The Australian government is urging parents to dob in any childcare centre they suspect of profiteering from the coronavirus funding overhaul, prompting accusations the Coalition is trying to shift blame for the impact of its policy.
Amid persistent reports of parents struggling to access the care they need, the education department has emailed childcare providers to warn their funding could be cancelled if they were found to be excessively limiting their capacity during the coronavirus pandemic.
The move comes as the government prepares to review its “free childcare” package next week, as calls grow for it to take into account increases in demand as health restrictions are progressively eased across the nation.
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s email – sent this week – urged providers to consider the staff and resources they had available and “provide the maximum amount of care that you can for families and children that need it”.
The department said it did not expect providers to compromise on safety and it understood “you may not have the usual incentives to take on children during this time”. But they were expected to “think carefully and maximise the care you are providing”.
Under the emergency funding package, the government is paying services half of their pre-crisis fee revenue or half of the old childcare subsidy rate cap – “whichever is lower”. Services are now prohibited from charging families any fees, removing a chunk of the old revenue they could access.
While the relief package was intended to work together with the jobkeeper wage subsidy of $1,500 per worker per fortnight, some services do not meet the test for the payment and those that do qualify cannot claim it for some casuals or work visa holders.
Services are allowed to limit attendance based on the funding they have at their disposal, but with priority given to the children of essential workers or from vulnerable home environments. The government estimates attendance is running at between 40% and 60% of old levels, although the sector says demand is growing.
The department said families and other services could report concerns about potential breaches via a tip-off hotline and email address.
“For example, if a family believes a service has capacity to provide more care but is electing not to do so, or that a service is not prioritising essential workers in offering that care, they can and are contacting this line,” the email said.
The government would look carefully at the help the service was receiving to consider if it was providing “reasonable” level of care, while those found to be breaching the requirements “may have their payments cancelled”.
Labor accused the Coalition of shifting all blame onto service operators and “failing to understand that providers are desperately crunching their numbers and losing sleep over how to stay viable and continue providing care”.
The opposition’s spokesperson on early childhood education, Amanda Rishworth, said there was a clear disconnect between the government’s claims and what providers knew was achievable.
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“If the government is going to argue that the current funding level is adequate and accuse centres of not trying hard enough, the minister must share the model he based the funding on,” she said.
“Centres deserve the same level of explanation and transparency the government is demanding of them.”
The department told Guardian Australia last week 859 services had already applied for top-up funding for special circumstances, but the number is likely to have grown.
According to service providers, the department is preparing for next week’s review by conducting a survey about issues such as changes in attendance and staffing levels and views about the impact of the funding package.
As it stands the free childcare scheme is budgeted to remain in effect until late June, with the possibility it is extended beyond that time.
Early Childhood Australia, a peak body, said it believed the majority of providers were doing the right thing, but some were more conservative about their attendance capacity as they may not have reserves to draw on during the crisis.
The chief executive, Samantha Page, said she hoped next week’s review looked at providing more flexibility to account for increasing demand “as we come out the other end of the pandemic”.
“The relief package was a response to falling enrolments but it’s more problematic when we have enrolments building up again,” she said.
The government should also provide more clarity on the definition of essential workers and plan ahead for what would happen when the relief package expired in a couple of months, Page said.
Comment was sought from the education minister, Dan Tehan.
