Childcare - help!

[parker]

Hi!
I am currently in the UK and am due to move to Sydney in Sept this year. We have an eight month old daughter.

She's currently in a fantastic day care centre here and loves it and her carers.

Both my partner and I will have to work full time in Sydney so we will need to get daycare for her there.

But its proving very stressful and difficult to organise from this far away. Can anyone help with advice / tips / information?

We are looking for care in the Lower North Shore - does anyone have any good or bad experiences of places round there?

Are family day care places as good or better than day care centres? What training and qualifications do they need to have?

I can't get over the waiting lists - some are over a year. How do people manage to have children and work? And what do you do first - get childcare or a job? With these lists it seems I will have to get her in childcare and then get a job as I can't tell an employer to wait 6 months!

Any help and advice will be very gratefully received!

P

[xkwzit]

Hi
I don't have any experience of childcare centres in Sydney, or of family day care either...but if its anything like Brisbane, you'll find that there are only a few daycare centres that will suit your requirements. We had a pretty basic shortlist of:

nursery care (many centres do not cater for children younger than 15 months)
Food provided (surprisingly few provide lunch or morning and afternoon snacks - and I cannot deal with making lunches just yet)
long day care (it is surprising that there are some centres out there that only offer care from 8am to 4pm - how this works if you've got a job is beyond me)
52 weeks per year (many centres close down for 1 - 3 weeks at Christmas time - which might be important to you)


and we found only one centre in our immediate area covered all these points (and all the carers are GREAT which is v fortunate :) )

The Qld gov has a website that allows you to search for suitable day care, I would guess that NSW would too, the general government address should be something like www.nsw.gov.au and you should be able to search for childcare in your preferred location.

The other thing I would add that I was surprised when I was trying to get DD1 into daycare (she had been on the waiting list for over a year) was that my centre openly commented that the more often I contacted them, the more likely it would be that I would get a spot. They used this as a type of screening tool to decide who to call for the next vacancy (I guess its a measure of your desperation :confused: ). So don't rely on a strictly followed waiting list - make sure you contact them regularly.

Best of Luck

[draught]

I can't comment on Sydney, but can say that we have had a very positive experience with Family Day Care here in Brisbane. My daughter started when she was 12 months old and now treats her carer as a third grandmother. FDC through a local scheme seems to be the way to go (as opposed to private arrangements) - and contacting them regularly will also help. If you do get a FDC place, make sure you are happy with the carer before you accept the place (even if you are desperate) as it is different from a day care centre - there is only the one person for your child and not everyone is as good with babies as they are with toddlers or older children. For NSW contacts I would look in the services section of this website - they list all the state contacts, and then go from there.

We moved interstate when my daughter was 6 months old and the different child care centres laughed when I rang them thinking I had left it so late. I explained that I had in fact had her name down from before she was born in our last state and they were a little more civl then.... so I know how frustrating it can be.

As for what people do - I have friends in Sydney who pay a fortune for a nanny until they get childcare places.

Good luck!

[samecutie222]

lol i am bias because i do nanny/babysitter work and i love the fact i can give these children individual attention most of the time
i mostly take my son as well, so they get interaction and socialising as well in a quiet safe environment

but from a parents point of view it costs a bomb )o;

melissa

good luck with your move.....hope you find a good child care centre, i worked in child care for 2 yrs!

[parker]

Thank you for your advice and information. Its much appreciated as you can imagine how hard it is to do this from all the way over here.

Do you have 'nanny share' in Australia? In the UK parents often get together and employ a nanny between 2 or 3 of them. So the nanny looks after 2 children and their salary is paid by 2 parents. The nanny looks after the children in one of the homes or both on alternating days.
This means that the cost of a nanny for each set of parent equals that of day care.

These kind of arrangements are done privately - though there are organisations that put you in touch with other parents in the area who wish to do nanny share.

I am clearly clutching at straws!

Its just so difficult. Am very surprised as the impression you get from the UK is that Australia is very advanced in these areas compared to the UK. But its easier to find childcare in London which is quite a shock!

It may even be a new career for me - opening up my own child care centre!

[draught]

Yes people in Sydney definitely nanny share as you have described - and they do it privately and through organisations. I am aware, for example, that the Law Society had a register of parents looking to nanny share, and understand that other professional bodies do the same.
And yes - if you have all the qualifications that the government require to open a child care centre you will quickly fill it!