EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Child Care Benefit (Breach of Conditions for Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 1)
Authority
The Child Care Benefit (Breach of Conditions for Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 1) (Amendment Determination) is made by the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare under subsection 200(5) of the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (Administration Act).
Subsection 200(5) of the Administration Act provides for the Minister to determine by legislative instrument, among other things, factors to be taken into account by the Secretary in applying sanctions under subsection 200(1) of the Administration Act to approved child care services.
The current determination under subsection 200(5) is the Child Care Benefit (Breach of Conditions for Continued Approval) Determination 2000 (the Principal Determination).
The Amendment Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
Purpose of the Amendment Determination
The Amendment Determination complements the amendments made by the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 2) to the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Determination 2000.
The Principal Determination specifies factors to be taken into account by the Secretary in applying sanctions under subsection 200(1) of the Administration Act for an approved child care service’s breach of its conditions of continued approval. One of the conditions for continued approval of a centre based long day care service, a family day care service and an outside school hours care service is that the service participates in, and maintains quality child care in accordance with, the quality assurance system relevant to the kind of service, administered by the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC). These conditions are specified in sections 23, 23A, 23B, 24A and 24B of the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Determination 2000.
If the Secretary is considering whether to cancel the approval of a child care service for failure to comply with any of these quality assurance conditions, the Principal Determination requires the Secretary to take into account additional factors specified in sections 5, 5A and 5B of the Principal Determination.
As a consequence of the introduction from 1 January 2012 of the National Quality Framework, which replaces the NCAC administered quality assurance systems, and the cessation of operation by the NCAC, the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 2), item 11, removed from the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Determination 2000 the quality assurance conditions for continued approval. Therefore, the provisions of the Principal Determination relevant to sanctioning for breach of those conditions became inoperative. The Amendment Determination removes those provisions.
Consultation
The Amendment Determination removes the provisions of the Principal Determination that operate in conjunction with the quality assurance conditions for continued approval of approved child care services repealed by the amendments made by the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 2). As the latter amendments occurred as a result of the widely consulted introduction, from 1 January 2012, of the National Quality Framework replacing the NCAC administered quality assurance systems, and the cessation of operation by the NCAC from the same date, consultation of the amendments made by the Amendment Determination was considered unnecessary. Details of those consultations are included in the Explanatory Statement to the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 2).
Regulation Impact Statement
Office of Best Practice Regulation was consulted in the preparation of the Amendment Determination and assessed that no Regulation Impact Statement was required in relation to amendments that are needed as a result of the cessation of operation by the NCAC and the introduction of the National Quality Framework (amendments made by items 1, 2, 5, 7 and 11 of the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 2)) as these amendments are consequential to the implementation of the National Quality Framework, for which the “Regulation Impact Statement for Early Childhood Education and Care Quality Reforms, COAG Decision RIS, December 2009” was published in December 2009.
Explanation of provisions
Sections 1 to 3 of the Amendment Determination are formal provisions. Section 1 sets out the name of the Amendment Determination. Section 2 provides that the Amendment Determination commences on 1 January 2012. Section 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends the Principal Determination.
Section 4 provides that the factors specified in sections 5, 5A and 5B of the Principal Determination, in force immediately before the amendments made by the Amendment Determination, continue to apply after the commencement of the Amendment Determination to consideration whether to cancel a service’s approval for failure, occurring before the commencement, to comply with the approval rules in the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Determination 2000 referred to in sections 5, 5A and 5B.
Schedule 1
The amendments to the Principal Determination are contained in Schedule 1 to the Amendment Determination.
Sections 5, 5A and 5B specify factors which the Secretary has to take into account when considering cancellation of a service’s approval as a sanction for breach of its quality assurance condition of continued approval specified in section 23, 23A, 23B, 24A or 24B (as the case may be) of the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Determination 2000. As the quality assurance conditions in question are repealed, from 1 January 2012, by item 11 of the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Amendment Determination 2011 (No. 2), item 2 of Schedule 1 omits sections 5, 5A and 5B.
Item 1 omits the definition of ‘the approval rules’ relevant to the sections omitted by item 2.