NEW RESEARCH: CURRENT CHILDCARE FUNDING MODEL DRIVES INEQUALITY, EXACERBATES CHILDCARE DESERTS
23 October 2024 – The Child Care Subsidy is driving inequality in access to early childhood education and care and exacerbating childcare deserts, new research from Mandala Group shows [1].
The research finds that over seventy per cent of Australia’s childcare services are run by for-profit providers and that they concentrate in wealthier, metropolitan areas, at the expense of lower socio-economic, regional and rural areas.
Minderoo Foundation’s Jay Weatherill said the findings highlight how the childcare subsidy model is failing Australian families and children.
“These findings demonstrate a critical flaw in the current early childhood education and care funding model,” Mr Weatherill said.
“For-profit providers, who dominate the sector, have little incentive to expand services in areas where parents can’t afford high fees.
“This disproportionately affects lower socioeconomic areas and regional and remote communities – precisely the parts of the country that would benefit most from expanded access to early learning.
“Australians living in urban areas face constantly rising fees that are already unaffordable for most families, while rural and remote Australians struggle to access early learning services at all.
“The only Australians the childcare subsidy works for are for-profit providers.
“To achieve true universal access to early childhood education and care, we must adopt a fixed fee model, with free childcare for families earning less than $80,000 a year and fees capped at $10 a day for all other families.
“By capping fees for all families and preventing providers from increasing them, we can encourage expansion of services throughout Australia, especially in underserved areas.
“A child’s postcode should not determine whether or not they can access the life-changing positive benefits of early learning.
“A fixed fee model will enable us to build an early learning system where all of Australia’s children can have the chance to get the best possible start to life.
