28 AprNew search tool and national helpline for families seeking childcare
If you know of families, with priority to looking for services for their children, please let them know that StartingBlocks.gov.au Find Child Care can help them find a safe, quality service. It lists open services approved under Australia’s National Quality Framework and monitored by regulatory authorities to safeguard children’s safety, health, wellbeing and development.
They can also call the new national families’ helpline which ACECQA have developed for the Australian Government:
- Find Child Care Family Helpline – 1800 291 041 – 9am – 5pm AEST, Monday – Friday
Please note: ACECQA also advise that if your service needs to close on advice from your local health authority or regulatory authority, it is essential to report such closures to your regulatory authority and to update the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA IT System) within 24 hours. The NQA IT System portal has been improved to enable you to nominate ‘COVID-19’ as the reason for your service’s emergency closure. Guidance on the steps involved is available on the NQA IT System portal and the ACECQA website. Information about ‘open services’ is updated daily and published on the StartingBlocks.gov.au Find Child Care tool so services that have closed no longer appear on this parent focused website.
