Child Care
 

We are going through the process and really excited. However, we are having some concerns which I expect everyone does when they go through this process. One of my concerns are how do you cope with child care when you are on the other side of the world! Especially during the holidays? :o

Re: Child Care
 

There are day care centres for pre-school children, plus outside-school care for before- and after-school and vacation care. All you have to do is find a centre in a location that works for you - but it can be difficult to get a place in the baby room of childcare centres (the room for 0-2 year olds). Usually there is another room for 2-3 year olds, and a room for 3-5 year olds. Some kids don't go to kindy at school, as it is only part-time, and do a kindy programme at day care instead. Some centres are in demand because they provide high quality care, so you might have to go on a waiting list for them.

Outside-school services take children from the centre to school, either by bus or walking, and pick them up from school at the end of the day to take them to the centre. Some centres provide breakfast before school, but most will provide a snack after school. At daycare, all meals are usually provided. Depending on your visa type and income, you will get Government financial assistance to pay for childcare services and you can also claim the costs as part of your annual tax return.

Re: Child Care
 

Which state are you going to?

We are in NSW and found it relatively simple to organise Long Day Care for our son and then After School Care when he started school. Each state will have a website devoted to Child Care or at least a good information portal for one.
As an example, here is the one we first used for NSW which gave us an indication of which types of Child Care facilities were where. It also covers the rest of Oz but we can only give our impression of the NSW aspect of it.

http://www.careforkids.com.au/search...FaEG4goduW4ItA

Re: Child Care
 

Vacation Care can be a premium as it is obviously only for the dedicated school holidays (Public schools that is, some Private schools have longer holidays).
A lot of people here used to bring their kids to work and let them sit in the office and draw stuff but now that has been dramatically reduced for the obvious Insurance reasons.
Some people resort to taking part time hours during the school holidays or working from home, then either booking them into a Soccer School or Swim School or other forms of sports related Schools, or, staying home working and looking after kids that way.
With Vacation Care, a lot of providers do a first come, first served policy. This means that when they announce they will be open for registrations you have to get there quick to put your kids name down, they don't allow you to put the childs name down too far in advance due to timewasters and also to TRY and give some fairness to it all.

Re: Child Care
 

We used to cover school holidays in a variety of ways:
1. You take a weeks leave (one week covered)
2. Your partner takes a weeks leave (two weeks covered)
3. You share care with a friend. They take a different weeks leave to you and they look after your kids. You do the same with their kids while you are on leave. (three or four weeks covered)
4. You send the kids to vacation care for a couple of weeks (rest of the summer hols are covered).

We always used the UNSW sports camps during the holidays. Never had a problem booking them in. Heaps of various activities for the kids and it was close to home.

Re: Child Care
 

This is a very interesting thread,Im sure loads of us with kids have wondered about the same thing.
I was a qualified nanny, up until I gave up when I had my kids.Have 17 yrs experience as a nanny/ maternity nurse. In Uk, it WAS, not sure if it still is, fairly easy to find work as a nanny. Does anyone know if people here use them, or is daycare more the order of the day.
I am thinking maybe people are more likely to use au pairs here ?

Re: Child Care
 

You rely on your network of friends a lot !

Re: Child Care
 

depends...some will prefer quality, some will prefer a cheap Asian housemaid who will Nanny/Au Pair/General dogsbody..that sort of thing and YES it exists very much here.

Re: Child Care
 

Thank you, Am looking at going back to work in the very near future,and as thats what I enjoy doing,and have the relevant experience/references, I would like to step back into that. Its good to know that some people would be happy to use a nanny,was thinking that many people use day care facilities instead. :thumbsup:

Re: Child Care
 

Just reading this with great interest as our will be 3 or 4 by the time we make it to Oz.... the costs' of day care are huge! and relying on friends is not easy when your new to a country / area... more challenges ahead :-) still very excited!!!:D

Re: Child Care
 

I'm not sure of the UK anymore as we have been gone too long and it may be the same but you will get 1/2 the childcare costs back over here as long as your salaries are below a set amount and you have to be earning quite a lot to not get anything back.

My boys go to afterschool care and the occasional vacation care and we do get 1/2 back every three months which comes in very handy.....

But we also juggle holidays like all working parents and only actually go away as family for a week at Christmas.

Re: Child Care
 

ONly if you are on a Permanent Visa, if on a Temp Business Visa you do not get any rebate for child care costs.

Re: Child Care
 

FYI, there is no income limit to get half the childcare costs back (childcare rebate). Everyone gets it regardless of income if you are a PR and meet the work/study test.

The income limit only applies to the childcare benefit which can make childcare even cheaper depending on income.

If you have PR I think childcare is quite good value....the only problem is you have to pay it for more years as paid schooling starts later.

Re: Child Care
 

This is such a cool / interesting / educational forum...:thumbup: As we are trying to get to Oz using the skills required we then should be able to get 1/2 costs back!!! wow, that would make a difference. In the UK at the moment, depending on where you are and the nursery (3 months - 4 or 5 depending on month of birth) your looking at anything between £650-900 per month for full time and of course they are open over school holidays....

One more question if I may, in the UK we have the childcare vouchers system, which basically means that a max of £410 is deducted from your pay before tax and get's paid direct to the nursery / childcare provider as long as they are registered, which makes a small tax saving... anything like that in Oz? :)

Re: Child Care
 

I work in childcare as a family day care educator, the majority of us also provide vacation care. We are only allowed 4 under school age and 3 school age at any one time. For me vacation care works really well and it's great to have some older children around. You'll find it's probably cheaper than a centre and flexible on hours - you only pay for the hours you book. Child care benefit and the child care tax rebate still applies aswell. I suppose it depends what sort of care you're after. Additional bonus of family day care is that once you're registered you can book in whenever you like - evenings if you need a noight out, I do overnight too but not many are registered too, and also weekends so if you desperately need a Saturday to get something done. I have a 10yo daughter who loves staying with me throughout the school holidays but she also has a couple of days with a friend at the movies or last term she went and spent the day at the animal welfare league. It all depends on what you're looking for.