1200 New In- Home Care Places

An additional 1,200 In Home Care (IHC) places are now available for families unable to access existing child care services due to their location or working hours.

Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, today announced the new places, which could equate to an additional 5000 children across Australia now having access to child care services in their own home.

"As a flexible form of child care, IHC enables an approved carer to provide care in the child’s home and is targeted to parents working shift or non standard hours, or those located in rural or remote regions of Australia, who cannot access existing child care services.

"In the 2007-2008 Budget, the Howard Government committed an additional $8 million over four years to the IHC program, targeted at increasing the numbers of carers for families in remote locations" Mr Brough said.

"Services have an incentive to employ carers in remote and very remote locations as they will have access to higher rates of support funding. To receive this extra funding, services now need to have only 20 per cent of their carers in remote locations, reduced from 50 per cent.

"Families using approved In Home Care are eligible for Australian Government subsides – Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Tax Rebate.

"The Government is committed to ensuring taxpayer dollars support quality child care. We are working with State and Territory Governments to establish national standards for the IHC program, which will give parents confidence with the level of care provided to their children.

"By providing these additional child care places, the Howard Government is maintaining its commitment to assisting families access flexible, quality child care," Mr Brough said.

Attached is a list of the successful services.