Child Care News
Childcare rebates cost $3bn each year
Sydney Morning Herald - Stephanie Peatling - December 6, 2009HELPING parents with childcare fees now costs the Federal Government more than $3 billion a year, figures show. The Government's decision to raise the...
Parents face higher childcare fees
The Sunday Telegraph - Glenn Milne - December 06, 2009PARENTS are set to be hit with rises in childcare costs of up to $22 a day with the state and federal governments expected to sign off on compulsory...
Bid to lift childcare standards
The Age - Josh Gordon, Stephanie Peatling - December 6, 2009CHILDCARE centres will be forced to meet minimum staff ratios and will be ranked to allow parents to compare quality, under a sweeping overhaul...
Parents count cost of reform in child care
The Australian - Natasha Bita - December 05, 2009The states and territories appear set to sign off on new staffing regulations that COAG's own consultant, Access Economics, calculates could cost parents $50 a week...
Childcare staff facing pay cuts under new award
The Australian - Natasha Bita - December 05, 2009LOW-PAID childcare workers' wages will be whittled back by as much as $92 a week, under the first national childcare award handed down by the Industrial Relations...
Childcare isn't the problem, nor is it the panacea
The Age - Carol Nader - December 3, 2009PARENTS need not feel guilty about placing their children in childcare - youngsters are unlikely to be scarred by the experience. But nor will childcare have a dramatically positive...
Childcare kids are more naughty, new study shows
Daily Telegraph - Xanthe Kleinig - December 3, 2009CHILDREN in childcare may be learning to throw tantrums from other youngsters, according to the author of a study that found children looked after by their parents are better behaved...
Study examines effects of child care
Australian National University - December 2, 2009The effects of non-parental child care differ according to the quality of the care and the background of the parents, according to new research from The Australian National University...
Government backs down on childcare fees
ABC Online - Western Australia - December 2, 2009The Government has dumped plans to charge almost 1,500 childcare providers the fees from next year, because the Federal Government has introduced its own licensing fee...
ArcherCapital has bid for ABC Learning Centres
Courier Mail - Liam Walsh - December 01, 2009UNIONS say private equity fund ArcherCapital is frontrunner to buy collapsed childcare operator ABC Learning Centres in a bid worth about $100 million. Archer could...
We're booking care before conception
AdelaideNow - November 30, 2009WOMEN are booking childcare places before they are even pregnant.Community Children's Centres SA's Penny Thompson says it is "rare" but not unknown...
Charities aiming to rebrand ABC Learning childcare centres Good Start
The Australian - Natasha Bita - November 30, 2009CHARITIES bidding to buy the collapsed ABC Learning childcare chain want to rebrand the business as Good Start centres, offering daycare to the disadvantaged...
Affordable childcare is essential
Adelaidenow - November 30, 2009Workers in the pre-school and childcare industry are paid less, trained less, viewed as less important and have less of a voice. Facilities are less well funded...
State seeks virtual answer to teacher crisis
The Age - Farrah Tomzin - November 30, 2009Helping childcare staff to obtain higher qualifications through a $3.6 million ''qualifications fund'', and new financial incentives to encourage early-childhood...
Fat chance
The Age - Geoff Maslen - November 30, 2009The numbers are extraordinary and deeply worrying: among Victorian two-year-olds, one in every six is overweight or obese - and for children aged 3 the...