An organisation or business that manages a network of educators who work in a family’s home caring for children.

A service provider:

• engages qualified educators, either by direct employment or contract
• accepts referrals of families in their area from the IHC Support Agency
• matches families with a suitable educator
• pays the educator an agreed rate per hour
• supports educators in their role, ensuring they are providing quality education and care
• collects the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) on behalf of families and fees from families.

Providers usually retain a fixed amount per hour for every hour of care educators engage or employed in their service work with a family.

An IHC provider has to be approved by the Australian Government to receive the CCS under the Family Assistance Law and must register with the IHC Support Agency.

The IHC Support Agency manages the relationships between families and services, advocating on the behalf of both. We assess families against the IHC criteria, matching those that qualify with services and educators that are able to meet the family’s needs as well as accessing other support services, if required.

We monitor service provision to ensure all service providers offer high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) 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:

• assist with interpretation of the IHC program guidelines
• engage with IHC services to understand their capacity to meet a family’s needs, including availability of educators and operating areas
• work with IHC services to establish appropriate transition plans for families moving to other care types
• provide intake and referral information to IHC services for eligible families, supporting services to decide their capacity to deliver suitable care
• work with approved services to transition families and educators after a service closure
• facilitate a national community of practice for services, including through the support of new services
• reimburse travel costs for family visitations in Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote locations
• make recommendations to the Department on the distribution of places between services.