The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is a not-for-profit, member-funded organisation advocating for the future of Australia's children.
We work on behalf of long day care owners and operators to ensure families and their children have an opportunity to access affordable, high quality early learning services throughout Australia.
In December 2018 the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) collaborated with the Early Learning and Care Council of Australia (ELACCA) and Australian Community Children’s Services (ACCS) to explore the factors that influence the demand for, and supply of early learning services across Australia.
The result is an independent analysis, prepared by Urban Economics, which examines the results of a national survey of child care operators, looking at available places, enrolment, performance and key issues influencing individual centres and the sector more broadly.
The report reveals that the net increase in long day care centres in 2017 was roughly 2-3 times the estimated number of new centres needed per annum to meet future demand.
In terms of occupancy rates, the report indicates that while these are diverse across regions, significantly, around 20% of regional and remote centres across all states demonstrated occupancy rates of less than 60%.
The report calls attention to that fact that the early learning sector operates under a unique set of circumstances, the result being that increased supply in this sector simply will not bring prices down to increase affordability for families.
You can download the 2018 report here.
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