Quality Early Education for All

Table 3: Type of care usually attended by children aged 0-12, by weekly income of parents
Usually attended
care
Usually attended
formal care only
Usually attended
Informal care only
Usually attended
formal and
informal care
Did not usually
attend care
Weekly income of couple parents
Weekly income of single parents
$2500 Total $1000 Total
31.2 39.2 46.9 55.9 54.6 46.2 49.7 58.0 76.3 57.1
10.8 16.1 15.3 19.3 19.6 16.0 11.3 12.1 16.8 12.8
17.2 19.5 23.9 25.9 22.7 22.1 29.1 35.0 43.8 33.5
3.1 3.2 7.9 11.2 12.3 8.1 8.4 9.2 18.7 10.7
68.5 60.5 53.4 44.1 45.3 53.8 50.9 43.2 21.4 42.9
Source: ABS 2015: Early Childhood Education and Care, June 2014 (Tables 6 and 7)
The cost of accessing early education remains a significant barrier to families and the complex funding
environment in the ECEC sector adds to the difficulties families face in making decisions about the cost and
benefit of enrolling their children in early education.
There is currently a two-tier model of preschool funding. Standalone preschools are funded through the National
Partnership Agreement to provide low or no cost preschool for 15 hours per week. Parents are levied low or
minimal fees. Preschool delivered in long daycare (childcare) services is funded through fees paid by parents.
These fees are offset by means-tested, activity-tested subsidies. Fees are often levied for full days even if children
only attend part of the day, so parents may need to fund two or more whole days for their child to receive 15
hours of preschool.
The scenario below is for a median preschool and childcare service in New South Wales and illustrates the impact
of different funding approaches on ‘out of pocket’ costs.
Standalone Government preschool (NSW)
Child A attends a local government preschool 3
days a week from 9am to 2pm
The service receives
$1850 National Partnership Agreement in
funding
Fees are $2.50 per hour for the 15 hours of
attendance
Parents are
$37.50 per week out of pocket
Preschool in childcare service (NSW)
Child B attends a childcare service preschool
program 2 days a week from 9am to 4:30pm
The service receives
$300 National Partnership Agreement funding
Fees are $90.60 per full day of care. Parents
receive 50% rebate on fees.
Parents are
$90.60 per week out of pocket
Quality Early Education for All 15