Child Care News
Hero bus driver's kid safety warning
The Daily Telegraph - Clementine Cuneo - November 9, 2012A BUS driver has begged working parents to be vigilant about the childcare centres they trust after he rescued two runaway boys from beside a busy road. The State Transit Authority driver, who asked to only be known as Manmohan, was on his daily run through Lane Cove about 4pm...
Qualified staff improve learning of nursery children, report says
BBC News (UK) - November 8, 2012Being taught by highly qualified staff makes a difference to the education of nursery school children in Scotland, a report has concluded. Watchdog Education Scotland studied the impact of staff qualifications on pre-school youngsters. It said staff should be given the opportunity to...
Water safety plan for childcare centres
Gold Coast Bulletin - Tanya Westthorp - November 8, 2012A WATER safety syllabus is set to be rolled out to at least 10,000 early learning centres Australia-wide in a push to cut child drownings. Legendary Olympic swimming coach and Kids Alive founder Laurie Lawrence has secured $429,000 funding from the Australian Government to develop a...
Childcare kids went on the run
The Daily Telegraph - Richard Noone - November 8, 2012TWO four-year-old boys who escaped a daycare centre were missing for up to 40 minutes before a bus driver spotted them beside a busy road. The boys managed to open two of three security gates at Cubbyhouse Childcare centre at Lane Cove about 4pm on Tuesday. They were found by the...
German childcare plan sparks debate on stay-at-home mums
BBC News - Georg Lentze - November 7, 2012The German government's plan for a childcare allowance payable to parents who do not use state-subsidised nurseries has sparked fierce debate. Recently Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition reached agreement on the measure, under which eligible parents of infants aged...
Childcare shortage: councillors left holding the babies
Sydney Morning Herald - Jonathan Swan - November 6, 2012SO DESPERATE are some inner-city parents for childcare that a group of about 200 mothers, fathers, toddlers and babies crammed into the Town Hall on Monday to give City of Sydney councillors a piece of their misery. Councillors described scenes in which toddlers crawled around...
Clegg plans to subsidise 'nightmare' costs of child care
The Telegraph (UK) - Tim Ross - November 5, 2012LONDON - The Deputy Prime Minister said it was absurd that hundreds of thousands of women felt it was not worth returning to work after having a baby because child care was so expensive. In the first of a series of "informal" emails to party supporters, the Liberal Democrat leader disclosed...
Forget the guilt, just spend your cash on childcare, top scientist tells female high-flyers
The Independent (UK) - Laura Bates - November 5, 2012LONDON - One of Britain's leading female scientists has urged high-flying women to "spend every penny you've got" on childcare, saying that many are held back by the guilty "burden" of feeling they constantly have to be available to look after their families. Professor Uta Frith, a Fellow of...
Germany increases social spending before election
Seattle Times - JUERGEN BAETZ - November 5, 2012BERLIN - Germany's ruling center-right coalition has decided to increase childcare benefits, spend more money on transportation projects and end an unpopular medical charge less than a year before a general election, officials said Monday. The measures - costing more than...
Rebates reducing cost of childcare
Sydney Morning Herald - Stephanie Peatling - November 5, 2012FAMILIES are spending less on childcare as a percentage of their household budget than they were almost a decade ago because the increase in government assistance has outstripped price rises, modelling shows. The figures bolster the case for the federal government's expenditure on...
Boom in demand for after hours school care
The Daily Telegraph - Katherine Danks - November 3, 2012PARENTS are offering bribes - or being forced to show proof of working hours - to get their children into limited out-of-school hours care. Spaces are so short that families can wait up to two years to get a place. Stretched out-of-school hours (OOSH) centres are struggling to meet demand as...
Higher pay call for childcare
The Mercury - Michelle Paine - November 2, 2012ONLY better pay and conditions will lure more teachers to work in childcare, says a Tasmanian childcare leader. By 2014 early childhood trained teachers will be required in long daycare centres. The Federal Government has revealed it might offer special 457 visas to overseas workers with...
Visa plan for childcare workers
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - November 1, 2012EARLY Childhood Minister Peter Garrett says a plan to offer special 457 visas for overseas workers with childcare qualifications is under consideration by the federal government. This followed a call in The Australian yesterday by one of the nation''s biggest childcare operators, Guardian Childcare...
Childcare call for migrant staff
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - October 31, 2012A CHILDCARE provider's blueprint for reform calls for 457 visas for overseas workers, a single childcare payment with a generous means test, and increased assistance for bigger families. Guardian Childcare Alliance, one of Australia's largest privately owned operators of childcare...
Health and social aid our biggest employer
The Australian - Ewin Hannan - October 31, 2012MORE Australians are now working in health, aged and childcare than any other sector, with new figures confirming the decline in retail and manufacturing jobs. Census figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that workers in the healthcare and social assistance...
