Closing rooms because of COVID? Make sure to get it in writing to allow gap fee waivers

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services who are closing a room or rooms of their service because of staffing challenges arising from COVID-19 are being reminded that they can only waive gap fees for the affected families if they have written advice from a Government Agency advising them that they may do so. 

This important clarification is outlined in a Department of Skills, Education and Employment communication which was updated on 13 January 2022 . The relevant extract (with added emphasis provided by Twitter account @KeikoServices) is shown below: 

Underpinning this communication is Schedule 3 of the Ministers Rules, titled “Temporary Coronavirus Response Measures”, Part 2.2 “Exemption from enforcing payment of hourly session fees—services advised or required to close”. 

Part 2.1 of the rules outlines a number of different scenarios whereby services are exempt from enforcing payment. These are relevant where an individual child has to isolate or quarantine as directed by a health agency for example.

Services who have been, or who are intending to, waive the gap fees for families in affected room/s may be in breach of the relevant legislation and governance rules in relation to Child Care Subsidy (CCS) . 

The Keiko Services Twitter account may be accessed here. The Sector thanks Karl Hessian for his contribution to this piece. 

For more information in relation to CCS compliance and COVID-19, see here.