In Home Care

In Home Care (IHC) is a flexible form of early childhood education and care where an educator provides care in the child's home. It is restricted to families who can't access other types of approved care.

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About In Home Care

IHC is a flexible form of early childhood education and care that takes place in the family home.

It is for families who can’t access other types of approved care. This could be due to:

  • non-standard or variable work hours
  • geographic isolation from other types of care
  • complex or challenging needs

There are 3200 IHC places in Australia.

How In Home Care is delivered

Support Agencies

IHC Support Agencies in each state and territory.

  • assess family eligibility
  • connect families with approved IHC services
  • support a high quality and nationally consistent approach to IHC.

Learn more and find contact details for IHC Support Agencies.

Services and educators

IHC is delivered in the family home by approved IHC services with qualified educators.

Educators provide a tailored, individual education program based on a Family Management Plan agreed between the IHC Support Agency and the family.

Find detailed guidance about service and educator requirements in the In Home Care National Guidelines.

Learn how to gain approval to operate an In Home Care service

Educator qualification exemptions

From 1 January 2025, IHC educators working in remote and very remote areas can access an exemption to the minimum qualification requirements if they meet certain criteria.

Find out more about qualification exemptions. 

Allocation of places

IHC is capped at 3200 places nationally.

The department distributes places to each state and territory and allocates places to approved services.

A single place is equivalent to 35 hours of subsidised care per week, per child.

IHC services may request to increase or decrease their allocation of places.

Eligibility and assessment

Families must meet eligibility criteria to access IHC.

Families apply to the IHC Support Agency in their state or territory to be assessed.

Learn more about family eligibility and how to apply.

Families should contact the IHC Support Agency in their state or territory to discuss their eligibility.

Interaction with Child Care Subsidy

Families must be eligible for CCS to access IHC. Eligible families can get up to 100 hours of subsidised care per child per fortnight, per the hourly rate cap.

CCS applies uniquely to IHC as sessions of care are provided per family, rather than per child. See how to get CCS for IHC sessions.

Change of circumstances

Families that use IHC must notify their IHC Support Agency of changes to their circumstances. See what to report and how to report it.

Program review

In March 2023, we commissioned an independent external review of IHC.

The review’s aims were to examine:

  • access
  • affordability
  • quality
  • future program arrangements.

In November 2023, we published the IHC final report.

The report:

  • made 16 findings across 4 themes
  • identified 14 key opportunities across 5 focus areas.

Read the final report from the In Home Care review

Find out more about the In Home Care review

Resources

The In Home Care Handbook provides detailed guidance on how the program operates.

The In Home Care National Guidelines details the legislative and policy framework for the program.

The In Home Care Eligibility Assessment Procedures outlines how IHC Support Agencies assess and determine family eligibility.

Families can use the In Home Care estimator to see how much CCS they may be eligible for.

Forms

For services

For IHC Support Agencies

For families

More information

If you need more information, please contact inhomecare@education.gov.au

Alternatively, contact the IHC Support Agency in your state or territory