Childcare centres offer giveaways as fees soar

Childcare centres are giving away $1000 gift cards and iPads to lure parents to enrol their kids. But dozens of Queensland suburbs are suffering fee hikes. HOW YOUR SUBURB RATES

DESPERATE daycare centres are giving away $1000 gift cards and iPads to lure families struggling to pay double-digit fee hikes.

Childcare costs soared 9.4 per cent across Queensland in the year to September – but parents in dozens of Brisbane suburbs and regional towns been hit with even higher fee increases.

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In the Granite Belt, families were slugged with a 25 per cent increase in daycare costs, averaged across 11 childcare centres, The Courier-Mail’s exclusive analysis of federal Education Department data reveals.

In Bundaberg, families paid 23.4 per cent more, while costs jumped nearly 20 per cent in the Burnett region, Gympie and Maryborough.

Fees soared at least 15 per cent in Strathpine, Sandgate, Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Browns Plains, Robina on the Gold Coast, the western Darling Downs, Cairns South and Springfield-Redbank.

In the northern Brisbane suburb of Chermside, Genius Childcare — which charges $130 a day for care — is offering parents thousands of dollars in Westfield gift cards for every new child enrolled.

A spokesman for the centre said parents would be given a $500 voucher after attending five weeks of paid childcare, and another $500 voucher after the tenth week.

“The offer is per child so if you are enrolling two children then you would receive $2000 worth of vouchers after 10 weeks of paid care,’’ he said.

Some centres are offering free iPads for new enrolments — inducements that are indirectly funded by taxpayers, who heavily subsidise childcare costs for working families.

Kids Club is paying a $500 finder’s fee to parents who refer a friend to its centres in Kedron, Taigum and Brisbane city.

Parents pocket $100 for every day a friend’s child is enrolled – $300 for a three-day week or $500 for a full week’s enrolment.

Sesame Lane, which has 15 centres in Moreton Bay, is offering $200 Visa gift cards to parents who refer new families whose children attend for at least six weeks.

Australian Childcare Alliance vice-president Nesha Hutchinson yesterday said a glut of childcare centres was driving up the cost of care and forcing daycare owners to compete for children.

She said new rules forcing large Queensland childcare centres to employ two university qualified early childhood teachers from January 1 next year was also fuelling costs.

“The fixed costs of staff and rent don’t change if there aren’t enough kids,’’ she said.

“Offering gift vouchers is one way of getting families through the door.

“Just before Christmas, in an economy that’s tanking, $1000 is a lot of money.’’

The Parenthood spokeswoman Megan O’Connell said childcare centres “should be competing on quality, availability and costs, but not on incentives for parents’’.

Federal Opposition childcare spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said that “offering cash or other gifts to induce enrolments does not meet community expectations’’.

“Considering the Commonwealth invests close to $8 billion a year on the child care subsidy, we urge the Federal Government to ban these types of inducements,’’ she said.

Education Minister Dan Tehan said yesterday he had asked his department to check if gift card offers comply with Family Assistance laws.

“Child care providers are required by law to pass on the full Child Care Subsidy to the family as a fee reduction,’’ he said.