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Family Day Care (FDC) services eligible to apply for Inclusion the Development Fund (IDF) Subsidy for Family Day Care Top Up are services that have been approved for the provision of the Child Care Subsidy (CCS).

FDC Services support their individual FDC Educators to apply for FDC Top Up, via the online Inclusion Support Portal (IS Portal), when their Strategic Inclusion Plan (SIP) demonstrates that including a child with additional and high ongoing high support needs has a significant impact on the FDC educator, and results in the educator being unable to enrol the maximum number of children allowed under the National law.

FDC Services are eligible to apply for one payment per FDC educator.

When applying for FDC Top Up, FDC Educators in consultation with their FDC Coordination Unit (Service) and with the support of an Inclusion Professional (IP) from the Inclusion Agency (IA) will:

• Develop a Strategic Inclusion Plan (SIP) to document their inclusion planning.
• Add the child with additional and high ongoing support needs to the IS Portal,
• Create an Inclusion Support Case (IS Case),
• Link the child to the IS Case, and
  
• Complete the IS Case before submitting it for approval.

Step 1: Develop a SIP

The FDC Educator engages in inclusion planning which includes identifying the barriers to inclusion within the care environment and the strategies and actions the service and educators will implement to address the barriers.

If the development of a SIP identifies that including a child with additional and high ongoing support needs has a significant impact on the FDC Educator, and results in the educator being unable to enrol the maximum number of children allowed under the National law, the FDC Educator may make an application for FDC Top Up.

Step 2: Add children with additional needs to the IS Portal

identifying the children with additional needs and ongoing high support needs who will be included in the application.

Step 3: Generate an Inclusion Support case (IS Case) on the IS Portal

This involves creating an IS Case for FDC Top Up.

Step 4: Link children with additional needs to the IS Case

This includes uploading to the Children tile:

• Parent or Guardian Permission authorising the sharing of personal information about the child;
• Documentary Evidence that confirms the child has additional needs and ongoing high support needs; and
• Identify if Parent or Guardian consent has been given for the service to view Documentary Evidence previously uploaded, by another ECEC service, to the IS Portal.

Step 5: Complete the Care Environment

The FDC Educator is required to provide specific information their service and complete a Daily Profile.

Step 6: Complete the Care Week Profile

In the Care Week Profile, the service provides information about the sessions of care for all eligible children associated with the IS Case.

Step 7: Complete the Day Summary

The Day Summary provides an overview of the support requested each day.

Step 8: Review Authorised Personnel

Authorised personnel are the people who the service has approved can be contacted about the IS Case.

Step 9: add Notes (optional)

The notes page allows general notes to be added about the IS Case by the service, IA and IDF Manager. Notes are not mandatory; however, they can assist with communicating information not included elsewhere on the IS Case.

Step 10: Agree and the Submit Case

The service must submit the Case to the IA for endorsement. Before endorsing the IS Case, the Inclusion Agency will review the content of the Case. Once reviewed the Inclusion Agency submits the case to the IDFM for assessment. The endorsement and notes from the IA will be considered as part of the IDFM's assessment of the application.

Services are required to add children with additional and ongoing high support needs to the IS Portal when they are applying to access IDF for FDC Top Up.

When adding children with additional and ongoing high support needs, services must ensure that the child has been enrolled in the service’s Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS) software.

Once a child has been added to the IS Portal, services are required to link the child to the IS Case.

Parent or Guardian Permission

Prior to the service uploading any information about a child to the IS Case, they must obtain parent or guardian written consent authorising the sharing of personal information about the child.

Parents or guardians are require to complete a Permission to Share Personal Information for the purposes of the Inclusion Support Program Form.

• It is essential that the service name documented on this form is written exactly the same as the name the service is known by in the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS).
• The child’s parent/guardian has signed the form.
• This is a two page document. Both pages must be uploaded together. Pages cannot be uploaded singularly.

Documentary Evidence

To apply for the subsidy for an Additional Educator, all children will be required to have documentary evidence, dated within 12 months, that confirms the child has additional and ongoing high support needs. This may include children with a diagnosed disability (including developmental delay), or a current and ongoing assessment for disability, or other additional needs (under 6 years of age). Documentary evidence may include (but is not limited to):

• The child’s health care card stating the disability code (CD)
• Evidence to show the child is a current National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participant under Section 28 of the NDIS Act 2013
• Diagnosis by a qualified medical practitioner or registered psychologist
• A report or supporting documentation signed by an allied health professional, registered nurse or nurse practitioner, Maternal and Child Health nurse, social worker/family counsellor of the current and ongoing assessment of a child
• Supporting documentation, such as a diagnostic report, signed by a qualified medical/health practitioner, registered psychologist, or social worker

Documentation that supports permanent disability, as assessed by the IDF Manager, will not be required to be submitted with future applications by the same service.

Please refer to the Documentary Evidence Information Sheet for further information.

Consent to Access Prior Documentary Evidence

The IS Portal may already hold documentary evidence, uploaded by another ECEC service, for this child. To gain visibility of these, the parent or guardian must provide written consent authorising your service to access this information. If permission is not given, the service can still proceed with the application

The IDF Manager will assess the FDC Educators application for funding against the eligibility requirements set out in the Inclusion Support Program (ISP) Guidelines and notify the FDC Service of the outcome of the application. The Inclusion Development Fund Manager (IDFM) will consider the following in their assessment:

• The details of the barriers to inclusion presented in the care environment, identified through the service’s Strategic Inclusion Plan (SIP)
• The additional and ongoing high support needs of the child (or children)
• The degree to which FDC Top Up is the most appropriate solution to the identified inclusion barriers
• The child is included in a care environment with typically developing peers
• Whether the impact on the educator of including the child with ongoing high support needs results in the educator being unable to enrol the maximum number of children as allowed under National Law
• How the reduced number of children in the care environment will support the FDC Educator to implement strategies to address inclusion barriers and facilitate inclusion of all children
• The request for FDC Top Up is in line with the purposes of this funding stream and does not include any non-approved purposes
• Whether the application has been endorsed by the IA
• Any other inclusion support being provided to the FDC educator.

The IDF Manager will assess the information in the IS Case against the eligibility requirements of the guidelines to determine the funding support required by the service. Applications for the Family Day Care (FDC) Top Up are typically processed and the service notified of the outcome within 15 business days.

If funding is approved

The FDC service will receive an email with an Approval Letter attached, providing the details of their approved IS Case. This will be sent to the Service Provider email address listed on the SIP.

If funding is not approved

The FDC service will receive an email with an Application Declined letter attached. This will be sent to the Service Provider email address listed on the SIP.