Sorry chel - I meant to respond to your questions earlier.

In-home care is a federal government scheme and childcare centres apply to be providers. What the means for the consumer (me) is that I can I access in-home care if I meet certain criteria. We qualify on the basis that DP is a shiftworker which means our childcare needs vary from week to week. Some weeks we don't need any childcare - others we might need a full day, others we might need two afternoons - so normal childcare options aren't great for us as we'd have to pay for three full days to keep our place but never use the full three days. Other criteria are three children under school age or running a business from home.

So, we basically filled out some forms for our provider (our local childcare centre) and provided some proof (letter from DP's employer verifying he was a shiftworker). Then we just let them know on the Friday what care we need for the following week.

As I said, we pay $24 per hour but we get 50% of that back from the government (just like you would for normal childcare).

Unfortunately in-home care is not widely publicised and I don't think there are that many providers at present but have a chat with your prospective employer and alert her to that possibility. There's more information aimed at providers here:
http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/...200809FINA.pdf

I hope that answers your questions - if not, let me know and I'll try to reply more promptly this time!