The practice of waitlisting for child care places is one of the banes of parents' lives and certainly makes the child care search more stressful. Parents can easily pay around $60 per centre they register with, and with the necessity to register with multiple centres to ensure the best chance of getting a place; this can be very costly indeed and doesn't guarantee positive results.

Over the last few months we've received a number of emails regarding the practice of waitlisting: What's ethical practise? What is a reasonable fee? What does the fee cover? Should it be refundable? Are there limits to waitlists – can centres just keep putting names down ad infinitum or is there a cap at which they have to close the list?

With a shortage of spaces for the under twos in many inner city suburbs, the practice of waitlisting is all too commonplace. Most centres will charge a fee for putting you on the waiting list and this is fair as it covers the admin charges of managing that waitlist and also with communicating with the parents on it.

However, it seems that sometimes there is no further communication received by the parents to update them of their status. Some parents have even commented on the fact they suspect that services advertise vacancies purely to get parents through the door, then tell them there are no longer any available for what they want, and charge them for the waiting list.

This is extremely unlikely, albeit not impossible. All centres that are "approved" by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) have to report vacancies on a weekly basis, so technically they should not be advertising any vacancies they have not reported to DEEWR.

There is however no real guideline on the amount a child care centre may or may not charge, however KU Children's Services CEO, Christine Legg, had the following to say on child care waiting lists from her organisation's point of view:

"At KU Children's Services we only charge a nominal waitlist fee to cover our administrative costs", she said. "This would usually be no more than $20. We are aware that some services charge a large non-refundable waitlist fee, but we do not".

In terms of what the fee covers, Legg says this is only for their Administrative costs, such as the processing of applications, along with any follow up telephone calls, letters or emails required to maintain the waiting lists.

"As the cost only covers our administrative costs", says Legg, "it is not refundable if a child does not gain a place – feedback from our families is that $20 is not a prohibitive amount to pay".

And what about waitlist limitations? Christine Legg says that in KU's experience, waitlists are sometimes unreliable as most families put their child's name on more than one list in order to obtain a place for their child.

"We don't, therefore, usually close off our waitlists", says Legg. "However in areas of high need where we do have long waitlists, we inform families if they are unlikely to gain a place for their child at the time they indicate they will need it. In this situation families can choose to stay on the waitlist and put their child's name on other waitlists".

In terms of official policy, to ensure the system is fair, the Australian Government has Priority of Access Guidelines for allocating places in these circumstances. The guidelines only apply to Child Care Benefit approved child care. They are used when there is a waiting list for a child care service or when a number of parents are applying for a limited number of vacant places.

Every Child Care Benefit approved child care service has to abide by the guidelines and tell you about them when you enrol your child into care.

Priorities – who should be given priority on a waiting list?

The government guidelines state the following:

• First Priority: a child at risk of serious abuse or neglect
• Second Priority: a child of a single parent who satisfies, or of parents who both satisfy, the work/training/study test under Section 14 of the 'A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999'
• Third Priority: any other child.

Within these main categories priority should also be given to the following children:

• Children in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
• Children in families which include a disabled person
• Children in families which include an individual whose adjusted taxable income does not exceed the lower income threshold of $41 026 for 2012-2013, or who or whose partner are on income support
• Children in families from a non-English speaking background
• Children in socially isolated families
• Children of single parents.

A child care service may require a Priority 3 child to vacate a place to make room for a child with a higher priority. They can only do so if you are notified when your child first entered care that your service follows this policy or are given at least 14 days notice of the need for your child to vacate.

Outside School Hours Care
Outside School Hours Care is primarily for school children (generally speaking they are full of school age children and only occasionally take in pre-schoolers). A service may ask a child not yet in school to leave care if a child who is in school applies for a place.

Employer sponsored places
If a child care service is funded by an employer for their employees' children, it can give priority to those children.

In previous waitlist polls, parents' suggestions have included setting up a Central Waitlist System or online tracking system to see where you are on the list.

Most parents' comments about the wait list fee are about the lack of service you get for paying that fee, such as no follow-up calls from the service or even a courtesy call to say where you currently are on the list.