In Home Care (IHC) for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) 007-17103119

IHC is an approved child care service type for Child Care Subsidy (CCS).

Families unable to access centre-based day care, family day care and outside school hours care because of their unique circumstances may be able to access education and care provided in the family home through IHC to support their workforce participation.

IHC is designed to support the provision of early childhood education and care in the home particularly for families working non-standard or variable hours, geographically isolated from other approved child care services or those with complex and challenging needs.

No more than five children at a time may be in the care of each IHC educator, and no more than four of the children can be preschool age or under. All children must be from the same family.

If there are more than the maximum number of children in the family requiring IHC, then a second educator may be engaged for another session of care.

Basic eligibility criteria for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) must be met for customers to access subsidised In Home Care (IHC).

Once granted CCS, customers wishing to be to be considered for in-home care must contact an IHC Support Agency to determine their eligibility for IHC services. Customers will need to provide and/or confirm their circumstances to the IHC Support Agency to determine IHC suitability and to develop a Family Management Plan. Services Australia does not have a role in determining a customer’s eligibility for In Home Care.

Customers using IHC may also be eligible for Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) if they meet the relevant eligibility criteria.

The Resources page contains a link to the Department of Education website where a list of IHC agencies can be downloaded for each location.

As applies to customers using other approved child care services, the amount of Child Care Subsidy (CCS) a family using IHC is entitled to receive will be determined by:

• the family's estimated Adjusted Taxable Income (ATI). See also Combined family income for Child Care Subsidy (CCS). The CCS percentage is applied to the IHC hourly rate cap.
• the hours of recognised activity undertaken by the parents or carers.

Note: any IHC sessions of care will continue to be paid at the standard income tested rate of CCS for the family. This is regardless if children are considered a higher rate child under higher CCS (Multiple Child Subsidy).

Unlike other types of approved child care, IHC is paid per family unit, not per child. If a customer has more than one child attending IHC, they should apply and be assessed for CCS or ACCS for all of the children attending care.

If eligible for certain Additional Child Care Subsidy payments, customers can access up to 120% of the IHC hourly rate cap. More than 120% can be approved in exceptional circumstances.

The Resources page has an example of how the CCS percentage is applied to the IHC hourly rate cap.

There are three key IHC terms used in the system:

• Family unit:
• Family units are in context of a service
• Parent and educator IDs on enrolments are used to identify IHC family units
• The main purpose of family units are to identify family sessions
• Family session:
• A family session is defined as ‘one session of care’ for the family unit
• Not all children under the family unit have to be present at the family session
• Nominated child:
• For each family session, only one child in the family unit can be the nominated child
• The nominated child is identified by having the fee against the family session in their session report for the IHC service
• A nominated child is the child that the determination (payment calculation) is performed against based on their eligibility and entitlement
• If the child is not nominated, they can have either $0 fee (incl. $0 fee absence) or no session recorded (i.e. no care provided to the child if they do not normally attend the session of care)

Customers accessing care through IHC are required to enter into a Complying Written Arrangement (CWA) with their IHC service.

The IHC service will then lodge an enrolment notice which the customer will need to confirm.

If a customer has multiple children using IHC, one child in an IHC family unit must be identified as the ‘IHC nominated child’ for each session of care. This is because IHC is paid at the family level and has a family CCS hourly rate cap.

An IHC family unit is determined where the Service CRN, Parent CRN, and Educator ID on an enrolment are the same.

Note: though not common, there may be more than one IHC family unit for sessions of care submitted. For example, Lewis, Jamie and Joe are in the care of Elaine and attend the same IHC service where:

• educator Alex provides care for Jamie and Joe, and
• educator Mark provides care for Lewis

The Service CRN and Parent CRN on all the sessions of care are the same, but there are two IHC family units as there are two different Educator IDs on the combined sessions of care for that particular week.

An IHC family session is determined using the session day, start and end times for each child in a family unit. For each family session, only one child in the family unit can be the nominated child. The nominated child on the enrolment will be:

• as agreed between the family and the IHC service, and
• the only child in the session of care against which the fee is recorded for the family session

When a session report is submitted, the system checks:

• if a family session already exists, and
• if there is a child already nominated (fee recorded) for that family session in the family unit

As long as the nominated child in the family unit is eligible, the family session is eligible.

When a nominated child is present, their eligibility and entitlements are used to determine CCS payment.

The fee charged by the service for the session of care must be reported:

• in full against the nominated child, and
• as a $0 rate against the other eligible children receiving care in that session

Hours of care will be recorded against both the IHC nominated child and ‘other children’ and all the children in the family session will have their activity test hours reduced by the total hours for the session.

When a IHC session has no fees recorded or no session recorded for either of the children in the family unit, that session does not have a nominated child. This means:

• there will be no usage draw down (no activity hours and absences are used), and
• both children will have the 'session of care amt is $0' reason applied

In Process Direct, under the Weekly Subsidy table on the CCS Summary, this displays as:

• the full fee amount for the family session against the nominated child only
• a zero ($0) fee against all other children (non-IHC nominated children) receiving care in that family session
• hours of care amount under Hours Subsidised column, which will draw down the customer’s fortnightly CCS Eligible hours for all children, including non-IHC nominated children

If the nominated child's entitlement is zero (i.e. no remaining activity test balance, annual cap or absences limit reached and no valid reason) payment will not be made. The system does not use / drop back to the other child’s entitlements.

Where other children have remaining activity test balance, their balance will be reduced by the session duration regardless if payment is made based on the nominated child’s entitlement.

Absences recorded for non-IHC nominated children will be counted as unpaid absences and will not reduce the child’s allowable absence balance.

For more information see Enrolment Requirements for Child Care Subsidy (CCS).

The CCS annual subsidy cap applies to families using In Home Care (IHC).

When a customer has multiple children being supported by an IHC arrangement and the nominated child reaches the annual cap, the IHC service and the family should commence a new enrolment to change the nominated child for the sessions of care. This will enable customers to access the annual child care subsidy cap for each child.

From 10 December 2021, the CCS annual cap for the 2021-22 financial year (1 July 2021 - 30 June 2022) onwards has been removed. Families who reach the annual cap prior to 10 December 2021 were paid any CCS entitlement owed to them in December 2021.

Note: families may still be subject to the annual cap for financial years prior to the 2021/22 financial year.

The Resources page has an example of a customer with multiple children in IHC.

If a customer requests an increased Activity Test result, the process and criteria for applying for Exceptional Circumstances are the same for In Home Care (IHC) as they are for other types of child care.

See Exceptional circumstances for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) for more information..