Benefits of Ignite Minds for FDC Educators

Support

We will support you and your small business to grow to what you want it to be, we will help with placement of children and with collection of fees, we will ensure compliance at every step, your business is our business.

Transparency

We are open and honest, we strive to comply with every regulation and with all tax payment and centrelink, CCS requirements. All family day care services must comply with the rules of the business as set down by the government departments. We do so in ways that protect our educators and our services from any indiscretions either intentional or unintentional. Our coordination staff are knowledgeable and up to date with the latest regulations and the quality standards required.

Accountability

We will ensure that our educators are paid on time with regular , correct payments. We will hold professional development sessions for all our educators to ensure they are compliant with the mandatory annual training required. Along with other training sessions of interest to the individual educators, new knowledge and planning and programming documentation support. We offer regular in house and in home mentoring sessions with the professional support of the coordination unit staff. Ignite minds software program will enable you to download your own income information as you require for Centrelink, no waiting until someone else has the time to do it for you.

Help in collecting the parent gap fees

The parent fees for care are often a tricky point. We aim to collect the parent gap fees. To be fully compliant the service enters into a contract between the families and the educators to provide education and care for the children. Part of this contract involves the payment of fees for the care provided. The Government will pay through The Department of Education the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) allowance to the services , along with the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) if the families have agreed to this being paid directly to the service. The parents pay the difference between what the government pay and the full fees for care. This ‘gap fee’ will be collected via direct debit straight from families bank accounts. Ignite minds will pay the educator all the fees owing to them including the parent gap fee.

What Happens if Families do not Pay

Ignite minds will be responsible for chasing bad debts. If parents do not pay the gap fee they have agreed to, this is a non compliance issue for the educator, the service and the families. The families may be committing fraud if they are collecting the CCS via Centrelink. The CCS is for out of pocket expenses connected to childcare If the Family does not pay gap fees it will only be a matter of time before the tax office and Centrelink catch up with them. They could face up to 10 years jail time obtaining a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity, section 135.2(1) Criminal Code 1995 (Commonwealth).

Educators accrue a Tax liability on gap fees regardless of families paying them as families have claimed benefit through Centrelink. In this situation Educators lose out twice. Once because you don’t get the money in the first place and secondly because you pay tax on money you haven’t had.

Doing the wrong thing and not collecting gap fees equals a short business model and may be enabling others to commit crimes.

Registration fees

Ignite minds do not charge a annual registration fee like other companies. You will be charged for the administration fee @ $2.00 per hour and you will be charged $1.25 per week for the software program which will enable you to log in the children’s hours of care on a daily basis. Hard copies are still required for compliance but the soft copies mean no paperwork lost in the post, no delays in payments.

Ensuring compliance

The data base which will be kept at Ignite Minds will be updated and checked on a monthly basis so you will never be non compliant with annual updates required, e.g. CPR, First Aid, Anaphylaxis, Asthma, food safety, child protection, travelling safely with children Car safety checks, Insurance.

Police Checks

In Victoria it is still a requirement that all persons in the home over 18 years of age hold both a working with children's check and a police records check. Ignite minds can help you do this, we have the facilities to complete this online for you at a reasonable cost.