Occasional care

Occasional Care is a unique child care service that supports families by providing flexible care for children from birth to school age.

Occasional Care is care provided for short periods on a casual and/or temporary basis for children 6 weeks to 6 years.

The purpose of occasional care is to support families by providing a flexible care option through being able to access care irregularly or on a sessionial basis.

An occasional care service must not operate for more than 9 hours per day.

Occasional care providers are the only care option that is not bound by the priority of access guidelines. For occasional care it is simply an as needed basis and often first in first served.

There are many reasons occasional care is used such as:

• Emergency care situations
• Respite
• Shopping
• Casual needs
• Shift workers.

Occasional Care centres are subject to the licensing and standards of other formal registered care centres so the standard of care is equal to that of other formal care options such as long day care services. As with other care options there are advantages and disadvantages to this type of care.

Advantages:

• Great option in emergencies.
• Qualified educators.
• Formalised care setting.

Disadvantages:

• No consistency in the carer for the child as the service is only occasionally utilized.
• Child may not settle easily or well.
• Not always available. Occasional care services can easily be booked out. It is not a given that there will be a vacancy.
• Unfamiliar routine and setting for the child.

With occasional care you pay for the care received in the hours you used. Unlike other care options where you are responsible for ongoing costs for a regular booking with occasional care it is more ad hoc and so the cost is only incurred when you use the service.

There are variations with the cost of using an occasional care centre with the primary factors being:

1. Location
2. Demand
3. The market
4. What the individual service offers. Some, but very few offer nappies and food, etc included in the fee.

The range can vary enormously but a guide is $45-50 per 4 hours slot.

The fee structure of an occasional care centre may be in blocks or hourly. It really varies so it is best to contact the centres directly to confirm when inquiring about availability.

You will find that most occasional care services are registered care.

A service will be classified as an approved care provider or registered care. A registered care provider is not bound by the regulations and standards that an approved care provider is. The main point of difference from approved or registered care options is the meeting of the standards and regulations. Having said that that does not mean that registered care will not be a safe and applicable care option for your child.

Accessing an registered child care provider offers the potential to access the Child Care Subsidy to assist with the cost of child care. In order to be considered the service/child care option needs to be registered with the Department of Human Services (visit https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/child-care-subsidy).