Although the report was published in August 2013, most of the research related to the period up until September 2012. Since that time there have been some major changes in early childhood.
ACECQA (Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority).
NQF ( National Quality Framework).
NQS ( National Quality Standards).
National Law & Regulation
The National Law and Regulation was no longer the responsibility of The Department of Community Services, it was transferred to The Department of Human Services. There have been over ten ammendments to those regulations in the past two years.
2014 saw the final draft of the findings of the Productivity Commission and $200m from the government injected into professional development in long day care.
However, the biggest changes to childcare since 2012 have been the corporates.
In 2012 there was only G8 with a total of 175 centres in Austalia, in 2013 their portfolio totalled 252. In December 2013 we witnessed the rollout of Affinity Education with 57 centres. In 2014 G 8 increased their portfolio from 252 to 455 and Affinity followed the aggressive accumulation of centres by adding another 95 to their portfolio, taking their total to 152. Late in 2014, along came another two corporate roll outs, Think Education with 34 centres and Evolve ( dual listing) with 73. Corporate ownership grows from 175 centres in 2012 to 714 in 2014.
The ratio changes, will present the biggest challenge to any centre trying to maintain steady profit margins. Most room configurations for that age group will be exactly on current ratio. A room of 16 children currently would have two staff, from 2016 their options would be, 16 children with four staff or reduce the number of children to 15 with three staff. However, the benefits to the children from the increased staff ratios far outweighs the possibility of reduced profits. The only benefit I can see the coporates having over any privately owned centre, is that they possibly would have 'floaters' on staff who could fill the positions created by the ratio changes.
There are good and some not so good childcare centres in both the corporate and private sector. It's not the brand that makes the centre great, it's motivated and passionate staff.
Watching Affinity with interest on Tuesday. Hope you all see green days this week.
Islay
GEM Price at posting:
$3.75 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)