In this section

Supporting

Inclusion Support Program

The Inclusion and Professional Support Program (IPSP) is an integrated approach to meeting the inclusion and professional support needs of child care services. The Inclusion Support Program (ISP) is a component of the  IPSP.

What is the ISP?

The ISP is a national program aimed at helping eligible child care services to accept and care for all children, including those with additional needs within the following priority groups:

  • children with disabilities
  • children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, including humanitarian refugee children
  • Indigenous children.

The ISP is delivered through:

  • Inclusion Support Agencies
  • Inclusion Support Subsidy.

Inclusion Support Agencies (ISAs) help child care services to build their capacity to include children with additional needs.

Under the program 67 ISAs employ a network of Inclusion Support Facilitators (ISFs) to work directly with child care services to build and develop their skills by:

  • advising them on policies and practices that increase their capacity to provide quality, inclusive care
  • developing Service Support Plans to identify and address areas of need
  • identifying the need for, and helping them gain access to, other forms of support, such as professional support, bicultural support, specialist equipment, Inclusion Support Subsidy, and Flexible Support Funding
  • developing plans and courses of action to assist the services in becoming ‘inclusion ready'.

Inclusion Support Subsidy (ISS) assists eligible child care services in improving their capacity to include children with ongoing high support needs in quality child care.

Children with ongoing high support needs are:

  • children with a diagnosed disability
  • children who are undergoing continuing assessment of a disability
  • children from a refugee or humanitarian intervention background who demonstrate behaviours symptomatic with having experienced or having been subject to torture or trauma in their country of origin or during their refugee experience.

The ISS can be used to:

  • employ an additional worker in the child care service to increase the staff-to-child ratio when a child with ongoing high support needs is in care
  • pay a relief worker to accompany an eligible carer of a child with ongoing high support needs on out-of-home excursions
  • provide an additional payment to home-based carers of a child with ongoing high support needs in recognition of the additional care and attention that such a child requires, and the impact this has on the care environment.

Which child care services are eligible?

All Australian Government child care services approved for Child Care Benefit are eligible regardless of care type or location. Types include:

  • Long Day Care
  • Outside School Hours Care (including vacation care)
  • Family Day Care
  • Occasional Care
  • In-Home Care.

Child care services funded under the Budget Based Funding Program, including:

  • Flexible/innovative Services
  • Mobile child care services
  • Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Services (MACS)
  • Indigenous playgroups
  • Indigenous outside school hours care and enrichment programs
  • Crèches
  • Innovative Child Care Service Centres.

How does the ISP help families?

The ISP helps families by:

  • giving them the confidence that those who work in child care have access to the skills and professional support they need to do their job well
  • supporting child care services to provide high-quality child care
  • supporting child care services to include all children, regardless of their background, such as those with additional needs
  • providing funding to help child care services include children who have ongoing high support needs
  • covering all types of Australian Government eligible child care, including specific Australian Government funded budget based child care services (non-Child Care Benefit)
  • providing a coordinated national approach for child care services in regional, rural and remote Australia.

Where do I get more information?

Applications and Claims for ISS funding are managed by the National Inclusion Support Subsidy Provider (NISSP). KU Children’s Services has been appointed as the NISSP and is responsible for the administration of ISS funding, in collaboration with DEEWR.

For more information, or other inclusion support advice and support, refer to KU Children's Services.

For further information on the ISP please visit Inclusion Support Program.

 

Site and legal information