Supporting the inclusion of children with additional needs in early childhood and child care services

Important News:

The claiming process for Inclusion Development Fund payments has changed to accommodate changes with the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package.  For more information please refer to question and answer below.
 
For information about applying for IDF at this time and additional claiming advice, please refer to COVID-19 FAQs for the Inclusion Support Program
 
Please note that at the current time, the IDFM help line 1800 824 955 will be answered between 10 am and 4 pm eastern daylight savings time. Phone messages will be returned as soon as possible. Alternatively, please email your query to idfm@ku.com.au. IDF application assessment and processing will occur as usual.
 

My service receives funding from the Inclusion Support Program to support the inclusion of children with additional needs. Can Inclusion Development Fund (IDF) payments still be claimed? 

For care provided from 6 April 2020 services should claim all Inclusion Development Fund (IDF) claims hours as ‘Non-face to face’ hours, including the actual attendance of the case child and approved non-face to face hours.

The department has changed the Inclusion Support Portal to notionally increase the ‘Additional non-face to face hours’ for each case to allow services to claim IDF payments without the attendance records in the Child Care Subsidy System.

Note that this is a system change to facilitate payments only. There is no change to the actual allowable non-face to face hours in each case. Services are only eligible for IDF for the hours of actual attendance and the approved number of non-face-to-face hours as set out in their funding letter, per Section 11.1.1 of the Inclusion Support Program Guidelines.

If services receive an error when claiming they should contact the Inclusion Development Fund Manager at idfm@ku.com.au.
Services will still need to record attendance and these will be checked by the department to verify IDF claims.

Services can continue to submit new applications for Inclusion Support Program funding under the updated ISP Guidelines that were published on 30 March 2020.

This IDF payment mechanism is expected to be in place for the duration of the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package arrangements.

For more information visit  https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/childcare/childcare-faq.

For more information on ISP visit education.gov.au/inclusion-support-program-isp.

 

Access to Inclusion Support Portal changing to PRODA from 10 February 2020
Inclusion

The authentication method for accessing the IS Portal will be changing from AUSkey to PRODA on Monday 10 February 2020.  This brings the IS Portal into line with the authentication method for the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS).

Early Childhood Education and Care service users of the IS Portal will use their existing PRODA credentials (that is, the same PRODA credentials that you use for the CCSS).
 
For most existing users, when you access the IS Portal from 10 February 2020, (at https://inclusionsupport.dss.gov.au/ispportal/) you should be automatically connected to the IS Portal once you enter your PRODA credentials.
 
For some users, you may have an additional step of selecting your organisation, role type and requesting access. Once your organisation’s access delegate has approved your access you will be able to use your PRODA credentials to the IS Portal.  
 
Detailed information on accessing the IS Portal using PRODA can be found in the Inclusion Support Portal access using PRODA Fact sheet.

Further information is available at https://www.education.gov.au/inclusion-support-program-isp.

 

Inclusion Support Programme (ISP)

The Inclusion Support Programme (ISP) assists early childhood and child care (ECCC) services to include children with additional needs alongside their peers, through provision of tailored inclusion advice and support from Inclusion Agencies (IA) and access to funded support and specialist equipment where required.

 

The ISP consists of three key elements:

• Inclusion Agencies (IA)

  • Each state and territory has an Inclusion Agency contracted to assist eligible services to build their capacity and capability to provide and embed inclusive practice in their delivery of early learning programmes. See the full list of IA providers in each state and territory.

• Inclusion Development Fund (IDF)

  • The IDF provides funding to assist eligible services to address a barrier to inclusion that cannot be addressed by the support of an IA. There are four streams of IDF funding – subsidy for an Additional Educator, Immediate/Time Limited Support, Family Day Care Top Up and Innovative Solutions. Each stream has different eligibility criteria, application processes and approved funding purposes.

• The Inclusion Development Fund Manager (IDFM)

  • KU Children’s Services in partnership with Include Me is the IDFM and is contracted to provide a nationally consistent and equitable management of the IDF.

This website provides information about the Inclusion Development Fund for IAs, ECCC services and families.

The Inclusion Support Programme is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training.  For additional information, including Frequently Asked Questions, refer to the department's website.

The development of a Strategic Inclusion Plan (SIP) is the first step to accessing support from the Programme, including funding through the IDF.

More About SIPs