Increase in child care fees - has anyone heard anything???

[Floweryfields]

i read the official ration used to be
one worker to 8 children
now the govt has changed that to
one worker to 5 children (based on reports by early childcare professionals)
(the finer detail is, is that for the baby;s rooms only, or other agegroups too?)
and the govt thinks it will push costs up by something minimally (to increase the ratios), but some of the centres disagree.

i haven't read this, but there may be something extra, like the workers needing to have an early childhood qualification - which means higher pay.
So i would imagine the centres with the most untrained staff would be having the most problems transitioning to the new rules.

i suspect each childcare centre will be affected differently, i'm asking ours today. They already have good ratios and mainly trained workers so i don't expect they'll have much to change.

I met one of the people reporting to the Govt on this issue at our CCC earlier year, they were just collecting data at the time.

In Qld the ratios are now:
1:4 babies
1:5 toddlers (up to 2.5years)
1:8 (up to 3 years)
1:12 (up to school age)

It will now be 1:4 for babies and toddlers up to 2.5
1:6 for up to 3 years
1:11 for up to school age

We had better ratios than other states to begin with. This info is straight from the govt.

And also what Snuggly said! Note to self, read all previous posts before answering! I do think the 50% staff holding diplomas is a great thing, cuts out those centres with lots of trainees and young staff, which in my experience, while cheaper, NOT better!

[Crystalwings]

FDC is going to a ratio of 1-4 in 2014 so it will affect them (and us) but not for a few more years.
The sad part about this is that while CC costs are set to go up, wages for early childhood profesionals are set to go down but thats a whole new thread.

[Indadhanu]

OH wow I thought it came in earlier than 2012!

[Floweryfields]

I guess when you think about it, it can't come in earlier than that as they will have to rewrite the childcare regs with all the new numbers and room configurations, etc in it and all the new qualification rules. Given it's a government agency doing it, it will probably take a long time and a pile of money, sigh.

[Indadhanu]

Ah yeah, that's unfortunately true!