16 September 2012

Gallagher promises more childcare tweaks

| johnboy
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Chief Minister Gallagher is promising more childcare centres, places, and educated workers if given another 4 years at the top:

If re-elected, ACT Labor will provide $4.5 million to deliver more affordable quality childcare across Canberra to create up to 100 new childcare places.

We will release at least three additional sites for new childcare centres with Woden, Tuggeranong and Belconnen to be prioritised. ACT Labor will offer $6,000 scholarships for early childhood education and care educators wishing to get a degree in early childhood education.

We will extend our Certificate III scholarships program and provide $740,000 to give up to 90 more early childhood educators the chance to further their education.

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DrKoresh said :

If you’re that keen on saving money then public school is even cheaper.

We tried the public system but our daughter did not do very well in the public system after coming from a private school in Alice Springs.

I have no complaints about the private school fees as I think they are very reasonable for what we get in return.

I came from a public school upbringing and in my time I think public education was top notch, I am not so convinced it is today unfortunately but that is probably best left to another thread.

Flossie said :

But I think we want dedicated staff watching our children because they love it. It worries me that once my daughter and her colleagues graduate with their university degrees, too many will leave the child care sector for jobs with different conditions (you know, so they can afford a home and to put their own children in care when and if they need/want to). And this might just leave our children with less adept carers in child care centres, but our pre-schoolers and K to year 2 with excellent teachers.

This is my major concern with the announced plan as well – the recent subsidies for childcare qualifications have (predictably) failed to reduce the massive churn rate of workers through the industry, so we’re just going to end up paying for people to get qualified, work for two years, and then leave for something that pays them enough to actually live on. This will go on ad infinitum until the government addresses the actual root of the problem – the shamefully low wages.

My adult daughter works in childcare. She has her certificate 4 and is completing her early childhood education degree part time.

My nephew is six weeks younger, was a year 11 dropout, and earns around 20% more in his retail job than my daughter, for shorter hours and much less responsibility.

In order to meet national certification requirements my daughter and her coworkers need to have higher educational achievements than ever before (this is a good thing for such an important task as looking after children). Her day is made up of lots of interaction with the children and also lots of paperwork, daily observations of every child, programming, notifications to parents etc etc etc.

There are also training nights on things like first aid, mandatory reporting, child development etc etc etc
If there is a case requiring reporting suspected abuse or neglect of a child to authorities, there is that paperwork and heart break too.

I honestly don’t think we pay the sector as we should. It is a terrible irony that salaries aren’t enough to cover them putting their own child in care. I don’t know how to fund it equitably, because as the comments above show, nobody is getting rich here and fees are already high.

But I think we want dedicated staff watching our children because they love it. It worries me that once my daughter and her colleagues graduate with their university degrees, too many will leave the child care sector for jobs with different conditions (you know, so they can afford a home and to put their own children in care when and if they need/want to). And this might just leave our children with less adept carers in child care centres, but our pre-schoolers and K to year 2 with excellent teachers.

cmdwedge said :

Yup. We have a 2 and 3 year old in childcare, $93 per day each. Mental.

Yes it is crazy, I feel for you as you still have at least two years left at the double price. We will be done with daycare at the end of this year and will gladly give up our sons spot to some other poor people, who will be even poorer for it.

For people thinking about child care in the future, consider Canberra Montessori. It’s an absolutely amazing program – the children learn all sorts of practical life skills (cleaning, peeling carrots, washing dishes) plus it’s great academically. Most of the kids are reading by 4.5 years old. The best thing is that Montessori focuses on executive function – the ability to control oneself, to clean up after oneself, to respect other people’s property, etc. The cost is $8000/year from 8:45-noon (no child care rebate available though). They do have after school care which works out to be about $4500 extra a year. So for under $13,000, you get the highest quality care for your child, and it’s not just babysitting or a chaotic free-for-all. Montessori doesn’t work for all children – if they crave structure, they won’t get it at Montessori. But independent children can really thrive there. Sorry to sound like an ad, but we are so impressed with the school. It’s an incredible value.

Mav said :

We are nearly at the end of our childcare needs thank God. Chlidcare for our son costs us over $22000.00 per year here in Canberra. It is a crippling cost but one we have to live with in order to keep our head above water as both of us need to work here to afford to purchase our home.

Before someone chimes in and says we get a 50% rebate on our child care costs, I am here to tell you that is not a correct statement. The childcare rebate is capped at $7500 per child per year which is nowhere near the 50% rebate that the government likes to espouse. The problem is that you still need to trump up the readies before the rebate so you still have to manage the full weekly costs.

Putting our two kids into private school will be a great financial saving to us compared to childcare costs.

If you’re that keen on saving money then public school is even cheaper.

Mav said :

We are nearly at the end of our childcare needs thank God. Chlidcare for our son costs us over $22000.00 per year here in Canberra. It is a crippling cost but one we have to live with in order to keep our head above water as both of us need to work here to afford to purchase our home.

Before someone chimes in and says we get a 50% rebate on our child care costs, I am here to tell you that is not a correct statement. The childcare rebate is capped at $7500 per child per year which is nowhere near the 50% rebate that the government likes to espouse. The problem is that you still need to trump up the readies before the rebate so you still have to manage the full weekly costs.

Putting our two kids into private school will be a great financial saving to us compared to childcare costs.

Yup. We have a 2 and 3 year old in childcare, $93 per day each. Mental.

We are nearly at the end of our childcare needs thank God. Chlidcare for our son costs us over $22000.00 per year here in Canberra. It is a crippling cost but one we have to live with in order to keep our head above water as both of us need to work here to afford to purchase our home.

Before someone chimes in and says we get a 50% rebate on our child care costs, I am here to tell you that is not a correct statement. The childcare rebate is capped at $7500 per child per year which is nowhere near the 50% rebate that the government likes to espouse. The problem is that you still need to trump up the readies before the rebate so you still have to manage the full weekly costs.

Putting our two kids into private school will be a great financial saving to us compared to childcare costs.

simsim said :

cranky said :

I would love to see an accurate breakdown of the finances involved in the childcare industry.

Parents seem to pay a fortune, childcare workers are required to be super qualified but are apparently paid peanuts, insurance certainly does well from the industry, the Feds apparently contribute heaps, but the centre owners seem to be perpetually up against it to make a quid.

Just who is raking it in?

I think it’s a case of people not realising that things that they want actually cost money. Doing a little basic number crunching… assuming you have a thirty-kid day care centre with three employees who cost $50,000 a year (that includes other employment costs like super, so not their take home pay), on a site that costs $1000 a week rent, with other incidental costs of, say, $20,000 for the year. Doing the maths, that’s about $285 per kid per week (just in terms of what it costs).

So basic cost recovery says that childcare is going to be expensive anyway, just because … you have people working for you and that’s what it costs. Nobody’s raking it in, they’re just keeping their heads above water.

Actually staff costs would be much higher than that. Staff ratios are much higher for younger children and all holidays and sick leave need to be covered by someone. And you need a qualified director. My guess would be at least 7 full time workers for those 30 places. I certaibnly agree though that nobody is getting riipped off. Getting your children properly cared for is just expensive, because they need a lot of human care.

cranky said :

I would love to see an accurate breakdown of the finances involved in the childcare industry.

Parents seem to pay a fortune, childcare workers are required to be super qualified but are apparently paid peanuts, insurance certainly does well from the industry, the Feds apparently contribute heaps, but the centre owners seem to be perpetually up against it to make a quid.

Just who is raking it in?

I think it’s a case of people not realising that things that they want actually cost money. Doing a little basic number crunching… assuming you have a thirty-kid day care centre with three employees who cost $50,000 a year (that includes other employment costs like super, so not their take home pay), on a site that costs $1000 a week rent, with other incidental costs of, say, $20,000 for the year. Doing the maths, that’s about $285 per kid per week (just in terms of what it costs).

So basic cost recovery says that childcare is going to be expensive anyway, just because … you have people working for you and that’s what it costs. Nobody’s raking it in, they’re just keeping their heads above water.

I would love to see an accurate breakdown of the finances involved in the childcare industry.

Parents seem to pay a fortune, childcare workers are required to be super qualified but are apparently paid peanuts, insurance certainly does well from the industry, the Feds apparently contribute heaps, but the centre owners seem to be perpetually up against it to make a quid.

Just who is raking it in?

Last election, Labor promised two brand new childcare centres for $2 million in Belconnen. They still haven’t been built.

Unless this is a promise to do what they promised four years ago, don’t go holding your breath waiting for this one.

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