We’re working to understand what this announcement means for your family and your local Y will be in touch soon to confirm.

In the meantime, we’re encouraging families who don’t currently require their child care space or OSHC place to mark absent, rather than cancel, as this will guarantee your place and you will no longer will have to pay the gap fee.

We know many of you will have questions and we hope to be able to answer them early next week once we have worked through the details of this Government announcement.

The Y was part of a coalition of five OSHC partners who together lobbied the Federal Government for an urgent support package to preserve the OSHC industry, the jobs of thousands of employees and the care provided to hundreds of thousands of children.

In addition to employing thousands of Australians and caring for hundreds of thousands of children, OSHC is recognised as essential to supporting workforce participation, including for essential workers who continue to keep Australia running during the pandemic.