NIADOC WEEK 2022

Culture is central to a child’s individuality, identity and sense of belonging and success in lifelong learning. To support the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and to enhance the knowledge of non-Indigenous children, OSHC pays attention to the cultural identity of the Aboriginal community in which it is situated and beyond. The Education and care Framework ask educators to build upon children’s understandings of diversity, specifically Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and remarkable contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It's a chance for all Australians to learn more about the oldest, continuous living cultures in the world. When Embedding Indigenous Perspectives in OSHC there are two important considerations to keep in mind. This is avoiding stereotypes and ensuring that content is truly embedded rather than singled out as special, different or tokenistic.

Activities in OSHC include, but not limited to:

Regularly playing music by indigenous artists for musical games such as musical statues and for relaxation.
Displaying a range of Victorian Aboriginal books and linking the authors, illustrators and stories to places on the map. Reading these stories to children in front of the map and discussing the areas identified.
Promoting indigenous Languages as part of cultural identity. OSHC holds yarning circles where indigenous words, cultures and concepts are introduced to children from different communities around Australia. This teaches children about the diversity of language and culture among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, from Yugambeh Country in south-east Queensland and north-east NSW to Noongar Country in south-west WA. During this holiday program, OSHC children engaged with Aboriginal culture, and were introduced to the East Coast Aboriginal language of Wiradjuri. The Wiradjuri people are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales. The activity focused on celebrating prep children, and life size posters were made of them using a “buddy group”. The posters promoted a sense of belonging and teamwork, and developed both English and Wiradjuri language that identified different body parts.
Promote indigenous visual art through mindful colouring: This year OSHC watched Ryhia Dank on YouTube, a young Gudanji/Wakaja artist from the Northern Territory who was the winner of the prestigious National NAIDOC poster competition for 2022 with her entry, Stronger. Additionally, children modernised Nathan Patterson illustrations which are a mixture of traditional and contemporary designs with a focus on Australian wildlife and landscape.
Block Play - with small Australian animals, deserts and billabongs, linking with storytelling and music and movement

Ultimately, NAIDOC week is a time for the OSHC service to reflect upon our journey in developing our cultural competence and building on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the program.

CCS eligibility: 26-week rule

A new CCS eligibility rule

From 11 July 2022, a child who hasn’t used care at least once in the previous 26 weeks will no longer be eligible for CCS.

If a child has not attended care since 10 January 2022, their CCS will cancel from 11 July 2022. The rule will apply on an ongoing basis from this date. Families will need to submit a new CCS claim if the child re-commences care.

Services Australia will notify impacted families.

SA will not raise CCS debts when applying the 26-week rule. Any changes to CCS entitlement will only apply from a point in time going forward.

Will the rule impact a family’s higher CCS?

Families with more than one child aged 5 or under in care can get a higher CCS for their second child and younger children.

The 26-week rule may affect a family’s entitlement to the higher CCS.

If a standard rate child’s CCS eligibility ends, Services Australia will reassess all other children in the family to determine:

the new standard rate child
new subsidy rates.

If a child starts to attend care again, after their CCS was cancelled, the family can lodge a new claim for CCS.

The 26-week rule will not affect any arrears payment made to combined families for any higher subsidy they were eligible for between 7 March and 30 June 2022.

If your families have questions, please visit Services Australia.

Balancing: 30 June deadline for families

The end of financial year marks two important deadlines for families:

the first deadline for confirming 2020–21 income
the second deadline for confirming 2019–20 income.

Families must take action by 30 June to avoid losing CCS or incurring a debt.

2019–20 financial year

Most families confirmed their 2019–20 income before the first deadline on 30 June 2021.

Families who haven’t confirmed their 2019–20 income must do so by 30 June 2022.

If families don’t, they may need to pay back all the CCS they got for 2019–20.

More information about debts is available on Services Australia’s website.

Families will also lose their CCS and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) eligibility from the first CCS fortnight of the 2022–23 financial year.

Families will need to make a new claim if they wish to get a reduced fee again.

Families can only claim CCS again once they have:

confirmed their income, and
repaid any current or previous child care related debt, or
entered into a repayment arrangement.

Families who miss the second deadline will also miss out on any top up of CCS for which they may have been eligible.

2020–21 financial year

All families must confirm their 2020–21 income before the first deadline on 30 June 2022.

If they don’t, their CCS will stop. This means they’ll need to pay full fees when they use child care.

Services Australia can start a family’s CCS again, but only after they’ve confirmed their income. This means families may miss out on CCS.

How to confirm income

Families confirm their income by:

lodging their tax return, or
telling Services Australia they don’t need to lodge a tax return. Families can complete an Advise non-lodgement of tax return using their Centrelink online account through myGov or through the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. They’ll need to do this even if they’ve already told the Australian Taxation Office they don’t need to lodge.

If a parent separates from their partner, Services Australia will also need their ex-partner's income.

If a parent is concerned that their ex-partner won’t lodge their tax return by the deadline they should call the Families line.

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