COVID-19 in NSW: business continuity payments for child care services in Greater Sydney

This content was published on Monday 23 August 2021. There may be more recent updates available.

Child care and Outside School Hours Care services in Greater Sydney will get fortnightly business continuity payments calculated from Monday 23 August.

All other services in New South Wales will also become eligible from 28 August, with payments backdated to today.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Education Minister Alan Tudge announced the measures in response to the impact of extended lockdowns because of COVID-19.

Child care

Centre Based Day Care, Family Day Care and In Home Care services will get fortnightly payments of 25% of their pre-lockdown revenue calculated up to the hourly cap.

The reference fortnight for calculating a service’s revenue is 17 to 30 May 2021.

Outside School Hours Care

OSHC services will get separate fortnightly payments of 40% of their pre-lockdown revenue calculated up to the hourly cap.

The reference fortnight for calculating a service’s revenue is 17 to 30 May 2021.

Vacation care

Vacation care services will get separate fortnightly payments of 40% of their pre-lockdown revenue calculated up to the hourly cap.

The reference fortnight for calculating a service’s revenue is 2 April – 18 April.

Eligible areas

Services in the following Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Greater Sydney will get business continuity payments if they meet the conditions outlined:

City of Sydney, Bayside, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Burwood, Canada Bay, Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury/Bankstown, Central Coast, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Liverpool, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Parramatta, Penrith, Randwick, Ryde, Shellharbour, Strathfield, Sutherland Shire, The Hills Shire, Waverley, Willoughby, Wollondilly, Wollongong, Woollahra.

Conditions

Business continuity payments are contingent on services:

  • Reasonable expectations attendance will drop below 50%
  • not accessing other Commonwealth Government funded business supports
  • waiving gap fees for all families whose children are not attending
  • maintaining staffing levels, and
  • agreeing to a fee freeze for the duration of business continuity payments.

Services already getting JobSaver can choose to either keep receiving JobSaver or apply for this business continuity payment.

How to apply

We will provide details about how to apply and how payments will be made soon.

Gap fee waivers and additional allowable absences

Services in Greater Sydney can waive gap fees and access additional allowable absences.

Business continuity payments are in addition to these measures.

More information

We regularly update our website with information about COVID-19 support for the early childhood sector.

This information was updated on 25 August 2021.