Child Care price ..makes no sense

Hi everyone,
I just went back to work fulltime and put my daughter (18mths) into childcare. My issue is,.. my son (4) attends childcare also, they go to different centres (due to the everlasting 'our centre doesn;t have any vacancies lol) but are both ABC centres. My sons childcare centre provides everything.. meals and such, but is cheaper than my daughters daycare centre, who provide nothing... i provide everything for her... meals, snacks, nappies. What im wondering is, is this normal for one childcare centre that provides everything to be cheaper than one that provides nothing. I just find it really backwards. Anyway I would love to get any feed back on this .. and if this is the case for most people it would be something that i would love to change, cos it is so wrong !!

It could be based on location- one could have higher building expenses (rent/rates etc.) due to the area.

I found most centres I looked into had slightly different pricing and some different things that they did or did not provide. I was mainly looking into community/council centres as opposed to ABC. The one ABC I did look at though was on par with the community centres for pricing and supplies. I am suprised that ABC centres are quite different to each other, would have expected that whilst pricing may differ a bit (dependent on location), that actual supplies would be the same.

hmmmm maybe ... but they are within a kilometre of each other, it just strikes me as wierd thats all

Alot of the time centres charge more for babies than for older children, due to higher ratios and a higher level of needs of the babies.
As far as I am aware, there is no governing body on what fees are in certain areas. Each centre dictates their own needs in the area of fees. As long as it is reasonable. Perhaps ask the director and point it out to them the differences in prices and what they provide. I know around my area (in sw sydney) there is a pretty big difference in childcare fees. Council centres are all very similar and are based on what is provided- ie nappies/food, but private centres and community based centres have big differences, sometimes up to $10-15.

there are a limit to the adult:child ratios for younger children (1:4 - 1:5) as opposed to anywhere up to 1:15 for older children. as a result, expenses are higher for care for a younger child as there is a requirement for more carers for the same number of children...

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there are a limit to the adult:child ratios for younger children (1:4 - 1:5) as opposed to anywhere up to 1:15 for older children. as a result, expenses are higher for care for a younger child as there is a requirement for more carers for the same number of children...

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Never even occured to me that a centre might adjust pricing by the room, every centre I looked at had the one rate no matter what age. Always learning something new.

the child care centre our kids go to have different rates depending on what "room" they would be in aswell.. Nursey are always more expensive with the pre-preps the cheapest ( mind you its still $54 a day! )

not saying for sure that would be reason Astrid! it's just something i noticed at work the other day - there was something about what the ratios were for adult to child for different age groups. to me, it makes sense that care for a younger child would be more expensive just due to those ratios...

wrt differing services at different centres - what they provide eg meals etc. can also depend on whether they have always been an ABC centre or were previously run by another organisation and have carried over similar services. but yes our centre has different rates for different rooms

Same here - my DD's centre charges nearly $10 a day more for toddlers than they do for her agegroup (kindy). The staff ratio in the toddler room is much higher and the number of children much smaller.
This was the case at most of the centres I looked at.
They only provide morning and afternoon tea -we provide lunch and nappies.
At the end of the day childcare centres are a business like any other and they are entitled to charge what they like to cover their expenses and make a profit which is why you see variation between centres.

The first child care centre that my friend put her DD into was $75/day and they did not provide anything other than nappies I think. But it was located in the CBD. The new child care centre that they have moved her to is $50/day and they supply nappies and afternoon & morning tea. It is located in suburbia. I think location is the key reason for her cost difference. I imagine that the overheads at the first centre in the CBD would have been a lot more.