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Child Care Providers:

Child care providers and people who intend to purchase or establish a child care service can find a range of useful information and resources from this section of our website.

• Downloadable forms
• Providing usage details to the Family Assistance Office
• Centrelink electronic standards
• Information for software providers
• Child Care Management System
• More information?

Child Care Providers can now download these forms:

Approved Service Providers - for families who do not wish to apply for reduced fees.

• Go to the Notification of full fee paying customers form

Claim increased eligible hours and/or Special Child Care Benefit for families facing Exceptional Circumstances.

• Go to the Exceptional circumstances - Claim for increased eligible hours and/or Special Child Care Benefit form

Application for increased eligible hours and/or Special Child Care Benefit if you think a child is at risk of neglect or abuse and that risk can be reduced if the child attends child care.

• Go to the Child at risk - Application for increased eligible hours and/or Special Child Care Benefit form

Apply for the Child Care Benefit additional advance.

• Go to the Application for Child Care Benefit additional advance form

For parents who already receive or have applied to receive Child Care Benefit as reduced fees.

• Go to the Child Care Benefit Advice of family details form

These forms are current at time of publishing. To ensure that you are using the latest versions please check this page regularly. For help with downloading our forms go to PDF Hints.

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Providing usage details to the Family Assistance Office

Approved child care providers are required to provide child care usage details to the Family Assistance Office (FAO) on a quarterly basis. Approved providers can use software to generate statements on a computer disk or complete two forms (Child Care Benefit Statement for payment summary form and the Statement of child care usage form).

When selecting a software package for the first time or upgrading existing software, providers should check that the software adheres to the Centrelink electronic standards. These standards describe the field format system requirements that will enable software packages to supply child care usage details to the Family Assistance Office (FAO). These standards do not cover other functionality that may be included in the software package.

It is important that data be provided in the correct format to ensure prompt payment.

Additional tips for choosing the right software are located on The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) website page Tips for choosing the right software for you.

Disk labels can be ordered by telephoning us on 1300 367 676 and quoting the product number FAO28. These labels assist with the correct labelling of statements.

Centrelink electronic standards

You can view and download the latest copy of the Centrelink electronic standards

• Child Care Benefit - Statement for Payment Electronic Lodgement Standards [22 pages, PDF: 101KB].
• Child Care Benefit - Statement for Payment Electronic Lodgement Standards [22 pages, RTF: 791KB].

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Information for software providers

Existing and new software providers should ensure that their software adheres to Centrelink's electronic standards. These standards are updated annually and describe the field format system requirements that will enable software packages to supply child care usage details to the Family Assistance Office (FAO).These standards do not cover other functionality that may be included in the software package.

Software providers can test their software by using the FAO Checker Tool. This tool is available upon request to the software helpdesk by emailing us at: ccb.software.support@centrelink.gov.au and is updated annually in-line with the electronic standards. Software providers can provide the FAO Checker Tool to child care providers to enable them to check their disks before forwarding to the Family Assistance Office for processing.

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Child Care Management System

A new national child care computer system for the payment of Child Care Benefit - the Child Care Management System (CCMS) - will be implemented by FaHCSIA progressively across services from 1 July 2007.

Existing or new software providers can find more information about the CCMS, including an Information Paper and draft Service Provider Interface Specifications by visiting the FaHCSIA Child Care Management System website.

More information?

The FaHCSIA Child Care Support website contains useful information and resources for child care providers and people who intend to purchase or establish a child care service.