Family Day Care Report on Government Services

Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) Matters

Report on Government Services: Family day care still biggest non-standard hours provider

Last week, the Productivity Commission released its Report on Government Services 2016. The annual report presents data regarding a wide range of government services, including child care, education and training.

The report clearly demonstrates that family day care is the major national provider of approved evening, weekend and overnight care. Data from the report indicates that:

• 7 per cent of family day care services provide care after 6:30pm on any day between Monday to Friday, compared to 1.3 per cent of long day care centres;
• 30.5 per cent of family day care services provide care on the weekend, compared to 0.7 per cent of long day care centres; and
• 4.4 per cent of family day care services provide care overnight, with no data given for long day care centres.

Despite the rising costs of child care, family day care remains one of the more affordable forms of care:

• In 2015, families paid on average $400 per child for 50 hours of long day care, as compared to $341 per child for family day care.
• The national median weekly cost for 50 hours of care increased by 4.9 per cent in real terms for long day care from 2014 to 2015 (up from $381), but decreased by 0.7 per cent for family day care over the same period (down from $344).

At a national level, out-of-pocket costs for families using both family day care and long day care are down when compared to the previous year:

• For family day care, the 2015 out-of-pocket costs after subsidies for families with one child in 50 hours of care were between 7.1 and 9.6 per cent of weekly disposable income, compared to 9.3 per cent and 11.0 per cent in 2014.
• For long day care, the 2015 out-of-pocket costs after subsidies were between 7.6 and 11.1 per cent of weekly disposable income, compared to 9.5 per cent and 11.1 per cent in 2014.

Click here to see the full report.

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