Community Child Care Fund-Restricted

Now in its third stage, the Australian Government Department of Education (DE) engages ACECQA to develop and deliver a quality and safety professional development training package for Community Child Care Fund Restricted (CCCFR) services. CCCFR services are funded by DE under a restricted grants program that supports identified education and care services in disadvantaged and vulnerable communities to operate sustainably.

The CCCFR Quality and Safety Training Package (CCCFR Training Package) delivers strengths-based tailored professional development to the nearly 150 CCCFR services across Australia, many of which are located in regional and remote areas. It is focused on improving quality, safety and supervision in CCCFR services, targeting CCCFR provider and leaders to support them to further embed and sustain quality practice and improvements.

CCCFR services provide children’s education and care to approximately 5000 children, 40% of whom are Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander children.

There are two categories of CCCFR services under the CCCFR Training Package. One is the General Services, which are those regulated under Child Care Subsidy Minister’s Rules 2017 (Minister’s Rules) as well as the National Quality Framework (NQF) or jurisdictional based residual legislation. The other is Priority Services, which are CCCFR services only regulated under Minister’s Rules.

The CCCFR Training Package is delivered in two parts:

Part 1 is available to all CCCFR services and includes a suite of quality, safety and supervision professional development resources and events, all with a strong focus on legislative obligations and best practice standards.

Part 2 provides Priority Services with ongoing one-on-one support by an ACECQA Priority Support Facilitator. This support includes Quality Improvement Plan and Safety and Supervision Policy reviews, and where possible a service visit, all designed to:

embed the practice from the learning materials in context at each service
build capability in quality, supervision and care systems and structures
enable improved and embedded outcomes for children.

Stage 1 and Stage 2

Stage 1 commenced in late 2021 and was followed by Stage 2 which was delivered between early 2023 and June 2024. The clip below provides an overview of Stage 2 and highlights the evidence based outcomes achieved.

Stage 3 of the program

Stage 3 of the CCCFR Training Package commenced in June 2024 and reflects the maturation of the project and is informed by the quantitative and qualitative intelligence gained through the evaluation activities from the previous two stages.

It commences with seven CCCFR workshops, being delivered in conjunction with the Australian and state and territory governments, across most states and territories from August through until early December 2024. This will be followed by the release in early 2025 of a suite of new quality, safety and supervision eLearning modules, webinars, podcasts and train the trainer sheets, all supported by community of practice sessions and all designed and tailored to the CCCFR service context.

If you would like more information about the CCCFR Training Package you can email the team on [email protected].