Brisbane mum Toni Francis and children Brian, 4, and Ruby, 2. Ms Francis is worried about finding full-time care for Ruby. PIC: Glenn Barnes Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
CHILDCARE centres are scrapping places for babies as working parents wait up to two years for day care.
Three in every four long day-care centres in Australia's capital cities do not have vacancies for babies, a new survey reveals. And two-thirds do not have places left for toddlers.
Brisbane parents are having to wait up to two years for a place, forcing them to quit their jobs, rely on grandparents or hire expensive nannies or unqualified babysitters.
The Greens survey of 231 private and community day-care centres nationally in the past week shows that vacancies for babies have fallen 10 per cent since 2010.
In Brisbane, nearly one in three centres has a waiting list for enrolments stretching one to two years.
Of the 36 centres surveyed, more than a quarter of these have waiting lists of six to 12 months.
Brisbane parents are paying an average of $76 a day for day care.
More than three quarters of the Brisbane centres do not have vacancies for babies and 61 per cent have no room for toddlers.
Australian Childcare Alliance president Gwynn Bridge yesterday said some Brisbane parents were putting their unborn babies' names down on up to 14 waiting lists at once.
But some centres were closing their nurseries because they cost too much to run.
Centres must employ one carer for every four babies and toddlers up to the age of two.
But for the over-threes, centres only need to employ one carer for every 11 children.
Ms Bridge said the Federal Government should pay parents a higher subsidy for babies to cover the higher fees.
"It is unviable for services to provide baby care with the same rate of (government) subsidy as older children," she told The Sunday Mail.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the survey showed the availability of day care for babies had fallen by 10 per cent over the past three years.
"Obviously there is a looming crisis in the sector," she said.
"The government needs to be doing far more to improve both the quality and availability of childcare while also helping mums and dads cover the costs."
The Federal Government will spend a record $4.4 billion on childcare subsidies and rebates to parents this financial year, Treasury budget papers show.
Federal Childcare Minister Kate Ellis has blamed the states and territories for the shortage of places, and demanded they fast-track planning approval for new centres.
Toni Francis, from Bardon, in Brisbane's west, said she was worried about finding a full-time place in childcare for her two-year-old Ruby.
"At the moment Ruby goes two days a week for the social side of it but I'm going back to study soon and I'm looking for four days.
"Some of childcare places do have room but I want somewhere that's suitable for my kids. The place we wanted in Paddington has an 18 month wait."
Melbourne mum Belinda Galloway applied for a place while still pregnant - yet still had to wait 14 months for Louis to enrol at a Port Phillip council centre.
"I put his name on the list when I was pregnant and when I got back to work there was no spot for him," she said yesterday.
"It forced us into a situation of nanny-sharing with another mum from our mother's group for six months.
"It ended up costing us $400 a week each, so for six months I was pretty much earning half a wage."
Now Ms Galloway pays $50 a day in out-of-pocket costs for daycare.
The new mum hopes she can find a place for her two-month old baby, Archer, by the time she heads back to work part-time, managing a jewellery gallery, in September.
"I do have to go back to work because being a small business, they just can't afford to have me away too long because the position is quite specialised," she said.
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