Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday that the service would be free for parents from Sunday night to encourage them to send their children to care and keep working through the pandemic.

However, money was never the issue for Crookwell mother Sarah Handley who recently took her daughter out of childcare one day per week.

A gastro outbreak, holidays planned before Easter and uncertainty around Easter opening times were her reasons.

Ms Handley will likely send her daughter back after Easter but said the fee waiver wasn't an incentive.

"The childcare workers still need to get paid," she said.

Under the scheme, childcare centres will receive 50 per cent of their fees from the government, on the condition they don't charge parents with fees.

Crookwell Neighbourhood Centre manager Suzie Panne said the government funding wouldn't cover their costs while preschool fees were free.

The centre offers a mobile preschool service in Bigga, Laggan, Collector and Taralga. However, enrolment dropped during the outbreak with no children at Bigga or Laggan on Monday.

The centre was deciding whether to also drop preschool fees on Monday.

"It's a business decision but difficult when others are free. We want to support our essential workers," she said.

Laggan mother of three Kimberley McIntosh said she wouldn't send her children to care despite the government's latest stimulus.

She took her four-year-old out of day care and preschool as she didn't consider herself an essential worker. Her school-age daughter has also been at home for two weeks.

"If the advice is to keep children at home and I can, I will," she said.

SDN Crookwell Preschool in Crookwell is state-funded and ineligible for the new funding.

However, educator Alison Collins said their families were happy to continue paying fees to secure their children's placement.

That was even with attendance dropping from full at the start of the year to one or two children by the second week of April.

She also said parents were keeping children at home for health, not financial reasons.

Another local mother Janet Curtis said she had been paying the fees since taking her son out six weeks ago.

"I don't want to lose his place when this is all over and I know he will be happy to be back with his friends," she said.

Gunning Early Learning Centre and Crookwell Early Learning were also still open and working their way through the new information on Monday.

Unlike many others across the country, Gunning Early Learning Centre's enrolments haven't been affected by the virus.

"We've been really lucky," the centre executive's president Gavin Douglas said.

The government has said it's making childcare free for parents who need it. It will look at what 50 per cent of a centre's fees up to the rate cap were in the fortnight before March 2. Then it will pay the centre that amount, fortnightly.

This has involved a reworking of the childcare payment system for the government. It will make these payments to services in lieu of any childcare subsidy and additional childcare subsidy.

Parents will not be charged fees, including out-of-pocket or gap fees.

The number of children attending childcare has fallen as COVID-19 restrictions have started, leaving childcare centres out of pocket.

The federal government wants childcare centres to stay open so parents don't have to find a new one for their child. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted people to keep working - especially essential workers - and didn't want a lack of childcare to stop this.

"This virus is going to take enough from Australians without putting Australian parents in that position of having to choose between the economic well-being of their family and the care and support and education of their children. I won't cop a situation where a parent is put in that place with their kids," Mr Morrison said.

The payments start in the week beginning April 6 and will continue until the week ending June 28. Then, the government will assess the package given the state of the pandemic, and see whether it is time to move back to the pre-pandemic childcare payment system. Education Minister Dan Tehan said the government will keep assessing the situation as it unfolds.

Childcare centres will receive the payments, under a few provisos. First, they have to stay open, with at least one active enrolment, unless closed on public health advice or for other health and safety reasons.

They can't charge families a fee. Childcare centres must also keep recording attendance of children.

The government has told childcare centres to prioritise care to those parents who need to work and can't care for their children safely at home. It also wants them to prioritise vulnerable children.

Mr Tehan said there was a priority list and the most important people on it were essential workers, vulnerable and disadvantaged children, and previously enrolled children.

Importantly, the existing means testing arrangements are no longer in place, because the government wants everyone to be able to access childcare if they're working during the pandemic.

No. The government will pay the childcare centres directly, on a fortnightly basis, on the condition they won't charge parents a fee for their services.

The payments will go to childcare centres' bank accounts, where they usually receive the childcare subsidy, so the government is asking them to keep their details up to date.