Child Care News
Blue Sky's Foundation Early Learning sale goes past 2017 deadline
The Courier Mail - Liam Walsh - February 13, 2018STAR fund manager Blue Sky has missed a self-imposed deadline for selling a Brisbane-based childcare chain, with sources saying a multimillion-dollar deal has stalled. The sale of Foundation Early Learning, which has 31 childcare centres across Queensland, Victoria, ACT and...
How to engineer both equality and flexibility
Financial Review - February 13, 2018The United Voice trade union has made a hash of its five-year campaign to prove that pay is low in childcare work because its staffing is mainly female. The Fair Work Commission this month threw out a claim for a 35 per cent pay rise for childcare workers after the union failed to produce...
Childcare changes more likely to hit low to middle-income families
The Sydney Morning Herald - Stephanie Peating - February 11, 2018The major losers under the Turnbull government's revamp of childcare payments will be low to middle-income families, departmental figures show. Figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation show 161,003 low to middle-income families will be worse off under the...
Our pre-schools need funding certainty
Sunshine Coast Daily - Megan O'Connell - February 11, 2018PRE-SCHOOLS have been slapped with new funding uncertainty, with the Turnbull Government announcing a measly one-year extension to the National Partnership on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education. It's astonishing that Education Minister Simon Birmingham can...
The motherhood penalty is still deeply entrenched ... even in Denmark
The Age - Matt Wade - February 10, 2018Death and taxes might be two great certainties in life, but I reckon we could safely add another one: the motherhood penalty. We all know the reason for this: women the world over tend to spend much more time caring for children than men do and that, in turn, means women can't work...
Playground of Stockton's Mission Australia early learning centre set to be relocated as a result of erosion threat
The Herald - Carrie Fellner - February 10, 2018The paint is barely dry on the newly-renovated playground of Stockton's childcare centre, but the suburb's erosion trouble looks set to force its permanent relocation. The infants had only just moved into their revamped digs when huge swells gouged the coastline, leaving behind...
Kindergarten children to learn about gender equality
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien and Ashley Argoon - February 9, 2018CHILDREN as young as three will learn about gender equality in a state-funded playgroup program. Preschoolers will be taught that dads can change nappies and stay at home while mums work under the $145,000 program. During the sessions for children aged three and four...
Work four days, get paid for five: New Zealand company's new shorter week
The Guardian - Eleanor Ainge Roy - February 9, 2018A New Zealand company is on the cusp of granting its employees the ultimate in work-life balance: four days work for five days pay. Perpetual Guardian, a trustee company, has become the first major business in the country to embark on a creating a workplace "fit for purpose for the...
Childcare workers need a pay rise to reflect the importance of the work they do
The Age - Lisa Bryant - February 9, 2018The report, Lifting Our Game, showed that Australia barely values early childhood education. Nationally, we invest less than 0.5 per cent of our gross domestic product in this field, well below the OECD average of 0.8 per cent. We only spend 2.5 per cent of our total education budget on preschool...
The full list of child NSW care centres with suspect ratings
The Daily Telegraph - February 9, 2018MORE than a dozen childcare centres in the state were transferred to new owners just one month after their quality was checked, leaving thousands of children at risk and parents in the dark. The Daily Telegraph this week revealed the bizarre loophole which let operators – some with terrible...
The 'motherhood penalty' stings no matter how much governments do
Women's Agenda - Anhela Priestly - February 9, 2018The fact is that kids still hurt a woman's earnings and career options, significantly more so than they hurt the earnings and careers of men. And no amount of affordable childcare (although that would certainly help) and paid parental leave can account for the massive cultural shift that's...
Lawyers investigate baby left in bus at Gold Coast childcare centre
Gold Coast Bulletin - Alexandra Utting - Feburary 9, 2018LAWYERS for the mother of a 16-month-old baby who was left locked in a hot bus at a Gold Coast childcare centre are independently investigating the incident. Lisa Easton said her daughter Violet was "forgotten about" by Goodstart Early Learning Parkwood staff and left locked...
Kinders struggling with uncertainty of funding amid ward of words between governments
Herald Sun - Rebecca David - February 9, 2018When asked why the funding was only for one year federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the government was not going to "give the states a blank cheque when they're failing to actually get the kids who can benefit most to turn up to the pre-school". Ms Mikakos accused the Liberals...
'No jab, no play' laws linked to spike in Victoria's vaccination rate
SBS - February 8, 2018Victoria's "no jab, no play" laws are being credited with the highest vaccination rates ever recorded in the state. Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the laws helped to boost the immunisation rate to a 95.3 per cent average across the state. "No jab, no play is a really important part that's essentially...
Forgotten boy costs Wollongong child care worker her career
Illawarra Mercury - Angela Thompson - February 8. 2018A sleeping four-year-old boy, left undiscovered at a Wollongong childcare facility for more than an hour after closing time, has cost the centre supervisor $5000 and her career. Michelle Haley, supervisor at Big Fat Smile's Wollongong City Community Preschool, had 17 years industry experience...
