I wasn't able to find childcare for my son when he was born, despite being on numerous wait lists. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mum but financially needed to work. After nearly a year of waiting for childcare, and my maternity leave ending, I decided to change careers and become a carer myself. I now work as a Family Daycare Educator and help have the great opportunity to help my son plus 6 other families with their care needs.
As an educator and a parent, I know that certain environments are too busy/noisy for some children and they would thrive if they were to be educated at home. We have home schooling for older children so why don't we make nannies available to parents with government help? I think that giving parents more options shows that we are considering every child and every family's needs. I also feel that the waiting lists in long daycare services would be alleviated. Not every parent works during the day and this is a huge problem as far as obtaining adequate and affordable childcare for the children of shift workers.
Educators such as myself in child care are professional. We take duty of care our legal responsibility very seriously.
Child care is rewarding, though not recognized for the profession it is. Pay is not at the level it should be yet all educators are working for the children, planning educational programs which are age appropriate at their level, and fun. We ensure activities and games are ones the children choose and enjoy, with intentional teaching extending on the experiences the children choose, following the Early Years Learning curriculum.
Being casual, I help permanent educators with programs, planning activities, games and we involved parents so they help educators know their children.
I have worked in childcare for the last 6 yrs as an Office Manager of a 39 place long day care not for profit community based. Employing 11 perm. And casuals.
Our fees are kept to the lowest possible for many reasons. Rural area, 55% non working and studying 30% is of Aboriginal and Torres Strait, and 45% working. the lowest fee @ 100% is $16.11 with CCB for a 10 hour day plus half of this fee is family benefit .
The recent changes that came to childcare EYLF has been an excellent change in childcare as it is National and everyone has complied already to regulations and have these regulations set in place. I don’t understand why the government wants to delay a system that works efficiently. Recently the coallition gov. gave childcare workers a $300,000 funding agreement for workers to which we were approved then revoked by the new government. The staff are all trained and work very hard to maintain the standards of a childcare worker. I see the the up and downs of the pressure they are under for the small wage they receive. I see the children that are better off in childcare than at home. I see parents that are marvelled in the progress their children make. I see early intervention for children of need. In this fast moving world childcare is the one place where children can socialise to play, learn respect for each other and prepare for their journey of life.
One of the main reasons I believe the cost of child care has gone up so much in the last few years, is because of the enormous increase in red tape, paperwork and time spent trying to comply with all the new rules and regulations. As an educator my fees have had to go up as a result of the enormous amount of time I have to spend outside my hours of caring for children trying to comply with it all. I'd say I spend somewhere between 15 to 20 hours a week (at least) outside of caring for children trying to comply with paperwork and other regulations. And even though my fees have had to go up, I still am earning less per hour than what I used to before because I have to work so many more hours trying to comply. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation. It is my opinion that many of the new requirements don't increase the quality of care for children, and if anything reduce the quality of care as many educators try to comply with it all during the hours they care for the children. This means the children get much less attention.
I don't think care by nannies should get funded by the government as it would reduce the CCB and CCR amounts that parents will receive in long day care or family day care as the total amount of funding won't increase.
Speech Language Pathologists are needed in Child Care.
Statistics show that early intervention for communication difficulties result in far better outcomes than when communication difficulties are worked with during school-age years.
Statistics also show that children with communication difficulties have difficulties with literacy, therefore they fall behind in academic studies, which results in limited opportunities for employment putting them in low socio-economic standing. Delinquents with communication difficulties are in the majority.
Please help the Child Care sector to properly care for the children in their care by employing Speech Language Pathologists to work with children with communication difficulties in their formative years.
I feel that the CCB and Childcare Rebate should be made available to families that use preschools. These valuable education and care services struggle with vacancies and this is partly due to the fact that families can use a long daycare service and receive these benefits. Most of our families are working and studying but miss out on being able to claim this due to the current funding models. Nannies and in-home care DO NOT provide the same EDUCATION and CARE as a preschool service with qualified and experienced educators, so preschools should receive the support before nannies and in-home care does.
I find very few of our families understand CCB.
We as staff don’t have clear guidelines to inform parents. I would like information on eligibility and how to claim sent to each centre at the start of the year
As approved providers for 20+ years, we have seen many changes. The changes instituted by the previous Federal Labor Govt are commendable, but lacked an understanding of 1) the low level of quality in many ‘Childcare’ services and consequently 2) the time taken to institute change. There needs to be a longer transition period to allow those services who are quite frankly below even a low par to catch up.
At the other end of the quality scale we know of very few operators like ourselves, who travel to World Conferences to learn the latest in research associated with early childhood development, so that we are able to offer the best possible environment for early childhood learning. Conferences in Australia are slowly changing to become more research - and consequently child outcome - focussed rather than 'process driven' by the need to fulfil a huge list of check boxes, some of which are quite insulting to our integrity with their threats of large fines. If operators aren't performing properly then the parents will vote with their feet. It doesn't need a big stick approach to threaten people with litigation if they do the wrong thing!
It is unlikely that quality will ever become 'top notch' in individual centres or more generally across the industry, whilst ever the focus of operators is on the financial outcome of the business rather than the outcomes for the children in their care.
We adopt the latter approach and our Centre is 100% occupied for 51 weeks of the year (Christmas week being the only fall in occupancy) with waiting lists ... and .... we don't advertise!
As one presenter at the World Forum in Early Childhood Education said a few years ago ‘Happy child = happy parent = happy bottom line’. Very true.
If operators would concentrate on the outcome for each individual child in their care, by providing well resourced programs, based on the latest research in early childhood development, rather than concentrating on the financial 'bottom line', then our nation may well have a better than average chance of achieving educational standards in the top ten rather than languishing around 25 as reported by Julia Gillard!
There is certainly considerable room for improvement, starting with the general perception of an industry which has been traditionally baby sitting (hence the childcare tag), but is now rapidly changing to become Early Childhood Education. It is the foundation of every individuals learning for life & needs to be recognised as such by everyone.
Thanks for listening. We don't have solutions on an industry wide level, but We do wish you well in your deliberations.
I have been an Educator with Family Day care for almost 12 years. I have seen many wonderful changes that have taken place to greatly improve the quality of care as well as to give value and creditability to FDC Educators. However I must agree that the amount of paper work that is required to link children's learning to the EYLF is overtaking the joy and the complete pleasure of being in the company of these wonderful and spontaneous children that are such an important part of my life. Instead of just enjoying and being present to offer support and encouragement while the play is happening I spend time writing down notes for the observations I need to write up later, analysing what is being learned and thinking of future activities to support each child. I am exhausted . I should not have to continue my job into the late evenings. The expectation is unrealistic and unmanageable.
I am the owner of 4 long day care centres in Northern Rivers NSW - a regional area very close to the NSW coast and the Gold Coast. All of my centres have vacancies throughout the year, every year, and at no time have any of them ever been full. This could be the opposite to the city centres but the case in regional areas is vastly different and if decisions are made on the majority voices which come from the city, regional services will suffer. All of my centres except one, struggle to survive as other centres have been allowed to be built nearby when no need had been previously identified. Development of child care centres, including those in primary schools and community based preschools and community based long day care, should be assessed on a needs basis for that particular community. Continued development of CCCs in areas of non- need just dilutes services and makes it difficult to provide quality care and education as costs keep going up, including wages, and parents cant afford fees to pay higher fees for the wages and other associated costs, particularly those associated with implementation of the NQF. NON LICENSED PRIMARY SCHOOLS are now offering a preschool education to the 3-5 year olds which contravents the child care law and regulations.
I have written numerous letters to DEC, DET, the premiers office complaining that Primary school, which are not Licensed ( as my centres need to be) as unlawful and are one of the causes of the dilution of service able to be offered by private long day care. Why are preschool aged children protected by licensing in my private long day care centres, but don’t need to be protected by licensing in the Primary schools ( If you need further information on the responses I have received from various NSW government departments I will be happy to share with you as my next port of call is the NSW ombudsman). All NSW Govt departments contacted refused to address my issue about the Primary schools being non licensed, offering preschool education and clearly breaching child care law and regulations, not to mention the costs impost on my businesses and not on the Primary Schools by licensing. Wages at my 4 centres increased significantly in July 2013 and fees increases did not meet that increase. The money had to be taken from the business and anyone who runs a business knows that that is not sustainable for a business. Wages for Cert 3 qualified on casual rate is very high and I’m sad to say that many have very basic education from school or TAFE and to be honest, really should not be paid a higher wage until their basic education improves. Many cant read properly, spell or know anything about grammar. Trainee wages and conditions have increased considerably so that its almost not viable to take on trainees as they are a lot of work. Their wages and conditions makes hiring them border on non- viable. We are unable to hire ECTS ( in regional areas we suffer GREATLY trying to get any staff, let alone good quality staff and its almost impossible to get ECTs.). The process of submission of waver application is deplorable with the department, ACECQA, not knowing what they are doing and significantly increasing the red tape and administrative burden and associated costs. I understand that children need a good quality teacher, but many of the teachers who come out of universities lack basic education themselves, often not being able to spell, have no concept of grammar or sentence construction, are not taught how to care for preschool aged children and to make matters worse their unions are very demanding and impose significant problems on a business whenever they get the opportunity - warranted or not. Electricity prices and rents continue to increase while enrolments are down due to the Primary schools, family day care and the Preschools getting lots of NSW state government funding. Private long day care will never get a good report from the assessment and ratings process as the DoCS assessors are friends of the community based and not -for- profit sector centre directors and staff. Private Long day care is given breaches by DoCS at the drop of a hat, yet if you happen to go into a not- for- profit or community based centre, you will see many breaches of the child care law and regulations, but that very same centre will get exceeding in its assessment and ratings report. The assessment and ratings needs to be done by independent assessors from a private company who can go in with objective criteria and be consistent across the range of services. Private long day care staff suffer disappointment at their efforts and commitment when they constantly see the unfairness handed out by the DoCS assessors, and become disheartened when they see the community based centre up the road; exceeding; when, without making a wild blanket statement, is inferior in many ways to the private facility. Our achievements are not recognised. A local community based centre were all bought IPads to use in the classroom. What do you think this means? It means that the educators are interacting on face book and interacting with their Ipads, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are interacting with the children nor does it mean that the childrens education will improve because of the IPads!! Let us all see some evidence before taxpayers money is spent on IPads for educators in community based preschools.
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I own 4 child care centres in northern NSW. One of the problems in child care which significantly adds to higher fees is parents not paying their fees. This problem is every present and parents use many tactics to avoid paying fees (* which I wont go into here) however the net result is that there are significant losses of fees annually, the quality that services are able to provide is impacted negatively by the loss of income, and increased competition in areas with no demonstrated need means that parents are more likely to jump from centre to centre leaving a trail of unpaid fees behind. This also means that diligent parents who are interested in a good education for their children are being duped by those who don’t pay, because the centre overall misses out on income it should receive, and return to the centre’s children in educational equipment etc. The parents who contribute their CCR are most likely to be parents who do not get behind with fees, and are diligent and care about children’s education but many other parents think nothing about running up thousands of dollars and taking off. Being an emotive industry, child care workers and centre directors are not able to successfully follow up and chase parents, or they get exhausted doing so, and centre owners also get exhausted trying all avenues to collect the money owed... then the parent has skipped to the next centre. THIS SIGNIFICANTLY ADDS TO THE UNAFFORDABILITY OF CHILD CARE AND SHOULD BE ADDRESSED AT A GOVERNMENT LEVEL BY ALLOWING CHILD CARE CENTRES TO ACCESS PARENTING PAYMENT AND BENEFITS PAID TO NON PAYING PARENTS.
On reading the comments provided above - there is a distinct pattern EVERYONE is very concerned about the education and care of all Australian children! People using or, working in early childhood education and care, as well as others who do not have children or work with them are saying the same things...Especially in relation to allocation of resources in a fair and equitable manner that will uphold the high standards outlined in the NQS for ALL children and families. PLEASE LISTEN to what all these people from diverse backgrounds and contexts are saying - we HAVE made some excellent reforms but need to continue to work further on them to refine and consolidate them. Major cuts to funding; delaying or stopping much needed reforms to staffing ratios and qualifications are NOT the way to do this! Please do not undo and destroy the positives we have built up already. Yes, there is room for improvement so we need to continue to focus on strengthening the education and care system in Australia to ensure everyone in our nation is able to live rich, fulfilling lives now and into the future. Local and international research from various disciplines (e.g. neuroscience, education, economic reform, social policy) and over many decades continually points to the critical importance of well resourced early education and care services/facilities to ensure the welfare of a nation's population and ability to thrive and prosper has the chance to actually happen.
1. I have a B Teach (0-5yrs), Dip in childrens services, and BE
I have managed multiple centres over the past 18 years as an owner/operator
The old regulations were totally suitable for the childcare industry.
The new regulations requirements have increased the cost of running a childcare centre by approx 40%, however CCB indexing has only gone up by CPI and CCR has remained fixed for the past several years.
I have found that having a B Teach (0-5yrs) degree provides no better skills in childcare than the Dip in childrens services, however the cost is $20 per hour higher.
The old ratios of 1:5, 1:8 & 1:10 were totally suitable and a cost efficient balance between proper care and affordability
If a centre doesn't get 100% in assessment (all qualitative judgements by the assessor not quantative as in the old system) then reassessment occurs every 12 months instead of 2 years, doubling the size in inspectors required in the Dept of E & C.
Breaches now carry huge fines, adding to the cost of childcare. eg if a parent forgets to sign out it is a $2000 fine on the centre.
the new regs are interest based, instead of needs based. 100% of parents want a needs based program
The regs are one size fits all. council centres and large corporates have on staff HR managers. HR staff, workplace safety staff etc who can answer the assessment questions, however a family centre cannot afford these specialists, therefore fail assessment. there should be at least two tiers of assessment, one for the big end of town and one for a mum and dad centre. The new regs are driving out the family owned centres replaced by the corporates. Is this a good or bad thing?
The Labour govt reduced and froze CCR several years ago, not allowing it to rise in line with the govts changes in regulations resulting in a 40% increase in fees over the past three years. CCR should be increased to $10,000 and paid direct to the centres.
In my city centre the u/2 fee has risen from $95 per day 4 yrs ago to $145 per day now, solely due to so called quality changes made by the government (the new regulations). If something is not done immediately fees will again rise by another 30% on 1 Jan 2016 due to new ratios for u/3 from 1:8 to 1:5, again under the aspires of quality. This could result in a failed government
The new regulations have not increased quality, only forced fees to rise. I predicted this on the media Sept 5 years ago and Minister Kate Ellis stated that I had no idea. The following ng January, fees rose by 20 to 40%. In the end Kate Ellis had no idea.
I have many other issues that directly affect the cost of childcare, but believe will fall on deaf ears. In the end its the parents who pay and will eventually elect a government who do the right thing financially
Please do not allow cuts to be made to the care and services provided for the education and care of children in our community. It is hard enough working within the current constraints, without further cuts. Cuts affect children, families and the people who are in the trenches working with these people.
The children receive a best start in the early years, only if they are in the best childcare environment. We educators strive hard to achieve the best outcomes for these young minds. I strongly advocate the `assessment and rating system.' Let us invest in the Early Childhood and give our children a good start to their evolving lives for a better future of the country.
Why are the ratios for toddler to educator so high ? 1 educator to 10 toddlers or its 1 educator to 19 toddlers for up to an hour and half 4x a day during nappy changes. Yet in every other state in Australia they are 5 -1 or 8-1.
There is a reason for this !!! the toddlers are not old enough for this many children a 2 year old needs to be nurtured not left to fend for themselves and there is not enough educators to help 20 toddlers when they are all upset or want their needs met. In the real world the N.Q.S cannot be achieved with these ratios or if they are SHOW ME please Show me photos or documentation of how 1 educator keeps 19/20 toddlers safe and engaged with them all day every day ! Show me pictures or documentation of 2 Educators looking after 20 toddlers all day and it not getting out of control because I’m guessing they are not using the E.Y.L.F guidelines & Framework they are being guided by an army style routine their needs are not being met !!
Whoever decided on these ratios should be ashamed of themselves this is not high quality care for 2 - 3 year olds. I do not believe waiting till 2016 is right .
