Get ready to apply

1. Apply for National Law approval

You must apply for National Law approval from your state or territory government before starting your CCS approval application.

Make a note of the provider and service numbers given when you submit your National Law application.

You’ll need these to start your CCS approval application. We’ll use these numbers to confirm you have been approved to operate in your state or territory.

We won’t grant CCS approval until you have your National Law approval. But you can apply for CCS approval while your state or territory regulatory authority is assessing your National Law application.

Your state or territory regulatory authority has more information on how to apply for National Law approval.

If you’re out of scope of the National Law, you do not need to apply for this approval. You do need to provide evidence that you hold the relevant approvals or licence required in your state or territory. This could be a letter or certificate from your state or territory regulatory authority.

2. Register with PRODA

You must register with PRODA (Provider Digital Access) in order to access the CCS approval application.

PRODA is an online identity verification and authentication system. It lets you securely access government online services.

You’ll need to create an organisation account and individual accounts for certain people in your organisation before starting your application.

Individual accounts

The following people in your organisation must create individual accounts in PRODA:

• the person creating the CCS application
• the person listed as the Associate or Authorised contact for the organisation on the Australian Business Register (ABR)
• persons with management or control of the provider (PMCs)
• persons responsible for the day-to-day operation of a service
• Family Day Care and In Home Care educators
• service contacts.

Services Australia has instructions on how to register an individual PRODA account.

Organisation account

You must also register your organisation in PRODA.

Before you can register an organisation in PRODA, you must make sure that:

• you’ve registered an individual PRODA account
• you’re an Associate or Authorised contact for the organisation on the Australian Business Register (ABR)
• your individual PRODA account name matches your name as recorded on the ABR.

Services Australia has instructions on how to register an organisation in PRODA.

Companies must validate their PRODA account with their Australian Business Number (ABN) not their Australian Company Number (ACN).

The individual who creates the PRODA organisation account is identified as ‘the Director’ of that account. They own and control the PRODA organisation account.

It is a good idea to give more than one person Director access to the PRODA organisation account. This will ensure you don’t lose access if the owner of the account leaves your organisation.

The individuals identified as Directors do not need to be a PMC.

Once you’ve created the organisation account you must link it to the using the service providers tab. This will allow to you move from PRODA to the Provider Entry Point (PEP) which is where you’ll submit your application.

Services Australia has information about managing your organisation account in PRODA.

PRODA support

If you need help creating PRODA accounts, contact the PRODA Helpdesk on 1800 700 199 (option 1) 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday.

3. Identify persons with management or control of the provider

You must identify all PMCs in your application.

See who is considered a PMC.

You must list all PMCs in your application. You must supply the following details for each PMC:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Position
• Phone number
• Email address
• PRODA Registration Authority (RA) number
• Evidence of background checks
• Details about the individual having owned, operated or been employed by a child care service in the past 5 years
• Details of any interest the individual has in a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) or other business associated with child care

You cannot choose to omit someone if they meet the definition of a PMC. If you don’t identify all PMCs in your application, we cannot assess your application.

4. Identify persons responsible for the day-to-day operation of a service

You must also identify persons responsible for the day-to-day operation of a service. We call these people ‘persons responsible at the service’.

See who is considered a person responsible at the service.

You must list all persons responsible in your application. You’ll need to supply the following details for each individual:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Position
• Phone number
• Email address
• PRODA RA number
• Evidence of background checks

5. Undertake background checks

You must show evidence that your PMCs and persons responsible at the service have background checks.

See a table outlining the mandatory background checks you must provide with your application.

Please note background checks come from various agencies and are not processed on the spot. We recommend starting this step as early as possible.

We cannot assess your application if it does not include all the required checks.

6. Prepare a governance statement

Approved providers receive significant amounts of public money in the form of CCS payments. We have a responsibility to ensure this money is not misused.

You must be able to demonstrate that your organisation has sufficient policies and processes to responsibly administer CCS payments and comply with Family Assistance Law. This is known as your governance arrangements.

We need to know:

• how your organisation is structured
• how decisions will be made at each service
• how you’ll ensure staff have the information and knowledge to comply with the law
• how you’ll check that staff are acting honestly and with diligence
• what actions you’ll take when there is a problem.

If you’re seeking approval to provide In Home Care, you’ll also need to outline how you’ll ensure the provision of safe, high-quality care. This is because In Home Care is out of scope of the National Law.

We’ve developed governance statement templates to help you provide this information.

If you’re seeking approval to provide Family Day Care or In Home Care, you must complete and submit the Family Day Care governance statement.

If you’re seeking approval to provide Centre Based Day Care or Outside School Hours Care, we strongly encourage you to complete and submit the Centre Based Day Care and Outside School Hours Care governance statement. If the information you provide is not sufficient, we’ll ask you to complete the statement before we can assess your application.

This information is separate from and different to any governance information your state or territory regulatory authority may request.

7. Gather evidence of your entity type

You’ll need to provide documentary evidence of your entity type.

The following table outlines the type of evidence you’ll need to provide based on your entity type.

Entity type	Evidence required
Sole trader	Australian Business Number, and business name registration, or a lease agreement or utility statement showing the sole trader is operating the service, if business name registration is not available.
Partnership	a copy of the signed partnership agreement/deed between all members, and evidence for each of the entities included in the partnership, as outlined in this table.
Public or private company	historical and current company extract report from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) no older than 3 months from the date of application.
Registered co-operative	list of directors, including address and occupation, and certified copy of the rules as registered, and name of board appointed person.
Australian Government and state or territory government body	governing document(s) outlining rules and how the governing body will be operated.
Local council	governing document(s) outlining rules and how the governing body will be operated, and extract of the legislation which sets out the manner in which the entity can enter into contracts.
Indigenous corporation	rules/constitution of association, and Annual General Meeting minutes (if applicable), and list of elected office bearers, and financial statement for previous financial year (if available), and a letters patent (if applicable).
Incorporated or unincorporated body or association	rules/constitution of association, and Annual General Meeting minutes (if applicable), and list of elected office bearers.

8. Confirm other details

We’ll ask you to confirm a range of operational details throughout the application. It is a good idea to know the following information before you apply:

• Provider name
• Provider address
• Provider contact details
• Bank account details for CCS payments
• Operational details for each service such as opening hours, fees and inclusions
• Australian Business Number (ABN)
• ABN of the Ultimate Holding Entity if there is one
• Australian Business Register (ABR) entity name
• Whether you are for profit or not-for-profit
• Whether you are a charity
• Details of any Registered Training Organisation (RTO) or other child care related business in which the provider has an interest
• Details of the external management organisation if there is one