Child Care News
Quality reforms 'not to blame' for childcare costs
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - February 3, 2014THE PEAK union representing childcare workers says an unindexed cap on childcare funding per child is the biggest driver of unaffordability for parents, as it rejected claims by the Abbott government that quality reforms had driven costs up. Louise Tarrant, national secretary of early...
Agency calls to extend childcare rebates to include nannies in home
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - February 3, 2014THE nation's leading agency for women's equality has told the Productivity Commission nannies must become a formal form of childcare and allow parents to apply for rebates for their use at home. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency, funded by the Commonwealth, provides leading...
Canberra still pays highest childcare costs in Australia
Canberra Times - Emma Macdonald - February 3, 2014Canberra families continue to pay the highest costs for childcare in the nation, with local families also requiring more childcare services than the other states or territories. Federal Government's June Quarter 2013 Child Care and Early Learning Summary report has been issued as the...
Victorian kinder teachers will have to report suspicions of child abuse
The Age - Richard Willingham and Judith Ireland - February 3, 2014Thousands of Victorian early childhood teachers will have to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect under new state laws that respond to the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry. The Napthine government will use the first week of the parliamentary year to introduce laws...
Sharp increase in government spend per child
Financial Review - Tim Dodd - February 3, 2014Government expenditure on childcare and early childhood education has grown sharply since 2008. In real terms, recurrent spending per child aged 0-12 rose by 66 per cent in the five years from 2007-08 to 2012-13, according to figures released in the 2013 Report on Government Services...
Schools need more help to set up out of hours care for kids, as parents struggle to return to work
Courier Mail - Laura Chalmers - February 3, 2014PRIMARY schools should be given greater incentives to offer out of school hours care, the nation's peak early childhood body says. Concerned that parents are struggling to return to work because they can't find out of hours care, Early Childhood Australia has called for state and federal...
Childcare: supporting the non-profit sector would create places, cut fees
Sydney Morning Herald - Kirsty Needham - February 2, 2014School was back last week. The movement of five-year-olds into classrooms had a ripple effect for thousands of babies and toddlers who entered daycare for the first time. Graduating preschoolers open up prized childcare vacancies - though the places are allocated months earlier to desperate...
Liberal aide sells childcare centres to 'premium' provider
Sydney Morning Herald - Kirsty Needham - February 2, 2014NSW Liberal Party figure Damien Tudehope has sold his chain of daycare centres located on Catholic Church land to premium childcare entrepreneur Brendan McAssey for an undisclosed sum. The Early Achievers centres located next to Glebe, Leichhardt and Enmore Catholic schools will...
Childcare rebate should extend to au pairs, commission to hear
The Age - Daniella Miletic - February 2, 2014The childcare rebate should be extended to au pairs and a specific working holiday visa is needed to help make it easier for foreign carers to work in Australia, according to au pair agencies. They say the shortage of childcare is forcing an increasing number of Australian parents to hire...
Coaching: Parents send children to school before preschool
Sydney Morning Herald - Cosima Marriner - February 2, 2014One in five of the English students at tutoring company Kumon are preschoolers, as parents increasingly seek to give their children a head start on their peers when they reach school. Despite early childhood educators saying most children do not need to attend anything more than a...
Little cash value in mums taking on extra work
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - February 1, 2014WOMEN with children face a strong deterrent to work because the financial incentives of taking on extra days are too low, with household income increasing by as little as 1.6 per cent when a secondary earner takes on an extra day''s work a week. In a submission to the Productivity...
Childcare costs are hitting parents with an unofficial second mortgage after costs skyrocketing by 50 per cent in just six years
NEWS.com.au - February 1, 2014Hourly fees at traditional long day care centres increased by 50 per cent under the Rudd-Gillard government according to new data and continue to rise faster than inflation. But in a reality check for those calling for at the means testing of the childcare rebate, a new report to be released...
PARENTS who refuse to vaccinate their children may lose their family benefits payments or child care rebates
NEWS.com.au - February 1, 2014The Abbott government has confirmed it is currently conducting an audit with a view to use a carrot and stick approach to address low immunisation rates. Almost half of the 80,000 children who are not vaccinated in Australia are the children of conscientious objectors. Department of Health...
Daycare Working With Children loophole putting kids at risk
PerthNow - February 1, 2014CHILDREN in home day-care centres are at risk because of a loophole allowing adults living in the same house as the operator to avoid a major security check. Family Day Care WA president Sue Fielding said people over 18 who live in homes where someone offers a childcare service are...
Ley eyes childcare tax perks
Financial Review - Joanna Mather - January 31, 2014Companies that sponsor childcare places to encourage mothers to return to work should receive more help through the tax system, Assistant Education Minister Sussan Ley said. A Productivity Commission inquiry into childcare is considering ways to promote employer-provided creches...
