Child Care News
YMCA NSW faces financial challenges in wake of sex abuse inquiry: Royal Commission
Canberra Times - Rachel Browne - December 5, 2016One of the state's biggest providers of youth services is facing significant financial challenges in the wake of findings from the child sex abuse royal commission. YMCA NSW has invested heavily in strengthening child protection procedures since shocking revelations about child sex abuse...
Family daycare chain on list of providers threatened with closure
The Daily Telegraph - Natasha Bita - December 3, 2016It comes as the state government revealed it has knocked back every request for new family daycare services in the past five months, after all applicants flunked a simple test of basic safety rules. Childcare Minister Leslie Williams said operators had been told to "lift your game or shut up...
Aman Manyok Thiak's brother's daycare training targeted
The Australian - Rick Morton - December 1, 2016A training company run by the brother of a Sudanese family daycare operator is being investigated by federal authorities after the early learning business was shut down for allegedly using fake or misleading staff qualifications. White Butterfly Family Day Care founder and director Aman...
Elite parents skipping the childcare queue, while promised reforms stall
News.com.au - Sana McCauley - November 30, 2016But not everyone has to wait in line, with Australia's childcare market increasingly becoming a tale of two cities. Lawyers, accountants and financial advisers working in buildings owned by Australia's biggest office landlord are being ushered into the VIP express lane when they apply for a...
Billionaire Besen family picks up slice of Mayfield Childcare float
Financial Review - Simon Evans - November 30, 2016Melbourne's billionaire Besen family, headed by patriarch Marc Besen, has picked up a small stake in childcare centre operator Mayfield Childcare, which made its debut on the ASX on Wednesday in a solid opening. The Besen family, with an estimated net wealth of $2.4 billion according to the...
Africans outwit bureaucrats - rip off child-care handouts
The Australian - Rick Morton - November 30, 2016Family daycare operators and teachers from non-English-speaking backgrounds are being targeted by state authorities in a bid to crack down on abuse and bending of rules that have cost taxpayers more than $1 billion in two years and put children at risk. Senior departmental staff and Queensland...
Preschool focus to tackle fall in entrants
The Australian - Julie Hare - November 30, 2016The South Australian government is tackling low levels of participation in senior maths and science subjects by starting at the beginning: preschool. "We recognise that if you don''t capture and then maintain enthusiasm for STEM in primary school, it''s not going to translate in the final years," ...
'Education is power': This childcare centre aims for an equal start
ABC News - Bridget Brennan - November 29, 2016Centres like Lulla's - there are 240 across the country - can make a big difference in Aboriginal communities where there are far too many Indigenous children missing from early education centres. Currently there are a whopping 15,000 Indigenous children not enrolled in child care. As...
Who actually cares? Childcare is broken, we need a new system
Women's Agenda - Angela Priestley - November 29, 2016Just thinking about the amount it costs to send my eldest son to childcare churns my stomach. It's a constant topic of conversation amongst frustrated parents I know paying such fees in Sydney, up there with the impossibly high entry-point of purchasing property. But I'm so very, very grateful...
Multimillion-dollar day care fraud forged testimony of child protection workers
Sydney Morning Herald - Eryk Bagshaw - November 28, 2016A 29-year-old NSW woman who stole $3.6 million from taxpayers forged the testimony of government child-care protection workers, used the evidence of a neurosurgeon and pretended she was a vulnerable foster carer in order to earn millions of dollars in child care subsidies, documents released by the...
STEM setting preschoolers up for workforce success in 2030
Sydney Morning Herald - Karen Hardy - November 28, 2016In the report The Future of Work: Setting kids up for success, the Regional Australia Institute predicts that high-demand jobs will need a mix of hard specialist knowledge skills, or STEM skills; and soft people skills, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. "To ensure...
Mayfield Childcare hopes investors will return to listed sector
The Australian - Tim Boreham - November 28, 2016Eight years after Eddie Groves's foray into childcare became the ABC of how not to execute a debt-fuelled expansion, the quest to consolidate the sprawling $10 billion a year sector in a listed vehicle lives on. But while the consolidation theme thrives again, there are lingering questions about...
Parents left behind as childcare for shift workers 'almost impossible', national snapshot shows
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien - November 27, 2016The survey of more than 400 parents working non-standard hours shows high-quality, flexible childcare that operates when parents are actually working is still not a reality. This is despite the Gillard government spending $5.5 million on a Childcare Flexibility Trial modelling non-standard care...
Seven ways to make your kid smarter without spending a cent
Sydney Morning Herald - Rachel Browne - November 27, 2016Parents wanting to polish their preschooler's literacy and numeracy skills are better off asking them to try writing out a Christmas wish list rather than buying every item on it. That's the verdict from new Macquarie University research which found an improvement in the skills of young children who...
Twenty-eight year old who made $3.6 million 'rorting' child care
Sydney Morning Herald - Eryk Bagshaw - November 24, 2016A 28-year-old woman has been found guilty of fraud after she forged children's attendance records at her Aussie Giggles family day care centre to rake in more than $3.6 million in taxpayer funding. Melissa Jade Higgins allegedly falsified children''s attendance at her family day care centre on...
