By Susan Laszlo
The results of a national survey on the effects of federal government funding cuts to community-owned child-care centres are not surprising: good quality care is rapidly becoming out of financial reach for many parents, including for those who work. Community child-care advocates say that, increasingly, parents no longer have a choice — if they opt for formal care, quality is often sacrificed for cost.
The National Association of Community Based Children's Services (NACBACS) released the report Cost versus Quality in September, two months after the government cut the operational subsidy to community-based centres.
The data was collected from 1084 community-owned long-day care centres and their users. The major findings were that: fees in these centres increased by up to $18 per child per week (double the annual fee increase for 1996); in four states the weekly fee for one child in full-time care is now $170 or more (rivalling the cost of private school fees); more than four families in each centre have reduced their hours or left due to rising costs; more than 25% of centres in each state and territory have reduced staff in an attempt to keep fees down; and many centres have been forced to adopt measures which seriously undermine service quality.
According to NACBACS, services with fewer than 40 places have become economically unviable when they are not 100% utilised. "The loss of operational subsidy for these centres, combined with changing utilisation rates, has forced fees up to an unaffordable level."
Nationally, 25 of these small centres have closed and a further 25 will close by the end of the year.
These findings, once again, reveal the "pro-family" Howard government for what it really is: pro-profit.
In 1991, community-based centres provided 56% of all centre-based places. As of December 1996, they provided only 27%.
In its last budget, the government made sure that the privatisation of child-care was stepped up. It reduced child-care assistance funds to community-owned long-day care centres by 2% (compared to 1994-95) and increased it to private centres by 19%. Now 72% of all child-care places are located in the private for-profit sector.
Since 1991 capital funding to the community-based sector has been reduced to cover 2000 places (approximately 40 new centres). This compares to the unchecked and unplanned growth in the private sector.
In at least five states, some centres are charging fees of $190 or more. In NSW and Victoria some are charging more than $200 a week per child in full-time care, and centres in Tasmania and South Australia appear to have experienced the biggest increments in their weekly fees during 1997. A child using full-time care for 50 weeks can cost a family between $6250 ($125 per week) and $11,250 ($225 per week).
This has forced parents to look for informal care (relatives, friends) or to reduce the number of hours in formal care. In at least five states, centres reported losing more than 20 families. Centres in WA and SA experienced the worst losses, with some reporting 50 families leaving and 40 cutting back on hours.
"If the average centre fee for full time care ... is $166 per child per week, an average loss of seven children per centre would mean a loss of $1162 per week in fee income. Since the majority of centres now open for 50 weeks of the year this would mean a loss of $58,100 for one centre. Community owned centres, especially those which have a capacity between 35-45 children, cannot afford to lose revenue like this. It is not a sum that can be recouped through fundraising and the like ... In the event that the resultant vacancies are not filled by new families, centre viability is immediately at risk", the report states.
Also of concern is the fact that many centres have been forced to adopt measures which seriously undermine quality. These include less program planning, restrictions on access to children with special needs, employment of more casuals and juniors, and reductions in the number of qualified and experienced staff.
In an effort to halt the decline of what was once recognised as among the world's best community child-care system, NACBACS is calling on the government to: increase the child-care assistance ceiling for centre-based care to better reflect the cost of care; reinstate the $350 million cut from the children's services program in the last budget; provide financial assistance to voluntary committees of management in the community-owned sector; establish a Senate inquiry into the escalating costs of centre-based care; and abandon moves to restrict child-care assistance eligibility to hours used.
NACBACS says every child has the right to have access to safe, good quality care. If the government continues to encourage the private for-profit sector at the expense of community child-care, NACBACS believes that high quality, affordable child-care will soon no longer exist.