THE STATE OF PLAY FOR AUSTRALIAN FAMILIES
For close to 15 years CareforKids.com.au® has been supporting Australian families to find high quality child care when and where they need it.
Every year we ask the CareforKids.com.au community to tell us their experiences with the Australian child care system and how they juggle the competing pressures of home and work life.
The results offer an interesting snapshot of the Australian child care landscape, what's working, what's not and potential new directions moving forward.
METHODOLOGY
This is our 13th annual survey and it was completed by 1,845 people in April, 2018.
THE BEST BITS
The 'norm'
The main reason parents and carers use care is to attend work or study (88 per cent) with just 12 per cent saying they used child care to provide social interaction for the kids, time out for the carer or another reason.
The survey showed that 61 per cent of kids start child care when they are between 7-18 months old and 74 per cent of kids are in child care three or more days per week with 86 per cent there for seven or more hours per day.
Most families (74 per cent) rely on one type of child care and typically that service is long day care (78 per cent), however families also said they use grandparents, outside school hours care and family day care. Interestingly a full 78 per cent of respondents claimed that care provided by grandparents should also be eligible for the rebates.
THE QUEST FOR CARE
73 per cent of respondents were able to secure the care they wanted and while 61 per cent of parents said they found the experience of looking for care good or very good the remaining 39 per cent said they found the process difficult or extremely difficult and frustrating.
62 per cent of respondents said they went on one or more waitlists and for 86 per cent of parents this incurred a cost of between $0-$60 per waitlist!
The cost!
72 per cent of families are paying between $80-$220 per day before the CCB and CCR
Despite these figures a full 71 per cent of respondents believe their child care service provides good value for money.
The cost of child care is still a huge issue and while 63 per cent of families rate their early childhood provider as excellent, 72 per cent of families are paying between $80-$220 per day before the CCB and CCR were applied, which for most families (66 per cent) equates to 10-30 per cent of family income. 8 per cent of survey respondents told us they pay more than $200 per day.
Despite these figures a full 71 per cent of respondents believe their child care service provides good value for money.
The good news is that 85 per cent of families say they have figured out the current CCB/CCR system and are claiming what they are eligible for – the bad news is the system changes on 2 July and we’ve all got to adjust to a new way of doing things.
While most survey respondents (79 per cent) told us they are aware that the Singe Child Care Subsidy replaces the current CCB and CCR in July, 62 per cent are unclear about how they will be impacted by the change.
Which care are you using?
THE QUALITY OF CARE
This year we also asked parents whether they would be interested in booking occasional or sessional care in long day care centres on an as-needs basis, close to 70 per cent expressed an interest in this flexible form of care.
We also asked parents to tell us whether education or play should be the focus in early childhood settings and 67 said the emphasis should most definitely be on play based learning.
THE GREAT BALANCING ACT
An important part of our annual survey is to try and gain greater understanding into how working parents achieve balance between their professional and personal responsibilities.
Balancing life as a working parent
Disappointingly only 7 per cent of respondents said the employer helps staff find child care but a solid 77 per cent said their employer was either flexible or very flexible in their approach to working parents. To that end 66 per cent of respondents have asked for flexible work options and 73 per cent of those requests were approved.
Sadly 68 per cent of working parents felt they had been discriminated against by other parents, colleagues or family and friends when they returned to work after having a child.
Sometimes feel like things are spiralling out of control? Join the club! 84 per cent of respondents who said they struggle to achieve balance between work and family life at least some or all of the time.
This may in part be due to the fact that the responsibility of managing family commitments such as appointments, sick days and drop offs is shared equally in only 33 per cent of homes, with working mums doing the majority of the work in 52 per cent of households.
YOUR COMMENTS
What could the government do to improve Australian child care system?