Presentations to the Workshop on Out-of-School Hours Care

and Women’s Labour Force Participation:Innovations in Provision & Supply

Wednesday 21 March 2012Women’s College, University of Sydney

Australian Government Support for Outside School Hours Care

Matthew HardyBranch Manager, Early Childhood & Child Care Programs

21 March 2012

• Context

• Who can use Outside School Hours Care services?

• Who uses Outside School Hours Care?

• Australian Government Support for Outside School Hours Care Services

Overview

Context

• Australian Government investment

• Child Care Benefit and Rebate

• Across all service types there are more than 15,000 CCB approved services

Who can use outside school hours care?

• No restriction on age of children by the Australian Government

• Majority of children enrolled in a service must be attending school

• Must be in line with priority of access guidelines

Number of approved outside school hours care services: June quarter 2011

Service Type Quarter Change June 10 – June 11

June 11

Outside School Hours Care 7,891 5.3%

- Before School Hours Care 2,395 8.2%

- After School Hours Care 3,314 4.7%

- Vacation Care 2,182 3.1%Source: Child Care Management System, DEEWR

Who uses outside school hours care?

Jun-110

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

Before School Hours CareAfter School Hours CareVacation Care

Number of children using approved outside school hours care: June quarter 2011

Who uses outside school hours care?

Source: Child Care Management System, DEEWR

• Child Care Benefit (CCB)

• Special Child Care Benefit (SCCB)

• Grandparent Child Care Benefit (GCCB)

• CCB for registered carers

• Child Care Rebate (CCR)

• Jobs, Education and Training Child Care fee assistance (JETCCFA)

Support for families

Child Care BenefitCCB expenditure paid as fee relief: June quarter 2011

Service Type June 11Quarter

(‘000)

Financial Year 2010-11

(‘000)

Outside School Hours Care

$39,332 $158,566

- Before School Hours Care

$5,283 $19,008

- After School Hours Care $22,259 $81,270

- Vacation Care $11,790 $58,289

Source: Child Care Management System, DEEWR

Child Care Rebate

Estimated entitlements: June quarter 2011

Service Type June 11Quarter

(‘000)

Financial Year 2010-11

(‘000)

Outside School Hours Care $43,447 $151,343

- Before School Hours Care

$8,305 $27,260

- After School Hours Care $28,330 $94,585

- Vacation Care $6,811 $29,498Source: Child Care Management System, DEEWR

Special Child Care BenefitExpenditure paid as fee relief: June quarter

2011Service Type Special Child

Care Benefit Expenditure (‘000)

Outside School Hours Care $810

- Before School Hours Care

$65

- After School Hours Care $233

- Vacation Care $513

Source: Child Care Management System, DEEWR

Support for services include:• Child Care Services Support Program,

which incorporates:

− Community Support Program

− Inclusion and Professional Support Program

Support for OSHC services

Community Support Program

•Provides funding for OSHC services in the first 12 months of operations, and those eligible thereafter.

•Eligibility for ongoing funding depends on service’s size and location.

Community Support Program•Eligibility for ongoing funding depends on:

• the service’s average number of utilised places,

• the remoteness area of the service as measured by the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA Plus), and

• The socio-economic status of the community, derived from the Socio Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA).

Inclusion and Professional Support Program (IPSP)

The IPSP comprises the following elements:

• Inclusion Support Program

• Professional Support Program

National Quality Framework

• New national quality system

• Australian Government investing $273.3 million

• Key components

• Commenced on 1 January 2012

16

Questions?

Outside school hours care: social gradients and patterns of use

Rebecca Cassells and Riyana MirantiNational Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM)

Out of School Hours Care and Women’s Labour Force Participation Workshop, University of Sydney

21st March 2012

20

Why OSHC?

● Use of all forms of child care has increased substantially, concurrent with maternal LFP

● OSHC places have been increasing over time, and is predicted to rise by 40% over the next 20 years (Productivity Commission, 2011)

● Middle years emerging as an important policy focus for children. (ARACY, UNICEF)

● Child and family welfare benefits

21

Our study

● Key focus: patterns and transitions of OSHC care

Socio-economic gradients Use of care by age of children Average hours of care Problems and difficulties with care

Data

● Data = HILDA, in-confidence, child level, Wave 9, 2009

● Children – At school, 5-12 years old, parents working

● Care use during school term

● Around 1800 children The HILDA project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either FaHCSIA or the Melbourne Institute.

Quick stats

Similar findings to LSAC/child care survey/census

3 in 10 using any care

1 in 10 using formal OSHC

Greater % of single parent families using any care and formal OSHC.

Formal OSHC SEIFA

Income quintiles

Transitions

Average hours of care

Problems/Difficulties

Summary

● Clear social gradient for child care usage, those from more affluent areas much more likely to be using child care than those who are not

● Children living in low income families are much less likely to be using formal OSHC than those in high income families.

● Evidence of transition points

● Many households experiencing difficulties with care access.

Outside school hours care: social gradients and patterns of use

Rebecca Cassells

rebecca.cassells@natsem.canberra.edu.au

Outside school hours care and maternal employment

Kelly Hand and Jennifer Baxter

OSHC workshop, Sydney, 21 March 2012

Outline of presentation

Contextual information Maternal employment and school-aged children OSHC and maternal employment

Paid work and childcare: key themes from qualitative studies Employment arrangements and attitudes Child care issues & children’s perspectives

MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT

Maternal employmentHours of paid work by age of youngest child

Source: LSAC B cohort (waves 1- 4), K cohort (waves 1-4)

Not-working mothersReasons for not working, by age of youngest child

Source: LSAC B cohort (waves 1- 4), K cohort (waves 1-4)

Family includes: prefer to look after children, too busy with family

Jobs includes: no jobs available, can’t find a job with enough flexibility

Childcare is can’t get suitable child care

Money/benefits includes: it’s not worthwhile with child care costs, would lose government benefits if worked

Other is likely to include ill health, disability, caring

OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE AND MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT

Before school careby age of children and mothers’ usual weekly working hours

Source: LSAC B cohort (wave 4), K cohort (waves 3,4)OSHC = Outside school hours care

After school careby age of children and mothers’ usual weekly working hours

Source: LSAC B cohort (wave 4), K cohort (waves 3,4)OSHC = Outside school hours care

School holiday careby age of children and mothers’ usual weekly work hours

Source: LSAC B cohort (wave 4), K cohort (waves 3,4)OSHC = Outside school hours care

QUALITATIVE FINDINGS

Qualitative data

Work and Family: the Family’s Perspective (W&F)

The Family and Work Decisions Study (qualitative component) (FAWD)

The Life Around Here Study (LAH)

Employment arrangements and attitudes

Most mothers reported that once their youngest child was at school they either returned to work or increased their work hours

Some mothers returned to work due to external pressures such as financial reasons or pressure from partners

Most work part time

Employment arrangements and attitudes

Some mothers decided not to return to paid work once their youngest child had started school. Reasons included:

Access to appropriate child care Concerns about use of non-parental care Desire to be available to participate in child’s

school life Difficulties managing sick days,school holidays etc

(lone mothers) Lack of informal care alternatives (lone mothers)

Employment arrangements and attitudes

The thought of after school care would be the thing that would kill [the idea of returning to paid work] for me. I’m not interested in after school care, or before school care. I want to be there for my children.

(Couple mother, 4 children aged 6 to 16, not in paid work)

Managing paid work and child care

Most employed mothers work part time Many try and limit work hours to school times Some take unpaid leave during school holidays Formal before and after school care and school

holiday care - try and limit this Mix of formal and informal Informal care from family members used by many -

but can be stressful and often unstable Small number use self care or sibling care

Managing paid work and child care - barriers

Availability of work during school hoursCost of child careQuality of care availableWorking outside of normal business hours

(lone mothers)Children refusing to attend child care Impacts on wellbeing of children - using

OSHC can make for a long day

Barriers: cost of formal care

The cost on one child for child care isn’t a great deal, but when you're multiplying it, it is a lot more, and for bigger families there's no adjustment… Particularly working families, I mean, if you're not working, it’s negligible. But when you're working, it’s a big outlay. And there's a fine line in the income, from when you're eligible for a health care card, and when you're not. You might only be earning $10 more, or $50 more, a week, than someone who’s eligible, and you're not…(Couple mother, 5 children in household aged 8 to 15, works part time hours, uses family care)

Barriers: quality of care

I use family day care and I have a really, really good family day carer. I’ve had some pretty shocking ones and just about decided to give up paid work because of it. But with a good family day carer where you feel that she does at least as good a job as you do it’s easy to leave the children and just forget about them while you’re at work. I don’t feel that I could work if I was constantly thinking, “I wonder what the children are up to and if they’re being cared for properly (Lone mother, 5 children aged 5 years to 20 years, works full time hours, evening and overnight shift work)

Barriers: non-standard work hours

Being a nurse …I have to drop my children off so early in the morning so that I can, in order to start at 7AM shift somewhere. Which is really tricky. Having to get them up and take them physically to someone else to look after, and then get them to school, It doesn’t seem a fair thing to do for them…The ideal thing would be to have a babysitter come in and look after them but it’s just totally out of my price range. Couldn’t possibly do it. (Lone mother, 3 children aged 6 to 11, not currently working due to lack of child care at right time)

Barriers: child refusing to attend care

If a couple of your good friends weren’t there it wasn’t much fun. And they much preferred to be home. Much preferred. That’s why I quit that first job,…they used to have to go to after-hours care for two hours for two days a week…you should have heard the whinging and the groaning at that! (Couple mother, 3 children aged 10 to 16, works part time)

Barriers: impacts on children

Some of the children get dropped off at seven o’clock in the morning and don’t get picked up until six o’clock. And that’s an awful long time at school. (Couple mother, 3 children aged 6 to 9, neither parent employed)

Self care : positive

I drop the children off in the morning. And get back here, my children actually catch the bus home, and they are here on their own til I finish, which is 5.30, which is not too bad ‘cos if they have any problems they can come next door or I can come down and check on them, make sure they’re ok. But they come and see me, and I let them in, so I know that they’re home. (Lone mother, 2 children aged 8 and 9, works part time, lives next door to workplace)

Self care: negative

Yesterday I worked until 7. I rang him at quarter to five and said how are you? I'm bored…I don't like it here on my own. I can't relax at work….once I know school’s finished ‘cos I think I should be home, what’s he doing, probably boiling the kettle to make food, so I don't relax, but I do it… It gets me down in the morning thinking about having to do it… sometimes I say to him, you gotta do it buddy, we need money. I said you’ve got pretty much the best of everything. You can look in his room, you’ll see. I've got to do it. This is how it has to be (Lone mother, 1 child aged 10 years, does seasonal/casual work)

Sibling care: positive

He [youngest child] was probably about ten when I started working at the hospital and that was a definite, I am here, you can ring me, and hopefully they’ll put you through. I felt at ten, I mean his older brothers were here too, I didn’t leave him on his own when he was ten, but his older brothers were here, so that would mean his older brother was like 15 or 16, so I felt that was ok. (Lone mother, 3 children – youngest aged 15 still at home, worked when children small, currently studying)

Sibling care: negative

The older children sometimes get them ready for school. Put them on the bus or get them off the bus and get them ready for them bed. But I was finding if I did that too often, my son was getting a little bit bullying. He saw it as a chore…And I just thought it was better all round to have child care.(Lone mother, 5 children aged 5 years to 20 years, works full time hours, evening and overnight shift work)

Conclusion - key themes

Mothers’ views about combining parenting and paid work when their children are of primary school age are diverse

Most mothers prefer to work part time when their children attend primary school

Being available to care for sick children and accommodate school activities and school holidays are important concerns for mothers

Conclusion - key themes

Barriers to employment and/or child care use include: perceived impacts on children; quality; cost; child refusals and lack of availability of care for non-standard work hours

Some mothers see self care and sibling care as appropriate for older primary school aged children while others have used it but are concerned about child safety/wellbeing

Acknowledgements

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is conducted in a partnership between the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The following researchers have also made significant contributions to the qualitative studies referred to in this presentation:

Virginia Lewis and Jacqueline Tudball (F&W) Jody Hughes (FAWD) Matthew Gray, Daryl Higgins, Shaun Lohoar and Julie Deblaquiere (LAH)

The findings are those of the authors and should not be attributed to FaHCSIA, AIFS or the ABS.

‘In Betweeners’ – Too Old for Care?

Archaeology

Art, and/or Craft

Biology, Human Biology and Botany

Chemistry

Drama, Dance and/or Music

Earth Sciences and Geology

Engineering

ICT

Literacy

Physics

Role Play and Immersion

Workshop Themes

Archaeology

Architecture

Art, and/or Craft

Biology, Human Biology and Botany

Chemistry

Cooking and/or Food Science

Drama, Dance and/or Music

Earth Sciences and Geology

Engineering

Forensics and Problem Solving

ICT

Life skills

Literacy

Physics

Popular Culture and/or Excursions

Role play and Immersion

Swish Education Workshops By Theme and Number

Archaeology Chemistry Engineering Literacy

K1 Digging Archaeology 2 Professor Makin A Mess 8 0 Lit Wits 6

23 Digging Archaeology 2 Professor Makin A Mess 8 Engineer Enrico 4 Lit Wits 2

456 0 Chemical Chaos 2 Construction Instruction 8 0

Architecture Cooking and/or Food Science Forensics and Problem Solving Physics

K1 Amazing Architects 4 International Chef Mr. Ican Cooke 8 Detective Trish 4 Phoebe Physics 4

23 Amazing Architects 4 International Chef Mr. Ican Cooke 8 Detective Trish 4 Phoebe Physics 4

456 Architectonics 4 Food Safari 8 Welcome to the Crime Lab! 4 Phenomenal Physics 2

Art, and/or Craft Drama, Dance and/or Music ICT Popular Culture and/or Excursions

K1 Art Starters 8 Presenting a Swish School Musical 4 0 0

23 Take Part in Art 8 Take a Bow! 4 Bitmonkeys 2 0

456 SmartArt 8 Act Up! 8 Bitmonkeys 8 Awesome! 8

Biology and Botany Earth Sciences and Geology Life Skills Role Play and Immersion.

K1 Dr. B. Ologist 8 0 0 Imagination Nation 24

23 Dr. B. Ologist 8 What a Weird World 8 0 Creative Natives 14

456 That’s Life 4 0 The Skillage Village 8 Extraordinary Encounters 8

New 'Inbetweeners' Workshops

Architecture Life Skills

Helter, Skelter We need a Shelter Made for First Aid

A Day in the Life of an Interior Designer Life's Toolbox

Design a Theme Park Kids Versus the Wild

The Fine Art of Etiquette

Cooking and/or Food Science Popular Culture and/or Excursions

Food Safaris x 8 Flash Mobs!

All Things Chocolate Voyage of the Vampires

The Zombie Apocolypse is Here!

Dominoes Everywhere!

Forensics and Problem Solving My Youtube Clip

What Happened Here? (Forensics/Role Play) My Restaurant Doesn't Rule - It Rocks

Hey that My DNA! You're in the Army Now!

Who Mudered Lord Rich N. Powerful The Great Race

Laboratorium Nerf Gun Wars

Would I lie to You? Thriller fx