Child Care News
ACTU slams 'outrageous' childcare package
Yahoo News - Matt Coughlan - August 6, 2020Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus described the measures as outrageous, with childcare workers still excluded from JobKeeper wage subsidies. "It's completely wrong," she told ABC television on Thursday. "Those childcare workers deserve the same as everyone else...
Parents’ frantic overnight scramble for Melbourne childcare permits
Herald Sun - Dennis Shanahan - August 6, 2020Victorians face weeks of higher coronavirus infections, with average daily cases to peak at 1100 by the end of next week and staying above 1000 for eight days. The Victorian government’s own estimates, obtained by The Australian, show the average number of new cases is not expected...
Goodstart Edmonton: Toddler death childcare centre building’s new chapter
Cairns Post - Chris Calcino - August 6, 2020A permanent full stop has been marked against a Cairns childcare centre building where a toddler was found dead in a mini-van this year. Tragedy struck the Goodstart Early Learning centre in Edmonton when three-year-old Maliq (Meeky) Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo’s lifeless body...
'Difficult to function': Confusion reigns ahead of childcare changes
The Age - Adam Carey and Tom Cowie - August 5, 2020The childcare sector was battling to understand the full impact of the new rules, just hours before being asked to play their part in imposing them, with some centres choosing to close their doors temporarily in the confusion. The City of Yarra wrote to parents on Wednesday evening...
Coronavirus: Childcare centres brace for cutbacks: ‘we don’t have a choice’
The Australian - Adeshola Ore - August 5, 2020Victorian childcare operators fear enrolments could drop by more than half and they will be forced to cut staff because of tightened COVID restrictions. Under the new measures, parents with kids in childcare will get an additional 30 days of allowable absences during...
Childcare operators keep lights on in lockdown
Financial Review - Simon Evans - August 5, 2020Nicole Llewellyn, owner of the Kool Kidz childcare centre at Mill Park in Melbourne's north-east, has a large proportion of nurses, police, aged care and food manufacturing workers who drop their children at the 130-place centre, and will continue to do so in the city's hard lockdown...
Victoria lockdown: Parents need permit to access childcare
News.com.au - Samantha Maiden - August 5, 2020Parents in Melbourne will be banned from using childcare during the six-week lockdown unless they can prove there is no other way of looking after their kids and they have a permit to prove it. Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ decision means thousands of parents will need to juggle working...
Jay Weatherill says now is the time to make childcare free for all
ABC News - Hilary Harper - August 5, 2020What would permanent free childcare do for young children, families and society generally? Jay Weatherill says now is the perfect time to reform the system of early learning in Australia, and free childcare is an important part of that...
ECEC Peak Bodies not aligned in responses to latest VIC Rescue package
The Sector - Jason Roberts - August 5, 2020Early childhood education and care’s (ECEC) largest key peak bodies have reached differing conclusions on the latest Victorian ECEC relief package with the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) and Early Learning and Care Council of Australia (ELACCA) welcoming the announcement...
Childcare closed to most families, no JobKeeper: what Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdown means for parents and the sector
The Sector - Kate Noble - August 5, 2020Childcare services and most preschools have remained open throughout the COVID-19 restrictions in Australia. From Wednesday, however, Melbourne’s stage 4 restrictions mean most children (except for vulnerable children and those of essential workers) in metropolitan Melbourne...
Stage 4 babysitting rules: Who can have babysitters and whether grandparents are allowed
7News.com.au - Emily Olle - August 5, 2020Victorian health officials have clarified the rules around babysitting as a permit system for childcare comes into effect under Stage 4. The Department of Health and Human Services says current arrangements for babysitters can remain for those deemed permitted workers. As with childcare...
Federal Government asks childcare centres to protect places in Victoria as stage 4 coronavirus lockdown takes force
ABC News - August 5, 2020The Federal Government will give money to Victorian childcare centres so parents can keep their children at home without losing their places, Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan says. Additional funding will be provided to centres in the state, to encourage them not to charge fees...
Tehan promises 'triple guarantee' for childcare
Australian Financial Review - David Marin-Guzman, Kris Swales, Timothy Moore and Natasha Rudra - August 5, 2020Education Minister Dan Tehan said there will be a "triple guarantee" for parents, centres and staff in Melbourne and greater Victoria. Rather than re-introduce JobKeeper, which was removed from the sector nationally a month ago in return for a $708 million transition package, the Commonwealth...
Feds to bail out Victorian childcare centres
Australian Financial Review - Phillip Coorey - August 4, 2020Victorian childcare workers will be bailed out by the federal government after wide-scale shutdowns ordered by Premier Daniel Andrews raised the prospect of most centres going under. Rather than re-introduce JobKeeper, which was removed from the sector nationally a month ago in return...
Childcare CEOs put onus on parents in Victorian chaos
Australian Financial Review - Simon Evans and Patrick Durkin - August 4, 2020Chief executives of ASX-listed childcare companies are going directly to parents to gather some sense of likely attendance levels at their Melbourne centres as confusion reigns about the definition of a ''permitted'' worker. Dean Clarke, the chief executive of Mayfield Childcare...
