Workplace creches: The dream solution to childcare

IMAGINE the easiest possible solution to childcare. There’s no travel, it’s tax deductible and it doesn’t impact your working hours. For some people this is a reality.

Mother and Child Generic

IMAGINE you have a young child and you work full-time, but the desperate search for a childcare vacancy never has to cross your mind. No need to go prematurely grey over the fees either. Oh, and did I mention that you can pop in and see your child during the day? It’s all laid on for you, either subsidised or free of charge, in a highly convenient location. Your workplace.

For most parents, this is destined to remain a figment of our imagination. Many companies subsidise employees’ offsite care or offer family-friendly working arrangements, but only around 3 per cent of organisations in Australia have their own crèche.

Among them is Insurance Australia Group, which is in the process of rolling out holiday childcare at no cost to staff.

“Lack of affordable care can be a significant barrier to parents returning to or remaining in the workforce,” says Donna Walker, chair of IAG’s Diversity Inclusion Action Group.

“So IAG has partnered with Camp Australia, a national provider of out-of-school- hours care, to deliver the holiday program for children aged five to 12.”

32-year-old Ailao is an IAG employee from western Sydney. His daughter and son, aged 11 and nine, get up at 5.45 every morning in the holidays to travel to work in the CBD with him. Don’t the kids resent getting up so early? “No, they have a routine at home and we don’t let them stay in bed late. And anyway they love going to childcare so they don’t mind the early start,” Ailao says.

“Camp Australia does lots of varied activities — some days they will take the children for a walk, maybe to the park or elsewhere in the city. Other days they might go to a museum, a gallery or a funfair.”

Montessori/Pre-School Class Listening to Teacher

It sounds amazing, but IAG says it has no firm plans to include preschool aged children.

Some employers such as government departments, universities, hospitals and big companies such as Optus and Qantas do offer a full on-site childcare service, but places can be hard to secure. One mother who’d used a public service crèche in Canberra told me: “You almost have to kill someone else’s kids to get yours in.”

Tom Hardwick, CEO of Guardian Corporate Early Learning Centres, Australia’s leading provider of corporate child care solutions, says you don’t need to be a mega-corporation to have your own crèche. “The Body Shop created the UK’s first corporate childcare centre when it was still a small company,” he points out.

More and more “enlightened” employers of all sizes are investing to improve retention of their highly trained female staff in particular, Mr Hardwick says. “Some employers will spend a couple of million to build their own on-site childcare centre, but that’s not the only solution. Cheaper options include subsidising childcare places in an external centre, or going into partnership with an operator.”

However, Mr Hardwick adds that on-site care does have advantages: “Under certain conditions, staff can salary-sacrifice on-site childcare fees as an allowable fringe benefit.”

IAG’s Donna Walker stresses the non-financial benefits: “We would certainly recommend providing any form of support and flexibility to employees with children, as it helps ease their concern for caring arrangements, allows them to focus on their work and recognises the important role of parents at home and in the workforce.”

Mums and childcare: What’s NOT working? Have your say in the Kidspot national childcare survey.