Child Care News
Hedge funds keep watch on G8 balance sheet
Financial Review - Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Jake Mitchell - February 19, 2015G8 Education management is getting used to quashing investor questions about equity raisings. They have once again been forced to defend their capital position to doubters this week, highlighting the $220 million previously raised through debt issuances in Singapore last year as...
Mothers can get what they want when they return to work
NEWS.com.au - February 19, 2015She would also like to see day care treated as more than just a babysitting service and merged into the education system. ACTU president Ged Kearney said that providing family friendly hours would increase women's participation in the workplace, help end pregnancy discrimination and boost...
Afternoon naps may be bad for kids' sleep
The Australian - Leah McLennan - February 18, 2015YOU could be doing yourself a disservice by encouraging your toddler to have an afternoon nap, according to new research that indicates this can result in poor sleep at night. PARENTS and childcare workers might love the reprieve an afternoon nap gives but researchers have found...
Hep A berry fears for SA school children
The Advertiser - February 18, 2015CHILDREN at nine South Australian primary schools and child care centres may have been served frozen berries from the batches at the centre of the hepatitis A scare. PRINCIPALS and directors at the sites are contacting parents to notify them of the possible risk and provide them with SA...
Is childcare valuable to the economy? Absolutely
Women's Agenda - Conrad Liveris - February 18, 2015The importance of affordable childcare unites many working parents. Most people recognise that access to childcare is a policy that can support a large number of families but particularly women. When parents have to choose between working and caring responsibilities, the latter...
Auditor damning on childcare wages fund
NEWS.com.au - February 17, 2015LABOR ministers and their advisers should have known a grants program to give money to some childcare workers was going to run out quickly, according to an audit. THE audit of the Early Years Quality Fund is damning of the education department, saying it didn't tell ministers of its...
Scott Morrison's rules of engagement for childcare debates
3AW - Neil Mitchell - February 17, 2015Social Services Minister Scott Morrison has told Neil Mitchell the childcare payment system needs an overhaul. "I've invited the Opposition to be part of that and had some good initial exchanges with (Shadow Minister for Education and Early Childhood) Kate Ellis on that and I look forward to...
Folkestone Education Trust has one eye on residential market
Sydney Morning Herald - Larry Schlesinger - February 17, 2015Childcare centre owner, Folkestone Education Trust, has one eye on the inner city residential market, as it expands its portfolio of assets. The trust owns more than $500 million worth of childcare centres and reported half-year distributable income up 16 per cent to $13.1 million...
Evolve on track to secure 85 kindergartens by end of March, eyes more centres
Scoop.co.nz - Suze Metherell - February 17, 2015Evolve Education Group, the listed childcare business, said it's on track to settle its acquisitions as forecast in its prospectus and is eyeing further childcare centres for purchase. In December the Auckland-based company raised $132.3 million to fund its acquisition of the Lollipops Educare...
Childcare's value is questionable
The Australian - Judith Sloan - February 17, 2015And let us not forget that close to one-third of parents who receive childcare fee relief do not meet an activity test. That means they do not work, are not looking for work or are not studying. If it is not even a requirement to participate in the labour force to receive childcare subsidies, which is...
Parents reaping government rebates as they let childcare debts mount
The Australian - Natasha Bita - February 17, 2015CHILDCARE centres are demanding the federal government close a loophole that allows parents to pocket taxpayer rebates despite having daycare debts. Australian Childcare Alliance president Gwynn Bridge said some parents were refusing to pay their daycare fees yet still claiming...
Childcare operator G8 Education acquires 12 centres amid profit boost
The Australian - Kylar Loussikian - February 17, 2015CHILDCARE operator G8 Education has acquired 12 more centres, capping off a year of rapid growth that has resulted in a near doubling of its size. The new acquisitions come as the company announced a 70 per cent rise in profit to $52.7 million for the last calendar year, with the...
G8 Education profit rises 70pc but investors nervous
Financial Review - Jessica Gardner - February 17, 2015G8 Education chair Jenny Hutson says the country's largest for-profit childcare operator will not slowits aggressive roll-up of centres, despite spending a record $468 million on 203 new centres in 2014. Ms Hutson said the $1.6 billion company's full-year result, in which net profit rose...
Small business council calls for "even playing field" on fringe benefits tax
SmartCompany - Kirsten Robb - February 16, 2015The Council of Small Business Australia (COSBOA) is calling on the government to remove fringe benefits tax (FBT) on childcare and health services for small business employees, saying existing exemptions only favour the big end of town. The calls come just weeks before the fringe...
Extending taxpayers childcare subsidies to in-house nannies in doubt over cost
NEWS.com.au - February 16, 2015SUPPORT for extending generous childcare subsidies to mums and dads using in-home nannies is under a cloud, with new documents revealing the federal government is in the dark about how much it would cost taxpayers. Tony Abbott has pinned his ability to deliver "good government"...
