Provider shamed
LEANYER’S Bridge Family Day Care is the sole Northern Territory childcare provider to land on the Federal Government’s name and shame register of “dodgy” operators.
The Child Care Enforcement Action Register, which shows details of child care providers which have been subject to enforcement action, went live online yesterday.
The register shows Bridge Family Day Care was sanctioned twice in 2017 for providing a false statement or document to authorities and failing to meet reporting obligations.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the website put dodgy providers on notice.
“This register should serve as a warning to providers that if you’re non-compliant and do the wrong thing, you will be hung out to dry,” he said.
In a good news for parents, new figures have revealed the annual growth rate for childcare fees has slowed to its slowest rate in seven years.
After a decade of annual average fee increases of 6.7 per cent, the cost of long day care increased by just 4 per cent to $9.15 an hour in the year to March 2017.
It is the second-lowest increase in the past decade and well below an annual price spike of 14.6 per cent in 2009.
But the Department of Education document, seen by the Sunday Territorian, shows the cost of childcare is still growing
“If you ... do the wrong thing you will be hung out to dry.”
faster than inflation with parents forking out an average of $92 for 10 hours of long day care.
The average fees for all childcare service, including after school care and family day care, was $8.85 an hour, an increase of 3.9 per cent in the past year.
The latest data also revealed that 93 per cent of the 869,750 families using childcare in 2017 received taxpayerfunded rebates, which can cover up to 50 per cent of outof-pocket costs.
The Turnbull Government promised more support for parents when it scraps the annual $7613 cap on subsidised childcare for low- and middleincome families from July.
But Labor’s childcare spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said the cost of childcare would continue to rise over the next four years.
“Any claim that the Turnbull Government’s new childcare package has slowed growth is false as it has not even come into effect yet,” Ms Rishworth said.