Child Care News
Rush to immunise children as our vaccine campaign hits home
NEWS.com.au - December 29, 2013PARENTS are being urged to check the immunisation status of their children as the state's new laws for entry into childcare centres come into effect on Wednesday next week. The change in legislation came on the back of a campaign by The Daily and Sunday Telegraph which aimed to address the...
Childcare pay won't be returned
The Australian - Pia Akerman - December 27, 2013THE nation's biggest childcare provider has rejected calls by the Abbott government to hand back $60 million earmarked under Labor for pay rises, instead telling staff they will receive a wage increase. Goodstart Early Learning has told the government it won't co-operate with Assistant...
Campaign to attract childcare workers to remote areas
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - December 24, 2013THE peak early childhood body is pushing the Abbott government to allocate $60 million of the suspended childcare wages fund to a new scheme to attract early childhood teachers to work in disadvantaged, rural and remote communities that are failing to attract qualified workers to meet...
Government commits to immunisation education
Brisbane Times - Amy Remeikis - December 22, 2013Immunisation in Queensland is about to get a lot more attention. The government may have rejected Labor's private members bill to make immunisation compulsory for all children before they were allowed to enter child care, but it has committed to an education campaign. The...
Councils playing tough with state government, demanding after-school care solutions
Sydney Morning Herald - Kirsty Needham - December 22, 2013Local councils and child care providers have joined forces to pressure the O'Farrell government over a shortage of after-school care places, as waiting lists grow for next year and working parents struggle for options after the school bell rings. Suburbs affected by waiting lists that exceed...
Pet rats have helped solve separation anxiety issues in children at childcare centres
Canberra Times - Ewa Kretowicz - December 22, 2013IT TURNS out long yellow teeth, hairless tails and squat furry bodies are a good substitute for mum or dad. Rats in the nursery would usually be a good reason to call in a pest exterminator but at Isabella Plains Childcare and Education Centre the long-tailed vermin are actually part of the...
Childcare industry alarm: YMCA NSW 'not a child safe institution'
ABC Radio - Emily Bourke - December 21, 2013The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has been told that YMCA in NSW is not a child safe institution and may not have the capacity to become one. Robyn Monro-Miller is the chief executive of the Network of Community Activities which represents 1200 outside school hours services...
Kids miss out as childcare workers spend four hours on paperwork
NEWS.com.au - Natasha Bita - December 21, 2013CHILDCARE workers are spending four hours a week filling out paperwork instead of playing with children, a government report reveals. New quality rules are costing parents in a typical daycare centre about $40 a week. One chain of family daycare operators has spent $560,000 this year...
Children no longer have to perform at kindergarten Christmas concerts
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien - December 20, 2013KINDERGARTEN children are no longer required to take part in end-of-year concerts amid fears they get too stressed. New national guidelines governing the preschool sector emphasise individual choice and give children more control over their preschool education. Children were no longer...
Was Labor's childcare fund only ever about the union?
ABC News - Fact Check - December 20, 2013The Claim: Sussan Ley says Labor's $300 million fund to subsidise childcare workers' wages was only ever about the unions. The verdict: Ms Ley's claim is in the ballpark. The fund distribution process favoured the union. A $300 million fund to subsidise childcare workers' wages set up by...
Not child's play: why Brendan McAssey is taking childcare upmarket
BRW - James Thomson - December 19, 2013Former investment banker turned childcare centre operator Brendan McAssey knows only too well how the reputation of his sector has ebbed and flowed over the past decade. He didn't just watch Eddy Groves's infamous implosion at ABC Learning – he twice sold businesses to Groves for...
All must lean in to fix the budget
Financial Review - Editorial - December 17, 2013Middle-class welfare measures such as the childcare rebate and superannuation tax concessions that were introduced in the Howard years will have to be reined in. The new school funding plan and national disability insurance scheme, those huge Labor monuments, need to wound back...
Sorry, what does that mean?
The Australian - Rick Morton - December 16, 2013SORRY, not sorry. A flaring argument among early childhood educators about whether young children should apologise when they have done something wrong has raged since The Weekend Australian reported the ruminations of Early Childhood Australia on Saturday. Child psychologist...
Review: Gonski, PISA and childcare under Tony Abbott's first 100 days
Sydney Morning Herald - Gareth Hutchens - December 16, 2013Childcare. The Abbott government threw the childcare industry into disarray when its assistant education minister, Sussan Ley, asked childcare providers to "do the right thing" and hand back $62.5 million given to them to improve wages in the poorly paid sector. The move was...
Private preschool fees higher than secondary costs
Sydney Morning Herald - Cosima Marriner - December 15, 2013Parents are paying more for their children to go to early learning centres attached to some of Sydney's most prestigious private schools than for a year of primary, or even senior education, at the same institutions. Independent schools Shore, Kincoppal, Kambala, PLC Sydney, Reddam...
