Canberra childcare group accepts new enrolments as families turned away from centres struggling with "free" arrangements

The Papilio Early Learning Centres in Barton, Bruce and Yarralumla say they are "proudly operating as normal and accepting new enrolments from families", including from those turned away by other providers, which are restricting new enrolments.

Papilio Early Learning Barton centre manager Katelyn Pollard said the centre's health and hygience procedures, additional educator training and new practices such as daily temperature checks of children and parental drop-off zones had been welcomed by families.

"Our message for new families who think they may not be eligible for free child care, or who have been turned away recently by other providers, is you are welcome to discuss enrolling in our centres and benefit from free child care under the ECEC Relief Package until it ends on 28 June," Ms Pollard said.

"We have prioritised access for the children of essential workers, vulnerable children and our currently enrolled families. During May and June, we can still cater for additional children to commence care.

"Operating hours and inclusions such as nappies, food and other provisions are completely unchanged."

Staffing had also not changed, she said.

"Most importantly, our people have remained with us children have access to the same early childhood educators and teachers, and parents can speak to our centre managers one-on-one," she said.

The Federal Government initially announced the fee-free childcare would end on June 28, and previous funding arrangements would return.

But Education Minister Dan Tehan said a review of the care package was being undertaken and would "consider the extent to which the objectives of the package are being achieved and whether policy adjustments are required". A spokeswoman said that included whether the scheme would be extended.

Mr Tehan said the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package was introduced because Australia's childcare centres were "experiencing mass withdrawals which threatened their ability to provide care and continuity of education, particularly to the children of essential workers".

Under the scheme, parents don't pay fees and childcare centres instead receive a weekly payment from the government of 50 per cent of the service's revenue. Mr Tehan said the relief package should be used with the JobKeeper Payment from the government of $1500 a fortnight to workers.

"This is a very important element because approximately 60 per cent of a child care services' costs relate to staff wages, and JobKeeper will cover a large proportion of that cost," he said.

Mr Tehan said as of May 4, "98.4 per cent of all Child Care Subsidy-approved services have kept their doors open".

However, shadow minister for early childhood education Amanda Rishworth told Parliament this week that "free childcare was just an illusion for many".

"The big fundamental problem is that the government didn't fund free childcare," Ms Rishworth said.

"My office has been flooded with calls and emails from early learning services from around the country who are struggling to keep their doors open after their funding has been slashed. These services are now cutting operating hours, cutting staff, cutting places to try and balance their books. I've also heard from many families who are being denied places."

Papilio Early Learning Centres says that has not been its experience, and the key has been accessing the government's funding package as well as the JobKeeper payments for staff.

A statement from Affinity Education Group, which owns and operates the three Papilio Early Learning Centres in Canberra, said it hoped the families accessing the free childcare would stay on when it finished.

"Currently, the Australian government's ECEC Relief Package payments, which are provided directly to the centre operators, combined with JobKeeper payments to educators and employees, are ensuring that the centres are able to operate as normal," the statement read.

If the package did end on June 28, Affinity said "families will again be required to pay fees directly to the services. These fees will be subsidised by the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) according to family eligibility".

In the meantime, Mr Tehan said there was other help for childcare centres.

"Exceptional circumstances funding is available where services have experienced increased demand. This means if a service has more children attending now than it had during the reference period it can apply to receive a higher payment from the Australian Government," he said.

The Government had also announced supplementary payments for child care providers not eligible for JobKeeper payments.

"Providers that are not eligible for the JobKeeper Payment, including non-government schools, large charities and not-for-profit organisations, will be eligible for a top-up payment," he said.

"Family Day Care and In Home Care providers that are not eligible for JobKeeper and apply for an ABN by 1 June 2020 may be eligible."

Eligible centres could also receive small business payments such as the Boost to Employer Cashflow measure - potentially receiving between $20,000 and $100,000 to help with wage costs, the minister said.