So recently with the covid 19 and government free child care for essential workers. Has anyone notice child care centres making excuses that your child only can attend reduced days rather than the usual days?
I believe they still get paid by the government but not offering the regular days seems sus. I feel like they either might be pocketing the money and reducing staff.
Did anyone experienced something similar?
Just say they have to give essential workers priority (which we are) and only could only give reduced number of days to the child
Definitely sus. My mum's childcare is running the same schedule as pre covid19.
Note from ours:
Dear Families,
Good morning. Hope you have all been well and enjoyed the last of the sunny days over the weekend. I have received a lot of emails requesting additional/casual days over the weekend. I would just like to go over this process with everyone, since most families have asked whether we have opened up additional days to families. The answer is NO, we haven’t opened up extra days. We are now operating our centre at 75 percent occupancy and capping attendances to limit the number of children in each space. Most of our families, want to return to care and I will do my very best to give you the days that you originally had, however please know that we are taking these decisions in line with the policies around how to keep our children safe and healthy during this pandemic. We are still not allowed to operate at 100 percent occupancy. A good example of this is that, we will have no more than 6 babies on any given day in our nursery. We will also not have more than 7 children in our preschool room on any given day of the week. We have already hit these numbers in our nursery.
I am really thankful to those families, who are returning to care and have been flexible with the days that I have offered them. Since we are really busy Tuesday to Thursday, most of our returning families have been moved to Mondays and Friday’s. This means we are no longer quiet on any day of the week as we manage attendances for returning families. I have attached the return to care form to this post. We need a five-day notice for all families that are returning to care. I should have your notice on a Monday, before my roster is finalised for the next week. For example, today you should be emailing me if you want to send your child to day care next week.
Finally, it is really important that families are abiding by our illness policies. I realize that some families have been upset because children with cold and cough like symptoms have been sent home, but this is an important step to minimize cross infection in the centre. As we approach the flu season, we are going to see an increase in the number of children being sent home. I request you to assess any of these symptoms (runny nose, fever of over 37.5, persistent cough) before sending your child to care, so you are not upset when you receive a call from the centre. We have families who are returning to day care after choosing to self-isolate for over 6 weeks. Their children have had no exposure to any bacteria or germs in the last few weeks, so we want to make sure their transition is smooth.
Please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions regarding your child’s return to care.
Sounds fair
Haha, it sounds like parents are trying to get rid of kids over the weekend since it's free to them now.
Just feel it's supply and demand
I know gov is footing the bill but they are a business. More kids attend then more minders are required.
But what I want to know is if they are getting paid the same days even if the child is forced to attends less
That email seems fine.
Its the 'returning' parents, who likely took their kids out of childcare, and now want to have them go again now that the government is footing the bill, which should have to deal with whatever limits the centre wants to implement.
If you take your kid out, it's back to the start and you get places as they are available.
Well no. The whole point of the gov paying is to ensure parents can keep their kids on the books and maintain their place even if they choose to not use daycare.
that, but my thoughts were it was mostly to allow daycares to stay viable/open for those parents that needed it (and not have 70% of people pull their kid out making the centre non-viable and close)
There's taking the kid fully out which you are unenrolling and temporarily taking the kids out which you still pay like 75% of the fee or whatever is applicable to keep the spot
If you still paid or the gov is paying for those days, don't you think the kids should keep the original spots?
If they unenrolled and not paying and want to get back in. Fully agree they need to line up again.
which you are unenrolling and temporarily taking the kids out which you still pay like 75% of the fee or whatever is applicable to keep the spot
Unware that was an option at some centres.
Ours was pay (and turn up or not) or dont pay and remove yourself from enrollment.
If you were still paying the 75% then you would assume that the spot was still yours and that there should be no practical limitation about returning, yes.
Ya that's what I thought too
If you do some digging into what childcare centres are getting paid, they are actually getting less money to do the same amount of work (well this is for the centre I take my child)
Not this one
They won't budge unless they got the staff
I am thinking they are doing something dodgy
Change centres
everything is good about the place, good educators and activities. Don't want to change
it's management that I have an issue with
Childcares are getting funding at 50% of their cost as per their attendance list at 1/3/2020. They are not allowed to charge anymore. Based on the funding they have, they have to make decisions and prioritise who can come and when.
My childcare had a turn over of almost all staff in last 12 months. That means they are not getting JobKeeper. They have to pay staff and expenses with 50% of revenue. If non essential families want more days, they simply cannot afford the extra staff.
So if full price is $130 government pays them $65 and they can't ask the parents to pay another $65?
Surely if you are electing to pay they would welcome the money?
But I am essential yet they are making excuses they can't handle. Plus I believe they are also pocketing the money for the day my kid is forced away
Under the "free childcare" model, if they ask the parents to pay, they lose their funding
In order to be eligible for this new payment, a child care service must:
Ie, they prioritise … but if they don't have the funds… they're screwed
good read. thanks for the explanation.
What I suspect is that they are pocketing the funds from the gov for the days my child usually attends and only offering less days
Maybe, they shouldn't be reducing days if you've never kept them at home due to COVID. Only restricting if you want more days/coming back from self isolation or chose to voluntarily isolate… in which case your place may have been given to an essential or vulnerable
quite possible… but the go is for the days they were kept home… we were still getting charged 75% of the full rate. how dodgy is that if you said they can't do it or they'll miss out
also we gave them a time frame and they said we'll keep your spot and days… later to break that promise
What exactly are they saying?