How Much Does Childcare Cost Per Day in Australia?

Nowadays, enrolling your child in daycare is almost inevitable since the majority of us cannot afford the luxury of bringing them up on our own due to things like travel, work or study. Put simply, childcare is allowing someone else to help look after your baby before they are old enough to attend school. 

In Australia, you seek childcare service mostly before your child turns five or eight. There are several options through which you can have someone look after your child as you work, study or travel for business and other reasons. The most common options in Australia are:

1. Nanny/babysitter: You can opt to hire someone fully (nanny) or partially (babysitter) to watch over your baby at home. This person attends to your child needs including their hygiene and feeding.
2. Relative care: Here, you let your parent, partner, sibling or any other trusted relative watch over your child in your presence or when you leave to attend to matters away from home. 
3. Family daycare: This situation allows you to leave your child at someone else’s home. Here they could be watched on their own or with others left by other parents.
4. Centre-based:  Daycare centres are popular across the world and allow you to leave your child with professional caretakers who engage them mostly in play-based learning and interaction.
5. Outside school:  Your child could be old enough to attend school but they still need care when you haven’t come from work or when you work during weekends. This option takes care of such situations.

Next, let’s look at the child care cost per day in Australia. Unfortunately, there’s no standard or fixed amount that applies across all the centres for childcare in Macquarie Park and Lindfield. Several factors come into play that then define how much you will pay. 

Factors That Determine Child Care cost Per Day In Australia

Childcare center in Australia come with different services tailored to suit different parents’ needs and budgets too. To know how much your preferred childcare option costs, you need to know the top factors that determine the pricing. They include:

1. Services Provided 

All across Australia, including in Lindfield, childcare usually comprises a number of services all aimed at looking after your baby in the best way possible. Some centres may have modern play stations, snacks in between meals or even transport to and from home. These services all influence the amount you will pay.

2. Staff To Children Ratio

A daycare centre that has more staff to cater for the children may charge higher than one with an unbalanced staff to children ration since they’ll eventually need funds to pay these staff. In Australia, the recommended ration of educator to children of this age falls between 1:5 and 1:10.

3. Activities

Just like with schools, different childcare centres will offer different services other than the usual watching and care. In Australia, there are those that will engage your baby more in physical activities than in social ones. Others will add cognitive related activities to ensure your child gets the best. The more the activities, the more the amount you will pay.

 4. Attention Needed

Children have different wants and centres that offer childcare in Lindfield and Macquarie Park try to meet these needs. If your child, for instance, has a special need, due to a physical or mental disadvantage, these centres will offer your child the special care suited for them. The charges will be determined by how much of such attention your baby requires.

5. Age

Your child requires different levels of attention at different stages in their life. When they are younger, they require someone to help them feed, potty train or even change clothes. This changes as they grow older and start doing little activities for themselves. Childcare centres in Australia price their services based on the age of your child to ensure they deliver the right amount of attention.

6. Location

Due to licensing regulations carried out by different states in Australia, centres for childcare in Lindfield, New South Wales are likely to charge different from the ones offering similar services in Victoria. Closeness to major centres or amenities may also see price differences in daycare centres even when they are of the same calibre.

7. Child Care Subsidy

The Australian government runs a program that takes care of part of your childcare fees depending on your income, what you do during your non-working hours or even the number of children you put up for care. Child Care Subsidy is also determined by the daycare centre or family you choose to entrust your baby to.

With all this information in mind, you can easily decide which plan and centre best works for you without hurting your pocket, and depending on what you want for your baby. All around Lindfield and Macquarie Park, the average charges after considering all the above factors range between $10 and about $30 per hour.