Child Care Centres - Who's watching?

Peachy said :

One of my friends was telling me today that she gets paid one dollar less an hour to do casual childcare work than she used to making coffee. High day rates aren’t justified when the staff are paid a pittance and aren’t trained, supported or valued.

Call me crazy, but if I was in a job where I wasn’t valued, trained or supported and could earn for less responsibility I would vote with my feet and quit

One of my friends was telling me today that she gets paid one dollar less an hour to do casual childcare work than she used to making coffee. High day rates aren’t justified when the staff are paid a pittance and aren’t trained, supported or valued.

The end question in child care is do you WANT or NEED your kids to go there. Childcare have made an industry of telling people that their kids will ‘lag socially’ (or add similiar excuse) if they aren’t in childcare. I never left my mother’s side until pre-school metaphorically speaking. Neither did most kids of my generation. We didn’t all turn out to be serial killers. That ‘social lagging’ is the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard.

I appreciate childcare is the only option for many people but if you can afford the lowering of the household income for a few years sometimes (not every time though) if someone stays home it isn’t a bad thing

sepi said :

One of the many stupid arguments against the Parlt Hse childcare centre was that it would be too expensive – at 75.00 a day. Shows how out of touch they are up there.

The PH child care centre is actually $90 a day…don’t know about anyone else but i think that is quite expensive…so am i out of touch?

I am currently doing my research for child care centres for my bub and my search so far has only led me to three…all very different prices and all very different atmospheres.

Child care is expensive and always will be unfortunately.

does anyone know what the new govt early childhood centres are charging for their day care? i put baby GH name down at isabella plains, but i am happy where she is until the end of the year when she goes to pre school.

would be interesting to see if they are cheaper…

$72 a day, including all food and supplies, and very happy with the centre. Young Master Berlina was recently moved to a centre closer to my work, and the previous centre was $65 a day. Both centres have given great care, and both have available places at the moment.

$440 a week for an under 3yo? I am sure glad my kids are way past this age that has gotta be a huge strain on the weekly budget.

Yep, we pay $88 per day and that includes all food and nappies. Goes down to $80 per day once they turn 3 and go into the other room. It was the only place we could get into.

BB let me tell you that as a defence spouse of 3 school age children, having ‘time off’ to be with them during the holdiays is a good thing.

When I go into work to prepare for the following term, the teen goes to the movies or something and the youngest two tag along, watching videos or reading.

Even not-for-profits can be pretty expensive. The key to the costs is the cost of staff, which is the vast majority of centre operating costs. The related factor is child:staff ratio. Some centres run a bit above the minimum, which is great for the kids and staff, but costs.

You will often see public debate saying there should be better ratios (i.e. less kids per staff member), we should pay staff more, etc, but without mention of who pays for this significant extra cost. Unions are good at this (always practical business people). What’s that you say? – “Government should pay”? As someone mentioned above they do via the tax rebate and various other things (50%, no small sum). But of course an economist will tell you that if you subsidise in this way, it increases “willingness to pay”, so at any price charged, there will be increased demand, and price goes up. There is evidence that supports this, showing that childcare rebates have all coincided with price increases. Given that the majority of operating costs are wages, I would contend that the government is essentially subsidising childcare staff wages. And both sides of politics at that – love the irony!

I didn’t realise spawning was so expensive!

Igglepiggle said :

I think its just supply and demand. When you do the sums though, sometimes it hardly seems like its worth going to work..

Sorry for the double post but I agree. My wife has just decided not to return to work full-time as we’d actually lose money due to the cost of childcare, even for just the period of the school holidays. What a ridiculous situation. When I run the ACT things will be different! Different I tells ya…

aronde said :

Do the kids get food for your $82? If yes that is only a bit higher then what we pay. I have found from talking with friends and direct experience the cost of childcare can vary considerably from one place to another. I just keep remembering the government gives me 50% of it back each quarter!

My kids used to go to an ABC centre here in the ACT. We took them out when both kids come home one day telling us they got in trouble for taking three, yes 3, chicken nuggets each. They were told they were only allowed two. And this was after we’d been told by Management (as part of their pitch when we were shopping around for childcare) that they could have as much lunch as they wanted. Two Chicken nuggets? FFS.

i am thinking that too igglepiggle now that i am preggers with my 2nd. my pay goes to the mortgage, but i’ll be buggered if i know where the extra money is going to come from to pay for the second one to go into care when i do have to go back to work (which wont be long at all this time around!)

I think its just supply and demand. When you do the sums though, sometimes it hardly seems like its worth going to work..

Do the kids get food for your $82? If yes that is only a bit higher then what we pay. I have found from talking with friends and direct experience the cost of childcare can vary considerably from one place to another. I just keep remembering the government gives me 50% of it back each quarter!

“Who governs these centres, from my investigations they are a small business so they can do what they like”

Correct

holy moly… i pay $67 a day and think that is expensive! Ours is run by a community organsation, so they arent really in it for the profit as opposed to a privately run centre i guess.

we pay almost $90 a day, so yeah.

the early childhood educators don’t get paid enough as it is for the responsibilities we ask them to take.

We pay 79.00 a day. So pretty close.

One of the many stupid arguments against the Parlt Hse childcare centre was that it would be too expensive – at 75.00 a day. Shows how out of touch they are up there.

It is a seller’s market at the moment in ACT childcare. It isn’t as if you can just take your kids out and grab a spot elsewhere.

http://www.dhcs.act.gov.au/ocyfs/services/childrens_services

If you need advice or information or have any concerns about your child care
arrangements in the ACT, please call (02) 6207 1114 and ask to speak to a
Children’s Services Adviser, or write to: Children’s Policy and Regulation Unit,
GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601