How Flexible Are (Private) Childcare Centres?

[Michaels Mum]

fionas - sorry to bombard your thread like this but i have a similar question - does anyone know if dcc allow for kids to go every other week - or would you have to pay for every week - our situation is that my hubby wroks away 1 week at a time then is home for a week and so the time he does get with ds is precious - if i was to put ds in full time care my hubby would only see him for the 2 days of the weekend he's home - i think i already know the answer i'll get but thought i'd put it out there anyway

[fionas]

Don't worry Michael's Mum - after talking to my DP, we might want to do this too (ie specified days but only on a fortnightly basis) so am interested in knowing the answer as well!

[jmmum]

I would look into occassional care. You can get term bookings in some centres. You pay by the half day or some even have pay by the hour. The only prob is that the term bookings are limited and they have limited hours of operation most from 8.30 to 5.00 but this does vary. Hope this is of some use.

[Astrid]

I posed a similar question to my first childcare centre, as I wanted 2 days 1 week and 3 days the next. They said no, that the chances of someone else wanting the spare day per fortnight would be slim. Looking at this thread though, I say more families would like a similar arrangement than they think.

At the moment I used a combo of childcare (full day) and occasional care. I just book the occasional care as I need it, they are only open for 2 hours, but it is better than nothing or having to pay for a permanent full day.

[mollycat]

i would try family day care - although not all carers will take a child for a half day (sometimes it's hard to fill the remainder of the day) some carers rely on this for income not just extra money. For a roster you might get a carer willing to give you alternate weeks, if they have a child from a non working parent who is willing to take up the other week. Often the minimum hours charged for in family day care are less than in centres (some carers only have a 4 hour minimum charge per day - centres may have ten or twelve hours minimum charge).

[Bathsheba]

It all depends on the centre. But flexibility depends on if a centre can fill each place. If you are going to need a certain combination are they going to find another family to fit in with you (like a jigsaw puzzle).

I would look into a centre that offers occassional care. They ususally have more flexibility. I use a centre that offers half days through occassional care... but you have to ring a week in advance.

[fionas]

OK, I've just asked one childcare centre but from what you've all said this will pretty much be standard.

They said they don't do part-days but obviously you can drop them off and collect them whenever you like.

They also do in-home care (for $20 per hour) which is great but you can't really mix in-home care with daycare. Because I was starting to get excited thinking we'd put her in for the two full days when we're both working days and then get an in-home carer for 3 days x 3 hours for the days when DP is on afternoon shift. But she said most people want daycare on a set number of days per week, hence they wouldn't have 'gaps' for the alternate weeks.

So essentially, our choice at that particular centre seems to be 5 days care in the centre per fortnight (with some of those being half-days or less) OR 2 full days in-home care one week and then 3 x 3 hours the next week.

There's pros and cons to each. In-home care would be great but I need to find out how flexible they will be with start/finish times because DP's shifts are all over the place and he only really finds out the week beforehand. It does mean, however, that DD will get one-on-one care with the same carer with the added bonus that we won't have to worry about drop-offs or collections. Plus, because they're an approved centre we still get the childcare benefit/rebatey thing plus, in turn, the tax rebate for out-of-pocket expenses.