What parents want from long day care

Date: 13 May 2008

The first comprehensive national survey of what parents want from long day care (LDC) is released today.

"Caring staff" are the most important criteria for ensuring parents are happy with the childcare. Quality of education programs is a priority when choosing a LDC centre but parents believe staff are more qualified than they actually are.

The survey was commissioned by the LHMU the childcare union. Louise Tarrant, LHMU National Secretary says:

"This survey reveals educational programs in long day care are important to parents and capable staff are the most important indicator of parents' satisfaction.

"To support families the Australian Government needs to invest in the qualifications of all staff delivering early childhood care and education.

"Working parents say they need the hours of long day care and they expect staff in long day care to be qualified to meet their children's care and development needs.

"The Government has promised to fund major changes to childcare in the Budget. This funding needs to be invested in improving qualifications of all childcare workers who deliver care and education programs to children.

"Parents confirm the Government is on the right track with its promise to invest in 15 hours of teacher-led education for 4 year olds. This must be available to children in long day care for the sake of working families.

"There is a well-documented skills crisis in Australia's early childhood sector. The Government won't be able to achieve its goals in early childhood development unless it invests in this workforce.

"This workforce investment needs to be directed to the services working families actually need and use. That means the Federal Government needs to invest in the qualifications of long day care staff."

Key findings of the parent survey:

• Parents are very satisfied with LDC, with 85% ranking their satisfaction as 8 out of 10 or higher
• Caring staff are the main reason for parent satisfaction (45%); child loves the LDC (22%); good environment (16%)
• 59% want LDC to focus more on early learning activities for all age groups
• Only 1% think of childcare as "just a babysitting service"
• 90% of respondents' children spend between 7 and 11 hours per day at LDC, with the average being 8 hours
• 71% of parents work more than 21 hours per week; 80% of their partners work more than 36 hours per week
• 32% of parents use other types of care including grandparents in addition to LDC. The main other type of formal childcare used is preschool.
• Parents chose a specific LDC centre for quality of care (68%); close to home (46%); close to work (42%)
• Only 1% of parents are not "at all satisfied" with their LDC (ranked 1 out of 10), the main reasons being poor planning of care and development programmes; lack of qualified staff and high staff turnover
• 35% think childcare is affordable with the Government childcare rebate
• Most parents over-estimate the qualifications of LDC staff: 62% believe, falsely, that 1 in 4 or more staff at their centre have a university degree; 20% believe, falsely, all childcare workers have a relevant degree or diploma.

There are no mandatory national minimum qualifications for childcare workers. Only in Queensland are staff required to hold qualifications to work with children.

28% or 71,000 four year olds are in LDC (ABS Child Care Census, 2005).

7 May 2008

For further information

WWW:	http://www.lhmu.org.au

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