Federal Government directs families to StartingBlocks ahead of 7 March CCS change

Families are being directed to visit www.StartingBlocks.gov.au to find local childcare services, view vacancies, compare costs, and check official quality ratings, including safety ahead of the higher Child Care Subsidy rules which come into effect on 7 March 2022. 

Acting Minister for Education and Youth, Stuart Robert, said the website gives parents a new central place to make important choices about the early education and care needs for their children.

“The website features two new very cool tools to help families make one of their most important decisions—who is going to look after and educate their children in these formative years,” he explained.

The first feature is a comparison checker for families to assess services against each other and determine which one is best for them. The second main feature is a simple-to-use calculator where families can plug in their details and get an estimate of their out-of-pocket costs.

Minister Robert encouraged all families to visit the website and said it will have special appeal to the 250,000 families with more than one child aged under six who will get a higher subsidy soon.

Under the changes families will, on average, be better off  to the tune of $2,260 per year, with families with three children in care saving up to $370 a week on out-of-pocket costs.

Gabrielle Sinclair, CEO of the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) said children deserve the best quality early education and care, and that StartingBlocks is an easy way to navigate Australia’s more than 16,500 approved early childhood education and care services.   

“ACECQA is pleased to work with the Australian Government to reduce complexity for parents by enhancing StartingBlocks as the government-approved website to find and compare quality ratings, vacancies, fees and service inclusions in one convenient location,” she added. 

StartingBlocks.gov.au replaces the existing Child Care Finder website and reduces burden on approved providers of early education and care services, who no longer need to provide their fee and vacancy data separately to Child Care Finder. 

To visit StartingBlocks please click here.