CHA has received funding from the Department of Home Affairs to provide conversational English with childminding in the hubs until June 2024. This page summarises the requirements and expectations around this funding.
The funding provided by DHA enables conversational English in the hubs to complement and support the existing Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), where new arrivals are able to access free English tuition.
Funding limits
The following limits apply:
- English, a maximum of $4,000 (plus GST) per hub per term.
- Childminding, a maximum of $1,500 per hub per term.
This funding can be used to pay for English facilitators and childminding providers, not for other resourcing to support the English activity in the hub. If you are unsure how the funding can be used, please email Maia on maianelson@communityhubs.org.au.
The funding must be used for the following purposes only:
Partner with a qualified English language provider to deliver English classes.
English must be free of charge to participants.
Participation must be open to anyone. If your English language provider has requirements of participants, you should consider a different English provider – hubs are for everyone.
The content and format of the activity can be tailored to suit the needs of the community, meaning English could be delivered as:
- Beginner, intermediate or advanced
- English for citizenship
- English for jobs / skills training to a vocational pathway
- English for school readiness with parent and child
- English as part of another program – cooking, sewing, digital literacy.
Regardless of how the English is delivered, the provider must be suitably qualified in teaching English first, and the other program second. A chef or sewing instructor is not an English provider.
Childminding is offered alongside English classes to increase participation by those with pre-school aged children. The funding must be used during an English activity only and provided onsite where English is being delivered. Other activities run in your hub that require childminding are not supported by this funding.
Childminding may be offered by a hub participant employed by the school, or someone who has an ABN / their own business. For hub participants, this is often seen as an employment opportunity, for some their first job in Australia. Alternatively, childminding can also be provided by a childminding service provider.
Funding requirements
When applying for this grant, you should be aware of the reporting requirements which enable CHA to share data with the funders as part of our contractual obligations. Mostly these are the responsibility of the hub leader, but the full requirements are listed here, so you understand the process;
Participant evaluation (completed by hub leader and / or English facilitator):
- Record the visa category, demographics and year of arrival for all English program participants – only once for each participant
- Implement a structured approach to refer participants on to the AMEP once they are ready to move on from English in the hubs
- Apply a simple evaluation to measure English progress and/or increased English proficiency for each participant within the CHA funded period
Program evaluation (completed by the hub leader):
- Complete an evaluation at the end of the funded period detailing how the funding was used and the outcomes achieved
- Collect and report the number of families using the childminding service on site and the number of childminders your hub employed
- To ensure your reporting is correct, when you enter English programs into the portal, please be sure to select “CHA English and childminding funding” as a partner.
If you have any questions regarding your application, please contact Maia on maianelson@communityhubs.org.au
Reporting requirements
In practice, this is how we plan to work with each of these requirements.
As part of the requirements for providing this funding, the Department of Home Affairs asks that we record the visa category, demographics (gender, age etc) and year of arrival in Australia for each person taking part in a CHA funded English program. You will need to record this information for everyone that attends an English program in your hub on this visa category form.
Please note:
- the form only needs to be completed once for each participant. Previous participants will not need to complete this form again.
- the data from these forms will be aggregated, which means that no individual can be identified.
Your English facilitator is required to demonstrate the progress made by participants in the English program. If they already have a tool to measure English progress, they should continue to use it. Please email Maia on maianelson@communityhubs.org.au to let her know what the measure of English progress is for your hub.
If your English facilitator does not have a measure of English progress in place, please use this measure of English progress form.
The measure of English progress must be completed for each participant who regularly participates in the English program e.g 3 or more sessions. Please ensure that these forms are submitted to CHA before the end of the funded period.
It’s possible that your hub already has a relationship with the AMEP but if you don’t, this is something your support coordinator will help you with.
How you decide to structure your hubs’ approach to AMEP referrals is up to you. You could consider inviting your local AMEP person to visit a couple of times a year, or you could refer people when you, or they, think they’re ready.
Please let us know what your approach is.
As part of the program funding requirements the hub leader is responsible for the following:
- Completing a program summary at the end of the funded period detailing how the funding was used and the outcomes achieved
- Collecting and reporting the number of families using the childminding service on site and how many childminders were employed in your hub.
- Recording how you school spent the English and / or childminding funding during the grant period.
Invoicing
Once your application is approved, you will be required to upload an invoice to CHA each term for payment through SmartyGrants. Click here for more information on invoicing for these programs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Given the increase in the number of hubs running conversational English classes, the following limits apply:
- English, a maximum of $4,000 (plus GST) per hub per term
- Childminding, a maximum of $1,500 per hub per term
If your hub already has a funded English program, that’s great. The CHA funding is available for anyone who needs it – however it is not mandatory to apply.
If you do not require funding for your English class, you can still apply for childminding to support the English class.
We may still ask your facilitator to collect participants’ visa category and a measure of English progress. This will help us to understand everyone’s eligibility to attend the AMEP.
If your hub is new or this is the first time that your hub has applied for English program funding, please talk to you support coordinator to help you with the process.
Please see Invoicing for your programs or email rebeccakotow@communityhubs.org.au.
This form has been updated to include six new questions to capture how your school spent the allocated English and / or childminding funding during the grant period (Term 1 and 2, Term 3 and 4). Expenditure and attendance data collected in this form will help CHA to understand how allocated funding is being used in the hub.
If you have applied for childminding funding, but not English funding, it would be great if you are able to complete the forms for measure of English progress and visa category for everyone in your English class. Any extra data we have to report back to government counts, and helps us show them how valuable this program is to our communities.
About the AMEP
How does the AMEP and community hubs English work together?
The Adult Migrant English Program is a free, formal English language tuition program, provided by the Australian Government. It aims to take participants to a level of English that will enhance their chances of employment.
The program is designed for migrants and humanitarian entrants to Australia with little or no English. Eligibility criteria has been updated to make it more accessible to these groups and to extend the scope of the language learning. This change occurred in early 2021.
We may still ask your facilitator to collect participants’ visa category and a measure of English progress. This will help us to understand everyone’s eligibility to attend the AMEP.
Recent reforms include:
- enabling eligible participants to start the program at any point in time after their arrival in Australia
- extending the exit of the program to the point where ‘vocational’ English is achieved to help ensure participants are better equipped to enter the job market
- allowing eligible participants access to an unlimited amount of tuition hours
- the use of online platforms to enable learning from home to enhance or to replace classroom-based learning.
The hubs’ conversational English program is very much a complement to, but could equally run alongside, the AMEP. The hub program generally provides more informal language support (through groups taking part in cooking, gardening, crafting, and general catch ups over a cup of tea) and can be viewed as a soft entry to the more formal style of the AMEP.
Hubs should always be the place that provides their participants the opportunities to practise and develop their English in a safe and supportive setting. As part of this funding, hubs will be able to provide childminding on site, enabling parents to participate in the classes which is a big bonus for women with young families.
Absolutely! This is already the case for many participants now.
Yes, where this is appropriate. For those who have very little or no English, they may prefer to start in the hubs’ less formal setting, before moving into the AMEP. The two services can run side-by-side or follow each other.
There is no obligation for hubs to automatically refer participants into the AMEP.
You could speak to your English teacher or invite your local AMEP provider to visit your hub regularly so that participants become familiar with the facilitator and their program. The AMEP provider will work out when participants are ready for the AMEP.
Invoicing for your programs