Child Care News
Childcare funds sought
Sydney Morning Herald - Dan Harrison - October 22, 2012...building more centres would not solve the problem because the greatest demand was for places for children up to two years of age. It was unviable for centres to care for babies because they required more staff than older children, but attracted only the same level of government subsidy...
Grandparents saving families millions on child care
ABC News - Emily Bourke - October 22, 2012Grandparents are saving parents almost $90 million a year on child care in New South Wales, according to a report released today by the Council on the Ageing. The report found between 10 and 20 per cent of people aged over 65 are providing unpaid care for their grandchildren...
Crying out for long day care
Sun Herald - Stephanie Peatling - October 21, 2012Exclusive figures from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - obtained by The Sun-Herald under freedom-of-information laws - confirm that while some local government areas have hundreds of vacancies that may never be filled, others are suffering a chronic shortage. But with parents and childcare centre operators in sought-after areas reporting...
Misleading MyChild site riles parents
Sun Herald - Stephanie Peatling - October 21, 2012THE federal government website that alerts parents to vacancies in their local childcare centres is often publishing misleading information, prompting complaints from those who have chased places that do not exist. The information on the MyChild site has caused confusion because centres...
After the birth, the wait begins
Sydney Morning Herald - Sarah Whyte - October 21, 2012IN MANLY, new mothers are immediately warned about the long childcare waiting lists. Taking the advice from other new mothers seriously, Emilie Rouleau wasted no time in getting her son Timeo on a waiting list a week after he was born at the end of September 2010. But two years later...
Parents complain as preschool hours are halved to 15 a week
Sydney Morning Herald - Anna Patty - October 19, 2012PARENTS of young children are angry with a government decision to reduce preschooling hours by half. Public schools that provide 30 hours of preschooling each week must cut it by 50 per cent to meet a government agreement to provide all children with at least 15 hours by next year...
Child care centre fined for discrimination
ABC News - October 18, 2012The operator of a Perth child care centre has been fined $13,000 and ordered to pay $5,000 compensation to an employee pressured into resigning after she became pregnant. The Federal Court in Perth has imposed the penalty and compensation order against W.K.O Pty Ltd, which...
Australia's women most empowered in world
Sydney Morning Herald - Clay Lucas - October 17, 2012Australia topped a list of 128 countries for women's access to education, equal pay, childcare and anti-discrimination policies. The study, by international consulting and management firm Booz & Company, found Australia was the global leader despite its women still being paid 17 per cent...
Childcare workers launch ad for better pay
The Australian - October 14, 2012A NEW television advertisement calls on the federal government to stump up funding to fix the nation's childcare crisis by boosting wages. The United Voice union says childcare workers are being paid "poverty wages", forcing organisations to employ people who aren't up to scratch...
Calls for increased childcare funding
Sky News - October 14, 2012The federal government needs to inject $1.4 billion annually into the childcare system to increase wages and halt the exodus of staff, a union says. The inability to retain workers in the childcare sector is not caused by the imposition of new staff standards on the industry, but because...
Inclusion gets a tick at preschools
Sydney Morning Herald - Sarah Whyte - October 14, 2012Gary is one of 361 Aboriginal students, including his brother Cody, 3, who have attended a mainstream preschool through a program called Ngroo. The program, which has been running for four years, trains mainstream preschool teachers in cultural awareness and encourages...
Childcare centres allowed to flout the rules
The Daily Telegraph - Natasha Bita - October 13, 2012SUBSTANDARD childcare centres will be kept open despite strict new quality controls that are driving up the cost of care. Babies falling off nappy change tables, toddlers wandering into carparks and a failure to lock away poisons are among the shocking breaches prosecuted by authorities...
State Government exempts 41 operators from meeting new national standards
Herald Sun - Natasha Bita - October 13, 2012SUBSTANDARD childcare centres will be kept open despite strict new national quality controls that are driving up the cost of care. Under the standards, even centres judged to be only "working towards" the requirement that children are adequately supervised at all times would receive the…
Family day care gives job options to refugee women
The World Today (ABC Radio) - Miriam Hall - October 8, 2012For many refugees in Australia, getting a job can be difficult. One Somali refugee has now tried to address that by setting up a family day care program in Sydney's west to provide refugee women with training and skills to work in child care. The scheme now employs more than 100 people...
Labor backbenchers angry over changes to parenting payment
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - October 8, 2012THE Gillard government will this week seek to rush through changes to push 100,000 single mothers off parenting payments and on to the dole, despite two inquiries recommending the plan be delayed, with Labor backbenchers angry they have failed to win any concessions despite...