SOME local parents will be forced to pay more for childcare this year thanks to new federal rules. Providers say they will have to employ extra staff to comply with child/supervisor ratios in the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care.
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The reforms aim to ensure that every Australian child receives the best possible start in life through high quality early education and care, regardless of their location, according to the government.
One of the policy’s key points is a unified staff to child ratio, including one supervisor to four children for children under the age of two, a 20 per cent staffing increase from NSW’s ratio last year of one to five. River Heights Childcare Centre owner Robin Catling told the Goulburn Post she would have no choice but to increase prices this year.
“At the moment I have six (staff members) to start the year and I am going to need eight by March. So, I am going to have to raise fees by $3 per child per day,” she said.
“It is only a small increase but we are going to have to do it if we’re going to keep above water.”
The reforms also target the way early education is delivered, breaking down the five building blocks into eight new categories.
Ms Catling has been a child care worker for more than a decade and says she is not opposed to the changes. In fact, she is in favour of them, saying they will help educators to rethink the way they interact with the kids.
“There are a lot of people who have been doing it for so long that they have forgotten some things or started to neglect some things and this is really going to wake them up,” she said.
However, she did feel as though implementation of the reforms had been rushed. The new frame work was drafted in October, legislated in December and came into effect at the beginning of the month.
Now, on top of enrolments and preparing to open for the year, Ms Catling has been buried under a mountain of paper work and she and her staff have been rapidly trying to absorb all of the new information to meet regulations.
Across town, her frustrations were echoed by Scaliiwags owner Melanie Sinclair, who is also struggling with the red tape. Like Ms Catling, she believes the reforms are a positive for the industry and will be beneficial in the long run. She also felt the changes had been rushed and put an unnecessary burden on centres at their busiest time of year.
“I think the Early Years Framework is a good idea but they should have not bombarded us. There are volumes of new information to take in and it is much easier to fail under the new system than it was under the old,” Ms Sinclair said.
“That is causing a lot of anxiety among staff. The regulations have only just been passed last month...we are feeling overwhelmed.” She has vowed not to put up fees for the time being.
