20 hours ece

What is 20 Hours ECE?

The Government subsidises all children who attend a licenced Preschool. The funding rates vary dependent on the age of the children. For children up to 3 years of age at Fernside, the costs of childcare are met by a combination of both Government Subsidy and Parent Fees

Once a child turns 3, they are eligible for a higher level of funding (20 Hours ECE), that fully subsidises your Child's ECE Fees for a portion of their education, up to 20 Hours per week (at a maximum of 6 hours per day).

How it works

When your child is approaching 3 years of age, our office team will make contact with you to complete a 20 Hours ECE Attestation Form.

On this form you will nominate which sessions you wish to use your 20 Hours ECE to cover. You may allocate them however you wish, subject to the agreed maximums of 20 hours per week and not over 6 hours per day. You can also allocate part of this to another service (if you child is to attend another ECE institution or Approved Provider at the same time as Fernside)

Please note it is important this is completed before your child turns 3 (we are not able to backdate applications for 20 Hours ECE)

The ECE funding (subsidy) is paid direct to the Centre, so you do not need to deal with the Government directly to received the payments. Our Childcare software will automatically apply this subsidy for you to your fortnightly Parent Fees invoice. For hours attended over and above those covered by the 20 Hours ECE, normal Over 2 Parent Fees apply.

some useful reminders

If you change your booking at the centre, you will need to update the 20 Hours ECE Form (our staff will assist with this process)

You may use 20 Hours ECE up until your child turns 6, or goes to school, whichever is the earlier

If you are receiving a Childcare Subsidy from WINZ for your Parent Fees, you must update WINZ when your child turns 3 so they can update your assistance (as you may not claim 20 Hours ECE and WINZ for the same time period).

That said, a WINZ subsidy can still apply to the hours not covered by 20 Hours ECE (for example if your 4 year old child attended 30 hours per week at Fernside, the WINZ subsidy could be applied to the remaining 10 hours)

As with all Goverment subsidies for Childcare, if your child is away from Preschool for more than 3 weeks in a row, your 20 Hours ECE funding will cease and normal Parent Fees will apply. Click here for more information on the 3 Week Absence Rule