The Child Care Management System (CCMS) 007-03080010

Services Australia determines eligibility and issues the grant letter containing customer and child Customer Reference Numbers (CRN). Customers must provide these CRNs to the ASP to formalise the enrolment. Customers are not linked to individual ASPs via CRNs. Note: for JET Child Care fee assistance (JETCCFA) the customers are linked to a service type, e.g. Long Day Care, Family Day Care.

ASPs then provide attendance data to the agency via the Department of Education.

Based on this data the agency determines entitlement and advises ASPs via Department of Education, weekly in arrears.

Services Australia establishes Customer Reference Numbers (CRN) through intent to claim process, determines eligibility and entitlement and pays and advises the customer.

Formalisation of enrolment and lump sum claims

Customers who intend to claim CCB as a Lump Sum at the end of the financial year must Register to Formalise Enrolment by:

• Online Services
• verbally by running the Potential CCB Lump Sum Claim Guided Procedure
• completing the Child Care Benefit as a lump sum payment (FA022) that can be downloaded and printed

Once this is completed and processed, it triggers a CCN/DCL activity, which releases the eligibility details for that customer to Department of Education. This then enables the child care services to formalise the enrolment to allow the attendance to be received by Services Australia.

Once the CCN/DCL activity is triggered for a particular child, this will allow all future services to formalise the enrolment for that child without having to run the FA022 - Lump Sum Guided Procedure again.

Note: the CCF new Claim and update also triggers an eligibility transaction (CCN/DCL) for a child during that claim process.

If the CCN/DCL activity is not processed prior to lodgement of a CCB lump sum claim, attendance may not be received to allow Services Australia to process it as part of that claim. If this is the case, the CCB lump sum claim will reject and then trigger an eligibility (CCN/DCL) transaction to allow the ASP to formalise the child's enrolment and allow the attendance to follow to the department. Once the attendance is received by the department, this will reassess the claim and assess on the received entitlement.

No change to current arrangements. SCCB Processing Teams continue to undertake these functions.

There are 3 types of enrolment (customers can have more than one type):

• 'Informal' enrolment allows child usage/attendance information to be collected and stored by the Department of Education, but does not allow transmission to Services Australia until enrolment is 'formalised'
• 'Formal' enrolment requires customers to provide customer and child Customer Reference Numbers (CRN) to service(s) who will provide them to the Department of Education, allowing the transmission of attendance information to Services Australia via Department of Education
• 'AMEP/Other' enrolment is used where the customer is not liable for the cost of care and therefore not eligible for CCB for that care

Customers are able to nominate hours at each service if they use more than one service. Services will only be paid to the nominated hour limit.

If the customer does not nominate hours at each service, services will be paid on a 'first come first served' basis up to the customer's total eligible hour limit. There is now checking of the customer eligible hour limit across multiple services.

See Eligible hours for Child Care Benefit (CCB).

Services submit attendance information to Department of Education on a weekly/fortnightly arrears basis.

Provisional information (subject to reconciliation process)

Child care attendance details reported weekly by services can be viewed via:

• Customer First > Family Assistance > View Child Care Attendance
• Customer online account (staff can also access this)

CCB reconciliation/lump sum claims

Child care attendance used to calculate the correct CCB entitlement for the year are displayed for CCMS in the customer's record in the Centrelink system. Select the service from the CCB Calculation Period Assessment (CPAC) screen.

CCMS services will not have a Customer Reference Number (CRN) displayed.

For more information, see Child Care Benefit (CCB) reconciliation and lump sum claim calculation screens.

• child's Customer Reference Number (CRN), full name, date of birth and gender
• customer's CRN, full name, date of birth and gender
• CCB eligible hours
• method of payment (lump sum claim or reduced fee)
• CCB type (for example, CCB, Grandfathered CCB or Special CCB)
• CCB percentage
• CCB eligibility start date
• school child status for CCB
• CCR payment choice

To allow Services Australia to calculate CCB, the Department of Education is required to send Services Australia attendance information for each child using approved care. This includes:

• customer CRN
• Child CRN
• period of care (week ending)
• hours of care
• fee for total hours
• total fee
• absences
• JET Child Care fee assistance (JETCCFA) information
• multiple child count
• approved service type, i.e. long day care, family day care

Incomplete attendance data

If some, but not all of the customer's attendance has been received, the customer needs to be referred back to the ASP and the service can either submit the attendance or the service can log a call with Education's CCMS Helpdesk if they believe there to be an issue.

No attendance data

• Enrolment formalisation seems to be the main issue why attendance is not being received by Services Australia
• To formalise the child's enrolment with the ASP, Services Australia must trigger the child's eligibility (CCN/DCL) transaction and the ASP must then be provided with the child's Customer Reference Number (CRN) and date of birth
• By advising the customer to supply the provided CRN and date of birth information for themselves and their children to their nominated provider, the Formalisation process can, in most cases be finalised
• Customers will need to contact Services Australia who will verify if the customer is either 'CCF/CUR' or have a CRN for lump sum claim purposes

Note: customers intending to lodge a lump sum claim but who have not yet 'formalised' their enrolment can submit details online, or provide the required information to Services Australia verbally.

• Once processed, the CCF New Claim Guided Procedure will be run and the CCN/DCL activity completed
• This will generate eligibility details for this customer to be sent to Department of Education so the customer enrolment can be formalised and the attendance can be sent through by the ASP
• If the customer does not already have a CRN, provide the CRN to the customer for them and their child and also complete the above process to ensure the eligibility CCN/DCL transaction has been established
• Advise the customer to give their and their child's CRN and date of birth to the ASP in order to 'formalise' their enrolment. This will enable the attendance to come through to Services Australia
• This is the most likely reason for not receiving any attendance details since the service has transferred to the CCMS

All enquiries regarding attendance (missing, altered or cancelled) from ASP's, Family Day Care Providers etc. are to be sent by using the CCMS Query - referral DOC and Email Fast Note to the Child Care Management Support (CCMS) team or emailed to ccs.programs.

For more information see Customer queries Child Care Management System (CCMS) information.

Customers will deal directly with Services Australia in regards to their own eligibility and entitlement.

In regards to questions on child care attendance queries, customers should escalate any issues through their Approved Service Provider (ASP) if all of their eligibility details look correct when contacting the agency.

If the customer is disputing the information received via CCMS, See Customer queries CCMS information.

Non-CCMS Support Team staff are not authorised to contact ASPs to discuss customer queries.

Services will deal with the Department of Education. If a service contacts, they must be referred to Department of Education.

Special CCB granted by a child care service is approved and paid by Department of Education.

The 18% rule managed and monitored by Department of Education.

Note: for Special CCB and 24 hour care approvals, ASPs are to contact Services Australia.

The Department of Education's CCMS Helpdesk is the first point of contact for ASPs and child care software providers in relation to CCMS. It is not a contact point for customers.

Queries received by the Department of Education's CCMS Helpdesk include CCMS and general CCB policy enquiries, business and operational aspects of CCMS and CCMS technical enquiries from services.

The role of the Department of Education's CCMS Helpdesk is to undertake the role of the 'program' area in answering policy, business and basic operational and technical questions from services and integrate this with initial problem investigation.

Child Care Operator System (COS) enquiries are initially received by the Department of Education as first point of contact for Approved Service Providers (ASP). The Department of Education will contact Services Australia to discuss enquiries on a case by case basis.