SA’s most expensive childcare fees revealed: Search your suburb

Some South Australian parents are being slugged childcare fees higher than the national average. See the latest figures for your suburb and how they compare.

Exclusive: Parents are paying more than $131 a day in childcare fees in Adelaide, as new national figures reveal prices are rising even higher than Australia’s record inflation rate.

In Newton, in Adelaide’s northeast, the average cost of putting a child in long daycare is now $131.27 – $13.30 more a day than the national average.

Paradise has the second highest daily fees in South Australia with parents paying on average $130.80, or $12.83 more than the national average and in Blakeview it’s $128.50, around $10.53 more than the national average.

Across SA, around half of all providers charging more per day for childcare than the national average.

The data from KindiCare shows that in May and June there was an average increase in daily fees of 7.39 per cent; higher than the most recent inflation data which showed an increase in the CPI of 5.1 per cent in the March quarter.

It comes as thousands of parents are about to be slugged with a second lot of childcare fee rises this year, with warnings a third increase could be a possibility for some.

Two of the country’s largest providers are understood to be about to raise their fees for a second time this year.

For one of those providers, the total increase for the year so far could be as high as 11 per cent.

Australia’s biggest for-profit provider G8, with more than 40,000 kids across 452 centres, has already increased it fees twice, starting with a six per cent jump in January this year and a further increase of 3.9 per cent this month.

Meanwhile, the country’s biggest provider Goodstart, a not-for-profit operator, said it will most likely raise fees for a second time this year too, after a 4.9 per cent rise in March.

Goodstart, a not-for-profit operator, said it will most likely raise fees for a second time this year.

A Goodstart spokeswoman said “unfortunately the early learning sector finds itself in a perfect storm of rising inflation, severe staff shortages and we’re cresting the latest Omicron wave”.

“This is putting all providers under immense pressure.

“At the same time Goodstart has just given our teachers and educators well deserved pay rises of up to 5.6 per cent – well above the award as part of our enterprise agreement.”

The spokeswoman said the industry needs “real action” from the Federal Government in tackling the workforce crisis, including encouraging more traineeships and staff from overseas.

“Childcare has never been more expensive,” Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said
“It’s gone up by 41 per cent in the last 10 years.”

He said Labor’s new legislation due to come into effect in July next year will help 1.26 million families.

He said the staffing crisis is a priority for the new government.

He said it is not just about increasing salaries, but “being champions for teachers and early childhood educators”.

Childcare advocate Georgie Dent, CEO of Parenthood, said Labor’s plans to ease the financial burden for families may come too late for some.

Childcare advocate and CEO of the Parenthood Georgie Dent.

She said a lot of families are “questioning whether they can afford childcare”.

“A lot of families are going to be experiencing significant financial stress,” she said.

KindiCare founder and CEO Benjamin Balk, who runs a website and app helping parents to find childcare provision, warns spiralling costs could even result in some providers introducing a third lot of increases in 2022.

“Childcare costs are going up across the board and it’s the critical workforce shortage that is to blame,” Mr Balk said.

“Centres can’t operate at full capacity but their biggest costs remain the same, forcing them to pass the pain on to parents.”

The childcare subsidy changes that came into effect on March 7 this year for families with more than one child five and under in care may have eased the cost burden for some, but in some cases fee increases are wiping out any benefit.