-time, casual, overnight, before/after school and school holiday care) that is provided in the private home of carers (who are now referred to in the ECEC sector as  educators)
• In-Home Care(IHC)—a flexible form of ECEC (all-day, part-time, casual, overnight, before/after school and school holiday care) provided to eligible children by an educator in the family home
• Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)—a centre-based form of ECEC for primary school aged children (6–12 years) and available before and after school (7.30am–9.00am, 3.00pm–6.00pm), during school holidays and on pupil-free days and
• Occasional Care–a flexible form of centre-based ECEC that can be accessed on a regular basis (like LDC) or as the need arises–for example, when parents have irregular or unpredictable work hours