Question: What should I do if my normal service is refusing to care for my child during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Answer passage (source: Australia):
page_title: Early Childhood Education and Care COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions
section_headers: COVID-19 health advice for providers and services
Is it safe for my service to stay open?
section_content: Continuing essential services such as child care–while it is safe to do so–is
crucial to enabling parents, including health care professionals, to continue
to work and support the broader community during these uncertain times. It
also reduces the reliance on alternative care arrangements such as
grandparents or elderly relatives who are typically at higher risk of
COVID-19.
Early childhood education and care services should follow the advice from
their state or territory governments on matters related to COVID-19. Their
advice and directions are informed by the expert medical advice of Australia’s
Chief Medical Officer and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee
(AHPPC).
The current clear advice of health officials is that services should continue
to remain open unless otherwise directed, with risk mitigation measures as
outlined in the AHPPC statement below.
Read the statement from the AHPPC about COVID-19 in children and early childhood education and
care.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Provides general guidance that day cares should stay open, but doesn't give advice for parents whose usual care provider has closed.
The answer gives a lot of information on the topic, but it doesn't really resolve the issue.  It doesn't state what to do if a child care is not running.

Reviewer ratings:
Could be Improved
Acceptable

Answer passage (source: Australia):
page_title: Early Childhood Education and Care COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions
section_headers: Child Enrolments, Attendance and Absences
What if my service’s levels of attendance have not decreased?
section_content: The Australian Government is committed to ensuring that families, especially
emergency and essential workers, can work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and
that disadvantaged and vulnerable children are safe and receiving care.
The Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package has been developed to
assist such families and to respond to concerns from the vast majority of the
child care sector that falling child care attendance was threatening the
viability of the sector.
Those child care providers who do not experience any significant reduction in
enrolments and attendance are able to apply for an Exceptional Circumstance
Supplementary Payment under the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief
Package.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Describes general measures to support the availability of daycare, but doesn't include advice for parents who've lost access to their usual care.
This answer is not bad.  There is a lot of relevant information here, though the question is not thoroughly resolved.

Reviewer ratings:
Could be Improved
Acceptable

Answer passage (source: Australia):
page_title: Early Childhood Education and Care COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions
section_headers: Information for families
What can I do if my service is refusing care for my child?
section_content: The Government is relying on services to provide care to as many children as
they can, giving priority to essential workers, vulnerable and disadvantaged
children and previously enrolled children.
However, each service is dealing with new circumstances and having to
reconsider available staff, health and other business challenges. This means
each service has to make decisions on its own capacity to offer care, based on
these new considerations.
While repeated, serious breaches of conditions of the Relief Package may
result in a service losing access to payments under the Relief Package, the
significant impact of COVID-19 on operating arrangements will mean some
services will not be able to continue to offer the same care to all families.
Where services have increased demand and feel they cannot afford to meet it
based on current levels of support, an Exceptional Circumstance Supplementary
Payment is available. 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.
If you are an essential worker with need for increased care hours, and have
been refused by your service, you can contact the department’s tip off line on
1800 664 231 or emailing
tipoffline@dese.gov.au.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Has a detailed discussion of measures to ensure that everyone has access to daycare, and includes contact information for people having trouble accessing it.
This is a good answer.  It gives a lot of information on the topic and a resource for people that have this problem.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent