For In Home Care (IHC) Services
Working with IHC Services – A shared approach in supporting quality education and care for children
The IHC Support Agency is committed to working in collaboration with IHC Service Providers to ensure families and children have access to a quality IHC education and care program that meets their unique needs. This requires shared commitment, goals and clear accountabilities.
The IHC Support Agency adopts a holistic and integrated approach to meeting family’s needs, through open communication, consistent policies and procedures that are aligned with the IHC Program Guidelines and legislative requirements.
Through collaboration, a vital IHC program that meets the unique needs of families within our community is sustained.
IHC Support Agency Tasmania maintains a register of approved IHC Services and the number of IHC Places allocated within their jurisdiction. If you are interested in becoming and IHC Service, contact us of 1300 052 057.
The IHC Support Agency will support IHC Services by:
- impartially and consistently interpreting the IHC program’s suitability criteria so that IHC Services are helping those families that are genuinely in need of the service
- promoting IHC to Approved Providers within their jurisdiction that do not offer IHC
Engagement between IHC Support Agency and IHC Service Providers
IHC Support Agency is the primary conduit between families and service providers, and we advocate for families. We support a no-wrong-door approach for families and provide IHC Support Agency information to IHC Service Providers for when families may make direct contact.
As the IHC Support Agency we assess families against the criteria for In Home Care, match families to services with educators that are able to meet their needs and assist families in accessing other support services, if required.
We monitor service provision to ensure service providers offer high quality education and care and to ensure fee charging practices are appropriate.
Service delivery is based on a Family Management Plan agreed between the IHC Support Agency and the family.
We also:
- reimburse service provider’s costs to visit families in Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote locations
- administer a complaints handling mechanism for service providers, educators and families
- provide guidance, resource material and professional development to educators about providing education and care in the family home and working with families with complex needs
- we provide information on professional learning opportunities for educators and facilitate a community of practice approach in supporting educators ongoing professional development
- are an independent organisation with whom educators can discuss any concerns relating to the safety and the physical environment in which they are working
- make recommendations to the Department on the distribution of places between services
Allocating IHC Places
Our Agency:
- makes recommendations to the Australian Government on the distribution of places to In Home Care services and distributes places to In Home Care services based on the needs of families
- advises families of the place allocation and number of hours of In Home Care a family is entitled to
- returns unutilised places to the department for re-allocation to areas of need
In Home Care places are capped at 3200 places nationally, with each place representing 35 hours of care per week per child.
Services providing In Home Care must be approved to receive Child Care Subsidy (the new combined payment that replaces CCB and CCR) on behalf of families under Family Tax Legislation.
Child Care Subsidy for In Home Care is subject to a family hourly rate cap of $32.00 for up to five children. Please note that this is the CCS hourly rate cap as educators fee charges may differ. The hours and rate of subsidy received for In Home Care will depend on a family’s Child Care Subsidy or Additional Child Care Subsidy eligibility and entitlement and any exemptions.
IHC Service travel reimbursement for family home visits
IHC Services are able to seek reimbursement for reasonable travel costs to visit the family home. Mandatory requirements apply as listed below. The IHC Support Agency will process claims and administer payment for this travel reimbursement.
Mandatory Requirements
Travel must be undertaken for sole purpose of In Home Care (IHC) and monitoring families and IHC Educators. Examples of acceptable reasons for a service to visit the family home include:
- assessment of environment if safe for children and educator,
- validation of family’s suitability for IHC
- identification of resources required by educator
- the family home must be located in Outer Regional, Remote and/or Very Remote ARIA+ (2016) locations,
- each person who drives during course of travel must hold a current driver’s licence,
- current comprehensive and third party insurance is held in relation to every vehicle driven during the time the travel takes place, and
- all travel is undertaken by the shortest practicable route.
ARIA+ Classifications
ARIA+ (2016) is used by the Australian Government to measure geographical remoteness with purpose of assisting with policy development. The five categories of ARIA+ are: Major Cities, Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote and Very Remote.
To assist with determining if region visited is classified as Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote, please refer to map available on the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website: http://stat.abs.gov.au/itt/r.jsp?ABSMaps and filter using the following boundaries:
| Boundary type 1: | 2016 State Suburb (SSC) |
| Boundary type 2: | 2016 Remoteness Area (RA) |
Claiming
The amount an IHC service may claim each quarter is determined using following formula:
Travel Reimbursement Rate multiplied by the number of kilometres travelled
The travel reimbursement rate is the current rate published by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) using the ‘cents per kilometre’ method.