tolcrothlogan

Hi I am used to having my little boy in child care in the uk so that I can work. He is now 1 year old, and I was wondering if AU was as accomodating with child care facilities as the UK? Has any one got any advice for me?

WickedWitchofWest

Sorry, but from my experience, they are not good (brisbane area). Too small, too crowded, not so nice and expensive
If you wait till preschool age, then lots of options

I hope others can help you.

WWW

robos

maybe when i get there i can start my own childminding business up then
i hav my nvq3 in childcare and education

jan xx

lindseyden

The child care facilities in my area (Mandurah) are excellent, there seem to be 3 main companies and at least one of them have a facility in almost every suburb. They are clean, fun and about $45 per day (8am-6pm) and then you get some back from the government, depending on your circumstances.

Lindsey

ABCDiamond

Loads of Childcare facilities in our area, and more being set up all the time, or so it appears.

This company even have Four of their ABC Learning centres in our post code area alone. http://www.childcare.com.au/

And that's without the other competitors.

I got a quote from one of them, for someone else, at $41 per day, but parents can get a reduction on this cost, up to about 85%, depending on income, from Centrelink. So it can cost as little as $6 per day, and that was for a family on $48,000 per year.

andrew63

We used ABC. Absolutley Brilliant Childcare! Our daughter loved it but was 3 yrs old. Found them expensive though! $88 for 2 full days/week. No centrelink refund for us.

Andrew

Parker

Where are you going to be? I think finding child care can be tough nation wide but here in Sydney it has been absolutely traumatic! We had our daughter on waiting lists for a year and thought we may have to do 2 days in one and 3 days in another. Luckily we have found a place now which seems fine.

If you are going to be in Sydney I suggest calling places now and getting on the wait list asap. Some of the good ones have HUGE wait lists.

There is also a different approach here which may take some getting used to if you've already had your child in nursery in the UK. The ratios here for the 0-2 kids is one carer to 5 kids while in the UK its 1 to 3 and you can really notice the difference. Plus most centres do not believe in a structured care program - they tend to let the kids play most of the time. Am not suggesting that they do maths or anything but having reading time and music time would be nice! Some centres have programs but its not common.

Finally be very prepared for the costs in Sydney. The care we had in the UK was pricey too so we weren't too shocked. But you can pay $100 a day in inner sydney. Cheapest has been $60 but you need to provide everything like nappies and even some fruit for afternoon tea.

Anyway as you can tell a lot of our time has been spent on this recently, so if you want to know anything else just ask!

NickyC

Not so - all accredited Child Care centres must comply with quite strict guidelines or they can't offer government funded places.

See http://www.ncac.gov.au/help_csps_qia...s_summary.html

Parker

Yes of course there are guidelines to follow. But I'm told that to get accreditation when they say a program to promote literacy - this actually means there must be books there and a story read out at some point etc. Not each day there must be a story read or reading time for 30 mins.

My point is perhaps illustrated by : my daughter attended a nursery in the UK and they had a program on the wall which told me what my child would be doing on each day, why they were doing it and what they would learn. Also how we could build on that. And she was 6 months old.

The centres we have visited here - and trust me its nearly 30 - have not all had this. They do not have to and most do not. There is no curriculum, no guidelines as to what a child must learn at a childcare centre for 0-2 year olds.

The centre my child attends is very nice, the staff are great and my child loves it. But they don't have a program beyond the one detailed below.

And its a council run place not just accredited.

The program at our centre and most others is: breakfast, morning tea, outdoor play, lunch, sleep, outdoor play, afternoon tea, indoor play.

Of course there are centres that are different and offer more. We found a fantastic one that even taught Japanese but it was $105 a day!

My friend owns a childcare centre that caters to older children up to 5. She is a primary school teacher and so has implemented a program. SHe has parents asking her to teach their kids to read and write but she does not have to do this legally to get her accreditation.

More importantly for the person who asked the question its the carer ratio which is terrible over here. I don't find it a problem now but before she started there I did feel apprehensive as you probably will with a one year old. If its a worry you can try and find centres that run on a 1 to 4 ratio. Some do that even though they don't have to.

Ian12

Good where we are.