Pay to

By Nicole Williams
The National Quality Framework reforms, to come into force on 1 January, will increase staff to children ratios but put a huge financial strain on small centres, like Jellybean Childcare in Dandenong North.
In Victoria, childcare centres currently require one staff member for every five children – this will increase to one carer for every four children.
Manager Carly Carter said the centre would be forced to increase daily fees when the ratios came into force because it would need to hire more staff.
“We’d need to employ more people and would have to start charging people a lot more,” Ms Carter said.
“It’s a decent amount already, particularly for families not earning much.”
Jellybean Childcare currently charges $68 per day and this would likely increase by a couple of dollars when the ratios are changed.
Mark Dreyfus, Federal Member for Isaacs, said the early years of a child’s life were critical and the reforms would have little financial impact on families.
“Independent economic modelling commissioned by COAG from Access Economics indicates that the expected impact of any cost increase will be moderate,” he said.
“There are a number of childcare centres that have already implemented the new staff-to-child ratios and their costs are consistent with other local providers.”
Most children at Jellybean Childcare are in full-time care and Ms Carter said many families would struggle with a fee increase.
“You’re looking at city prices for childcare for people that don’t earn city wages,” she said.
“I don’t think they would cope.”
With five full-time staff and some casual employees, Jellybean Childcare has up to 25 children each day, which is only at half capacity.
“It’s not going to be a positive change for us, being a small service and with the numbers we have,” Ms Carter said.
“It will be a massive strain for us.”
Mr Dreyfus said a family on $80,000 a year would expect to pay an additional out of pocket cost of $0.57 per week in 2010–11, rising to $8.67 per week by 2014–15 for one child who attended full-time care.
The Federal Government will also continue to offer a childcare rebate, of 50 per cent of any cost increases up to $7500 a year for each child.
The new regulations will also change qualification requirements, to be enforced from January 2014, increasing the number of tertiary educated staff during shifts.
Ms Carter said these changes would put pressure on the ability to hire quality staff, as Ms Carter said 80 per cent of people interviewed for roles at the Dandenong North centre were unsuitable for a range of reasons, including education.
“It’s already very difficult to find good people,” she said.