The Feds subsidise child care for families in Long Day Care through Child Care Benefit [CCB], paying the subsidy directly to child care services on behalf of parents who also pay a gap fee.

The NSW Government, through the Department of Community Services [DOCS], partially funds 800 community/council based preschools. The Iemma government wants these services to be eligible for the Federal Government’s Child Care Benefits, thus shifting the cost to the Feds.

Whilst NSW DET fully funds about 100 of its own preschools attached to primary schools, the NSW DOCS funded preschools have been hung out to dry ever since the Greiner Government, facing a battle of survival due to gross under-funding.

Iemma and Costa are kidding themselves if they think Pete and Johnny are going to fund ‘state’ preschool systems, especially the NSW preschool system.

Watch out for a concerted pre-election campaign by the community/council based preschools.

Whilst there is a federally run accreditation system which covers some matters of ‘quality’, the various state governments ‘regulate’ child care services, including Long Day Care, Preschools and Family Day Care. These regulations cover the pointy end of quality and safety: Staff qualifications, staff:child ratios, group sizes, built environment, risk management etc.

The private and corporate sectors are constantly chipping away at the NSW Government to lower child care standards.

I can’t work out the business case for ABC ‘learning’ centres and have a feeling that the slightest recession will see the lot fall like a pack of cards. The corporate entity may survive because of how assets are owned, but the centres may close because of low revenue.

A lot of my friends have worked in or used private/corporate child care, mostly for a short time. “Child Warehousing” is the common term.

There are of course plenty of stories about ABC, which as a company is now worth over $3 billion and is the second largest child care provider in the USA.

There is another story here in Qld that I can’t get a decent hold on. It seems that the Govt has legislated so that from 2008:

trained teachers working in any setting with children who are under prep age [4 and a half] cannot gain and maintain the same teacher registration as those working in a “school”. (letter from Helen Knaggs CM 26 December, 2006)

Some of the troops are thinking that this means that the State will correspondingly reduce subsidies to pre-prep institutions in view of their lower wage costs. This would mean less tax payer funding of Eddy Groves life style but would also apply to C&K kindergartens.

The thought is that you can’t retain teacher registration unless you are employed by an educational institution. If this is so, there is a slight chicken and egg problem and maybe a problem about supply teachers.

I’m sure such minor glitches if they exist will be ironed out, but it does seem that the ‘smart’ state is heading in a different direction to that of Federal Labor who are promising to turn child care operators into educators.

Makes me feel very cynical about the whole thing. As my friend’s post notes, can it be a coincidence that Eddy Groves pays substantial donations to the Queensland Liberal party??

Some of the mothers in my Mothers’ Group were saying a couple of local centres had just been bought out. Really makes a mockery of the idea of providing “choice” of childcare. Apparently ABC Learning just keeps offering increasingly exorbitant amounts of money to local childcare centres to buy them out (they’ve got so much money already) and many operators just can’t resist the temptation.

I know of people who have moved their children half a dozen times and no sooner is the child settled into a new childcare centre when the new centre is bought out by ABC Learning.

Read the financial documents from ABCLearning and you will quickly run into the term AEU. This is not the Australian Education Union or anything of its ilk but a joke reflecting the Liberal Party board member humour as the name for the property trust that does own all the assets for ABC Learning.

I don’t know how many investors in ABC learing know of the assets actually being held in the Property Trust, but I’ve often wondered just why would investors buy into the ABC Learning share with no assets when the far cheaper Property Trust has heaps of assets.

Legal Eagle: You are 100% correct. Although where there is a chainstore style ABC centre, there is at least a childcare centre.

Can anybody imagine what a publicly provided pub would be like? If all pubs were publicly provided? Fancy a coldie in such a place?

Be a bit like the department of transport “serviceâ€? counter.

Publicly provided childcare would be any different?

What?

Have you not heard of public education Steve? Why would early education be any different? There are generally the same number of 4-year-olds as there are 5-year-olds in any given year…

The concentration of ownership into fewer and fewer owners and the provision of fewer and fewer services is a blight on our childcare system in this country and represents a cutting of competition.

If SATP ran his pub along these free enterprise lines, drinkers would have to order their drinks months in advance and supply their own stools,glasses and coasters so they could enjoy a drink!

I think Overington is right. Not everyone works 9 – 5 on weekdays. I don’t. For the record I’m not rich on anyone’s scale. My hours vary. At the moment, I don’t even know what days I’ll be working. This really doesn’t suit the certainty needed for childcare places. Waiting lists are years long anyway, and I didn’t get down on them from the moment that pregnancy test came back positive, so it’s all too late.

I certainly wouldn’t sneer at women who use nannies, because I understand how frustrated they must be with the lack of flexibility in childcare centres. I can also understand that women want their children to be looked after by a single reliable person with whom the children are familiar. Realistically, I’d prefer that too!

I have found it very difficult to go back to part time work, and without help from my mother, it would have been absolutely impossible. Others are not so lucky. So, while I’m not a fan of Bronwen, I wouldn’t be unhappy if her suggestion was adopted.