Canberra families continue to pay the highest costs for childcare in the nation, with local families also requiring more childcare services than the other states or territories.
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Federal Government’s June Quarter 2013 Child Care and Early Learning Summary report has been issued as the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Childcare’s formal deadline arrived on Monday.
The Commission confirmed it will continue to accept late submission, however, and would try and incorporate them into its deliberations.
Assistant Education Minister Sussan Ley said childcare costs had doubled for Canberra families over the last six years with the latest report revealing the number of ACT families using child care increased 9.2 per cent to 15,830 since the June 2012 quarter – the largest percentage increase in the country.
The total number of children using approved childcare increased by 10 per cent – the second largest percentage increase in the nation behind Western Australia, while the ACT recorded Australia’s largest increase in children attending long day care over the year – up 7.7 per cent to 12,350. The next closest was South Australia at 4.5 per cent.
In an attempt to keep up with demand, local approved childcare services increased by 6.5 per cent over the year.
Last month a separate report by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, put out-of-pocket expenses for Canberra families for childcare consistently above the national average and at the highest percentage across income levels from $35,000 to $150,000.
In the ACT, childcare generally accounted for about 12 per cent of gross income after subsidies while the Australian average was around 8 to 9 per cent.
With many families returning to childcare centres this week, some local long-day centres have now reached or surpassed the $100 a day mark.
Demand in Canberra for care is, however, unsurpassed with the new quarterly figures showing an increase of 16.9 per cent for occasional care while the use of outside school hours care increased by 13.3 per cent.
ACT parents claimed a total of about $22 million in child care benefits in the June 2013 quarter – $3 million extra than the June 2012 quarter.
But Ms Ley said her concern was child care was becoming unaffordable for ACT families.
“On average, child care now costs over $3000 a year more than it did before Labor came to power and I’m very concerned about the impact this is having on the budgets of ACT families,” she said.
“This is particularly worrying given the 24/7 world we now live in is forcing more and more parents to try and find affordable child care options in order to meet the growing demands of their jobs.
The report also found long day care hourly fees continued to grow at an average of about 7 per cent per year under Labor, while the average number of hours parents used long day care services nationally did not increase at all during the period.
Average cost of long day care hourly fees:
- September Quarter 2007 - $5.00
- June Quarter 2013 - $7.50
- $2.50 average increase per hour in almost six years
- Average of 27.2 hours children spent in long day care per week = $68 extra per week
- 48 weeks per year (giving four weeks grace per year) = $3264 per year
Ms Ley suggested that while more parents needed child care, they were only able to use it to cover the bare minimum they could afford, “which means fewer opportunities to take on more paid hours at work,” she said.
Last October the Coalition asked the Productivity Commission to undertake an inquiry into the child care and early learning sector looking at issues affecting affordability, accessibility, flexibility, women’s participation in the workforce, regional and remote communities and vulnerable children. The final report is expected to be published in October 2014.
The convener of the community-based Association of Child Care Directors of the ACT Avis Kerr said it was not surprising Canberra costs and demands were continuing to rise, given the number of local professional women needing to return to work.
While she noted that the centres breaching the $100 a day threshold were nearly always the private for-profit centres, she conceded it was a juggling act for all childcare sectors to attract and keep staff.
Ms Kerr, who is director of the Nicholls Early Childhood Centre, noted that while the National Quality Framework enforced new rules about staff qualifications and training, the concept of a “professional wage” for childcare workers was still a core issue.
“That excellence and level of qualification and training comes at a cost,” she said.
“One of the things I am hoping comes out of the Productivity Commission review is the need for a government subsidy for professional wages for staff.”
Childcare workers still earned under $19 an hour on average and centres could not increase their wages without increasing fees.
“If we increased wages by $10 an hour it would cost families an extra $30 a day. That’s the dilemma,” Ms Kerr said
She also noted that the wage issue meant childcare workers were difficult to keep in the profession.
“So the government is spending all this money subsidising training and then they lose the worker because they can earn more in another job.”