Before and After School Care FAQs

If your child attends primary school, we recommend you enrol them as soon as possible even if you're not sure how often you’ll need to use the service.

Enrolling early means that if a last-minute situation comes up and you need care for your child before or after school, we are already familiar with your child’s needs, interests and health information.

You can book a place using My Family Lounge (our online enrolment and booking system). Unfortunately, bookings cannot be made by phone or email.

If you're making a permanent booking, you'll need to use the My Family Lounge website. However, you can make a casual booking using either the My Family Lounge website or app.

Find out more about how to enrol.

You'll need to provide at least seven days' notice to change or cancel a booking.

If you need to change or cancel a permanent booking, you'll need to contact the centre.

Casual bookings can be changed or cancelled through My Family Lounge.

Find out more about how to make enrolment changes.

Yes! Our Before and After School Care programs are open to all primary school-aged children across Victoria.

Most children participating in the service attend the school where the program is held, however some children attend and go to neighbouring schools.

We encourage families who may not attend the school to still book into Before and After School Care. It's a great way for children to develop their social skills and make new friends outside of their school friendship group, and our team will help your child to feel welcome and supported.

Your child must be aged five to 12 years (and enrolled in primary school) to attend our Before and After School Care programs.

Yes, our Before and After School Care service qualifies for the Federal Government's Child Care Subsidy (CCS). This may reduce your child care fees if your family is eligible for CCS support and additional funding.

A minimum of six weeks' notice is required to start a CCS application process. If you're eligible and have been approved by the government, you'll see the subsidy applied on the statement we send you. You will only need to pay the gap fee difference.

Read our guide to the Child Care Subsidy for more information on how it works.

All payments for Before and After School Care programs are made by direct debit. We do not accept cash or any payments at our sites.

Your payments will be direct debited from your nominated account in advance for the upcoming fortnight. You'll receive your statement every fortnight on a Monday and the direct debit is processed on a Thursday.

You must ensure that your billing information is uploaded when you enrol, otherwise your bookings will be cancelled and your child will not be able to attend Before and After School Care. If you need to check, please sign in to My Family Lounge and update your billing information.

Learn more about our payment processes.

Each of our Before and After School Care programs have their own opening and closing times. You can view the session times for your location. 

These session times have been organised in consultation with the school where the service is based in order to best meet the needs of the local community.

Late collection can be stressful for you and your child so please ensure you pick your child up on time.

If you are running late and can't collect your child by the end of the session / closing time, please call your OSHC Coordinator to let them know. Rest easy, two of our OSHC Coordinators will stay with your child until they are collected. 

If you can't collect your child, please arrange for someone else to do so and notify the service as soon as possible.

Please note that the names and contact numbers of all people authorised to collect your child must be included in the child’s enrolment record.

Any changes to these details must be updated in My Family Lounge. The person collecting your child will also need to provide photo ID such as a current driver’s licence when they collect your child.

If your child isn't collected by the end of the session / closing time, a late fee of $2.00 per minute may be charged. If we haven't heard from you, we'll attempt to contact you by phone. If we can't reach you we'll try to contact your nominated emergency person (or people). If no contact has been made 30 to 45 minutes after closing time, the local police will be called.

You can find more information about this in our Delivery and Collection of Children procedure.

Yes, all our Before and After School Care programs provide healthy morning and afternoon snacks.

We ask that your child has appropriate clothing for the weather and activity they're doing.

We also ask that children wear a sunscreen and hat, closed shoes and socks (no thongs) and warm clothing and a coat during cooler months. Pack some spare clothing too – just in case!

Nothing is more important than the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. We all have an obligation to do the best we can to keep children safe from harm and abuse, which is why we embed child-safe practices into everything we do.

We abide by the 11 Child Safe Standards set by the Commission for Children and Young People, and our program and procedures have been independently reviewed by the Australian Childhood Foundation.

We also aim to exceed the National Quality Framework (NQF) in our everyday practice. The NQF governs all early childhood and school-aged education and care services in Australia and ensures all services operate to a high standard.

Find out more about our safeguarding children and quality standards and the policies we have in place to ensure the safety of your child. You can find information specific to our early learning services in our family handbook.

If your child has an allergy, chronic illness or other medical condition, you must make sure this information is included in your child's enrolment record.

Your child's doctor must also prepare a medical management plan, which you'll need to provide to us. We'll also work with you to develop an individual risk minimisation plan for your child. All staff will be informed of your child's requirements and the medical management plan and risk minimisation plan will be available for all staff to view.

To ensure the health and wellbeing of your child, you'll need to provide any medication or equipment identified in the medical management plan to us before your child can attend. If our educators need any special training to assist them in the daily care of your child, this must also be arranged before your child starts at the service.

It's important that medical management plans are kept up to date. Make sure you review your child's plan with their doctor each year and inform us of any changes.

If your child needs medical support during the program your OSHC Coordinator will help you to complete the following documents:

• in-date action plan signed by a doctor;
  
• completed YMCA Medical Authorisation (only if medication is required at the program);
  
• medication in the original packaging, labelled and in date;
  
• risk assessment to support your child at the program.

Your OSHC Coordinator will supply these documents.

Please arrive five to 10 minutes early on your child’s first day at the program as you may need to sign additional paperwork.

Contact your OSHC Coordinator directly to discuss your child's needs further.

Each Before and After School Care program has a dedicated mobile number. To find this, select your venue from the list of locations and scroll down to 'Contact details'.

We run over 50 Before and After School Care programs across Victoria, most of which take place in local schools and community facilities. View our locations.