Child Care News
Too few early childhood services: SNAICC
SBS News - George Moore - February 11, 2014A key childcare body is meeting politicians and service providers to discuss the role and funding future of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood services across Australia. The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care says there are far too few of these...
Rebates are vital to keep women working
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien - February 11, 2014ACCORDING to Treasurer Joe Hockey, it's time for Australians to take personal responsibility and end of the "age of entitlement". But he needs to keep his hands off childcare rebates, which are a necessity and not a luxury for most hardworking parents. Sure, parents should take responsibility...
Affinity races to integrate centres under single cloud
Financial Review - Paul Smith - February 11, 2014Newly listed childcare group Affinity Education has embarked on a make or break nine-week tech program to pull together its 57 recently acquired centres on to a single cloud-computing platform. The company's chief financial officer, John Bairstow, said the time-compressed project was a...
G8 Education spends $105m on 63 new centres
Financial Review - Jessica Gardner - February 10, 2014G8 Education chairwoman Jenny Hutson says the childcare operator has the right team in place to ensure its fast growth will not derail the company's stellar run, following news of a $105 million deal to buy 63 new centres. Ms Hutson said the expansion, announced on Monday, is the company's...
G8 Education boosts centre portfolio
Finaince News Network - February 10, 2014G8 Education Limited (ASX:GEM) has inked contracts to buy 63 Australian childcare and education centres for about $105 million from various vendors. Following the acquisitions the provider of developmental and educational child care services will be operating 296 Australian centres...
Early childhood education under qualifications threat
The Age - February 10, 2014In December last year there was considerable media attention around the Federal Government's redirection of Early Childhood Quality Fund allocations for pay increases for child care workers to professional development. This is really only the tip of the iceberg and there are more insidious...
Childcare sector is fertile, but fragmented
Financial Review - Jessica Gardner - February 10, 2014Investors are keeping a close watch on the growth strategies of for profit childcare networks. While the 2008 collapse of ABC Learning is not yet a distant memory, corporate players argue there is still plenty of room for sustainable expansion. The sector is proving fertile ground for investors...
Space invaders - the perils of helicopter parenting
The Australian - Natasha Robinson - February 10, 2014IT is the modern social paradox, long suspected and now beyond doubt. Modern parents - working mums, harried dads, full-time mothers and the unemployed alike - are spending more time than ever in active childcare. It is a trend that has developed despite large increases in women's...
A valuable investment in our children and the economy
Sydney Morning Herald - February 9, 2014When childcare costs $168 a day and the paperwork takes hours, it is easy to see why some parents - often mothers - choose not to work. And it is easy to see why parents send children to school early: it's cheaper than childcare, even in the private school system. But when whether to...
For Mums to work or not rests on childcare rebate
The Sunday Mail - Laura Chalmers - February 9, 2014THREE out of four women would cut back their hours or stop working altogether if the Child Care Rebate was reduced or means tested. In a warning to the Federal Government not to cut back on childcare subsidies, working women have indicated that their decisions to return to work are...
Trial of flexible childcare fails to draw participants
Sydney Morning Herald - February 9, 2014A trial of flexible childcare, including overnight care, established by the previous Labor government has flopped as fewer than one fifth of the families targeted are actually participating. The $5.5 million taxpayer-funded trial was introduced by the Gillard government last June, offering...
Private schools cheaper than childcare
Sydney Morning Herald - Alexandra Smith, Amy McNeilage - February 9, 2014Childcare fees are so high in Sydney that it can be cheaper to send a child to one of the city's most exclusive private schools than it is to put a baby in daycare. And the soaring costs, which can be as high as $32,000 a year, are convincing some parents to start their children's private primary...
Don't Pressure Preschoolers to Overeat, Experts Say
Health Day - February 8, 2014Young children will better learn to recognize when they're full if they serve themselves instead of being given a plate with food already on it, a new study reveals. Researchers examined the feeding practices among children aged 2 to 5 at 118 child-care centers in the United States. The...
Care plea as grandparents left holding the baby
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - February 8, 2014GRANDPARENTS will tell a Productivity Commission they are exhausted from having to spend too many hours caring for their grandchildren because their families are unable to find affordable and flexible care. In a submission to the Abbott government's inquiry into the childcare sector...
Petrol bomb containing nails found near Morley childcare centre
PerthNow - February 7, 2014BOMB squad technicians have been called after a suspicious item, believed to be a molotov cocktail, was found metres from a Perth child care centre. The partially burnt bottle, containing nails, was found shortly before 11am today. The bomb squad was immediately called and set up...
