Government Project to boost Child Care places for families

Media Release

The Gillard Government will ramp up efforts to increase child care places for Australian families by shining a spotlight on best practice child care centre planning.

Early Childhood and Child Care Minister Kate Ellis today announced a new study would focus attention on where it is needed most to increase child care availability - local and state planning regimes.

The announcement follows revelations many Sydney council areas have just one child care place for every five preschool-aged child. Many of these councils place onerous controls on child care centre projects in planning regulations.

Ms Ellis said the Australian Government has engaged the University of Technology, Sydney: Centre for Local Government, to undertake the study into the impact of planning on child care availability and develop Best Practice Guidelines for the planning and development of child care facilities.

"Families, no matter where they live, have every reason to expect and demand a child care place in their local area," Ms Ellis said.

"Reports of parents being placed on two or three year waiting lists are a sign that the planning system needs to be looked at. We're now hearing about critical child care shortages from families in major capital cities."

"Child care is no longer used by a small minority of families like it was 20 years ago - there's now a record number of families using child care. The number of children receiving child care has hit one million in a single quarter for the first time."

"However the development of new child care services that can meet the changing needs of modern families is being slowed in some areas because state and local government planning policies have not kept up with demand."

"Development approvals for child care centres are often slow, and some councils have specific restrictions to limit the number of places in new centres, while others have policies to support more places by identifying and releasing land for new centres."

Ms Ellis said the $220,000 project would help increase supply of child care and reduce planning red tape by identifying what works in local planning and what doesn't.

"Some state and local governments are leaders in streamlining child care planning processes and building community support for child care and we can learn a lot from these jurisdictions," she said.

University of Technology Sydney Associate Professor Roberta Ryan who will lead the project said : "This project will be really important because it will allow families to have access to the kind of child care that they want and in the locations that they need as well as supporting workforce participation and economic growth."

Families, councils, developers and child care providers will have the opportunity to shape the development of the best practice guide by sharing their experiences through a public submission process. A second stage will involve stakeholders given the opportunity to review and comment on the draft Best Practice Guidelines.

The Study will address:

" Prioritisation of child care within land use planning;
" Allocation and use of land and infrastructure;
" Development approvals processes, including streamlining of processes for child care developments;
" Size, location and type of services and places offered;
" Role of state and territory legislation in supporting development of child care services;
" The inclusion and prioritisation of children's rights and interests in the planning process; and
" Data required by state and local governments to support effective planning processes for child care.

More information about the Best Practice Guide for the planning of child care is available at  http://deewr.gov.au/