Poll Results - proposed national child care reforms

Poll Results…
What you told us about the proposed national child care reforms

Last month we asked you for your opinion on the proposed national child care reforms aimed at increasing the standard in care in child care centres (which may also lead to an increase in cost).

These proposed reforms are to be discussed at a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to be held on December 7.

We asked you for your opinion on the proposed reforms via a mini poll.

Reforms in a nutshell
The Government reforms are directed at improving the quality of childcare by increasing the ratio of staff to children, requiring centres to employ university-trained teachers and requiring all carers to have a qualification:

Increase from one member of staff to eight two-year-olds to one staff member to every five two-year-olds.
Increase from one staff member for every five babies to one carer for every four babies.
And all centres with 25 children or more will be required to employ a university-trained teacher and all child care centre workers to have a recognised child care qualification.

Poll results
According to those who took the mini poll, although 75% are happy with the quality of care their children receive; those who aren't have equal concern with high staff turnover, too many children per carer and underqualified staff.

Two thirds believe the child care reforms will lift the standard of care in our child care centres. The reforms will not be cheap and 90% expect these reforms to increase the cost of child care.

Reports on how much the fee increases could amount on daily/weekly basis vary greatly with Access Economics reporting an estimated $4 per child per week. However recent media coverage on the reforms reported that parents could pay $50 a week more for childcare under federal government quality reforms negotiated with the states and territories. ABC Learning stated that it believed parents would move to alternative sources of childcare if the financial burden of the proposed reforms fell at their (the parents') feet. Our poll backed that up with 51% saying they could not afford to soak up any additional cost in child care, even with the child care benefit and rebate schemes in place. And concerns are that further increases would mean parents taking more risks with their children by putting them in "backyard", cheaper child care.

Child Care Minister Kate Ellis said in an emailed statement the Government was investing $12.8 billion to improve the affordability of childcare, saying they had already increased the Child Care Rebate from 30% to 50% of parents' out-of-pocket costs.

On that note we turn your attention to a seperate survey for families being run by Childcare Alliance Australia*. The survey allows you to have your say on the proposed Government reforms.

Click here to take the survey.

*Australian Childcare Alliance represents in excess of 2,700 child care centres in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.