[The Childcare Chat Team]

ABC announced today the organisation is now owned by GoodStart Childcare and will operate as a not-for-profit business. Click here for the media announcement to find out more. We'd love for you to share your thoughts with others on this announcement and what you feel it means for Australia's children.

[motherof2]

I think this is a fantastic opportunity for ABC to move forward and provide more benefit to children and parents. I also hope that many things change under the new ownership that will result in a lot better value for money for parents.

I have actually just posted the majority of this under another thread and thought this would also be a good thread to get some feedback from the Chat team who started the thread on the areas on which the new areas will make positive inroads to change.

Over 2 children and 7 years I have experienced 5 different centres due to moving houses and all were in exactly the same fee bracket. 2 were independant private and 3 ABC. Of the 3 ABC 2 were independant private centres that were taken over by ABC whilst we were there. With the ABC centres I have experienced 1 absolutely amazing centre. If that was the only centre I ever attended I would think that ABC were child care gods. However the worst centre I have experienced was also ABC with the third ABC somewhere in between. So it goes to show that there is huge variation between ABC centres and from the feedback I view in this forum it would appear that this would also hold true to private independant centres - some parents and staff have experienced great ones and some poor ones. It is also essential to compare cost and inclusion equivalents. It is no point comparing a $70/day ABC centre with a $50/day private centre or a $100/day provate centre with a $70/day ABC centre.

In all ABC centres I noted a couple of consistent things that I have never been able to work out.
1/ Why the quality of food is so poor compared to other independant centres where you pay the same fees. In the 2 centres we went to that were taken over by ABC whilst we were there it was so noticeable and not 1 parent was happy (and yes, we all realised it was not the individual centres fault but rather greed at the other end!). The only happy parents were those of kids new to the centre that never knew any better and thought this was standard. WILL THIS CHANGE UNDER THE NEW OWNERSHIP?

2/ Why the ratio of staff to kids was lower at ABC centres than the other independant centres. At the centres that were private and taken over by ABC we attended they solved this by not replacing staff that left. Again, the fees charged by ABC were not lower due to the lower staff numbers and we were told that it was the 'correct' number of staff to children via DOCs regulations? So we were paying the same for less staff. The trade off was that we were now paying for area supervisors and a costly head office set up instead of staff actually physically looking after the kids. It's NOT a great trade off for parents. WILL THIS CHANGE UNDER THE NEW OWNERSHIP?

3/ The inclusions for the ABC centres were all different. For some nappies were included for some they were not etc and the difference (if any) in fees between ABC centres did not seem to reflect the different inclusions. WILL THIS CHANGE UNDER THE NEW OWNERSHIP?

4/ Centre security was not consistent across the centres. Some you could just walk in and out of and some there was parent PIN and buzzer entry. WILL THIS CHANGE UNDER THE NEW OWNERSHIP?

5/ In all of the 5 centres we noted the following areas where ABC were substandard as compared to the private centres for the SAME money. Maintenance of the buildings and areas, food, staff ratio, craft type consumables (as opposed to 'toys'). Why is this?? WILL THIS CHANGE UNDER THE NEW OWNERSHIP?

[The Childcare Chat Team]

Below is a link to a response by MichelleC on this topic.

http://www.childcarechat.com.au/showthread.php?t=1354

[fee]

A good start might work if you all look properly at how your staff are being treated by your directors cause I know what I was treated like and it resulted in nothing but tears and a hate for abc

[BJ&BEAR]

I agree with Fee, staff including directors and carers need to be managed more appropriately and there needs to be more emphasis on the child-carer relationship. I believe appropriate management (ie. induction training, standard procedures, fortnightly staff meetings, etc) is essential to the overall care and needs of the children. I personnally sent an email to the administrators when ABC collapsed advising of some of the great work that staff were undertaking with limited resources and an uncertain future. Unfortunately, there was no response to my correspondence and staff were never acknowledged for their good work.
Whilst at this point in time I have some major concerns with the current centre my child attends (child - staff ratio not met, food nutritional value below requirements, poor hygiene (ie. child came home with dried poo on their shirt, another had bad rash on bottom as it had not been wiped propertly, dirty bottles used) and lack of supervision, all of which I intend to present to higher authorities, I am hopefully that Goodstart management will start listening to all stakeholders (children, parents, carers, etc) and build upon a better organisation. These children are our treasures, they deserve high quality care.

[The Childcare Chat Team]

Thank you to everyone who has shared their thoughts above. Keep them coming!

While it has only been just over two weeks since the sale completion we have been delivering on the GoodStart commitment to quality for many months now and our centre teams are motivated and encouraged to share their great work with all families and the community.

Given GoodStart is a not-for-profit organisation, each and every ABC Learning Centre is now driven by purpose, not profit. We have the unique opportunity to look at our centres through fresh eyes and work together with parents, staff and the community to continually improve the early learning and childcare services we offer. Some of you have specific questions below that are best answered one on one so we will be in touch via a personal message.

I encourage all of you visit your local ABC and chat to the staff about GoodStart and how it will help them build a bright and strong future for the children in their care.

Kind regards,

Kate from The Childcare Chat Team

[wilkoo]

Thats right , the staff are the most important ingredient for good care , we need more pay as well. I am struggling to pay my bills and working full time, I spend hours catching up on paper work at home and spend at least $20 a week on supplies. I have a diploma qualification and Im currently studying ( bachelor of education ) to improve my money situation.I have a lot of experience but when I finish my course I will probably leave early childcare and go to the school system where my pay will be double. This is a shame for early childcare as all of the qualified staff end up leaving .

[mytwoboys]

Just a note in regards to my confusion as to why we have received a letter detailing a possible fee increase in our centres.

My confusion with this is that I believe Goodstart will be running the centres as a not for profit organisation where as previously it was run as a business for profit.

Why then are fees to be increased when surely the profit which was previousl is to be put back into the centre for further resources etc?

[The Childcare Chat Team]

Hello mytwoboys,

Thank you for your post regarding the fee increase at your centre.

As you mentioned GoodStart is for purpose not profit, which means we will reinvest any centre surplus in improving the care and education we provide. The fee increase will go to meeting the increased day to day costs of running our centres, in areas such as staff costs; rent; educational resources and equipment and quality improvement initiatives. Key factors in the fee review included centre operating cost increases, competition and local community factors.

Over the coming months you will see new initiatives that will enhance the opportunities for children to learn and grow.

Please speak with your Centre Director regarding any further questions you may have.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Kind regards

Kate from The Childcare Chat Team

[fee]

Yep all centres have to do that in order to pay staff and keep the centre running well. JUst check that you have a decent director cause mine was not.