Katina Curtis: Childcare centres tagged for ‘great profits’ underscore the sector’s problems

The new apartment block at the end of my street contains a childcare centre with a big shiny “for sale” sign that went up almost as soon as it opened.

Guaranteed return on investment, it promises. Long-term revenue. Sixty children enrolled with subsidies attached.

Start searching for child care online as a property investor — rather than a parent desperate to find a scarce spot in a suitable location at a decent price where your precious child will be happy — and you see this kind of thing repeatedly.

Listings on centres for sale across Perth note that child care is “one of Australia’s most sought-after asset classes” and talk about the billions of dollars governments are pouring into the “essential service”.

Articles on stock-picking websites suggest investing in child care either through real estate or buying stocks as a go-to for reliable profit.

It jars with me as a parent. My children aren’t “revenue” or “guaranteed return on investment”.

But as governments throw money at a sector that, yes, is an essential service in the modern economy, it has become an increasingly attractive profit-making exercise.

At what cost?

Last week’s arrest of Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown on more than 70 charges of child sexual abuse has focused attention on the state of the sector again.

The horrific details that have come out about his alleged behaviour sent shudders down the spines across the country, parents or not.

It underscored the gaps still in child safety systems.

Now governments are moving faster, but as Education Minister Jason Clare said, there’s no silver bullet.

A big part of why we have this complex system is that it’s developed in a piecemeal way, as government funding and regulation caught up to the demand of working parents for the care that enabled them to work.

Many in the sector and advocates for children, their parents and educators say if you were starting from scratch now, you’d probably cut out for-profit providers.

The research on child brain development is clear now on how crucial the first five years of life are.

That places early childhood education in a space just as important as school for learning and development.

To get any government funding, a school must be registered as a not-for-profit charity.

They’re certainly not listed on the stock market, no matter how many rowing sheds or miniature castles they might be building.

But in the childcare sector, the for-profit elements are thriving.

The collapse 17 years ago of the ABC Learning empire was seen at the time as a turning point for the sector. It led to the creation of Goodstart Early Learning, which continues to be a mammoth non-profit provider.

Yet over the past four years, for-profit providers have grown from about half of all childcare centres to running just over 70 per cent.

The total number of centres has increased, but very little of that growth has been among community-run or non-profit centres.

That shows how lucrative the market views the sector — if you hadn’t already guessed from the real estate listings and the stock market tips.

And there is mounting evidence that corners are cut in the search for profits.

Research from the United Workers Union in 2022 found that for-profit providers were over-represented in compliance actions taken for breaches of safety and quality standards.

They were twice as likely to be rated as still “working towards” at least one of the seven national quality standards.

Those “working towards” rates have lifted now, but non-profit centres are almost three times more likely to be ranked as “exceeding” the standards.

The quality standards themselves have only been in place for just over a decade.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is offering her bipartisan support to quickly pass law changes that give the regulator more powers to inspect centres and for the government to suspend funding where there are repeated and serious breaches.

But it will take much more than this to untangle the sector, increase the availability of care and ensure that every child receives the quality early education they deserve and parents expect.

After years of reporting on childcare policy, I am increasingly grateful that my family found our way to what I now realise was a unicorn of a daycare centre.

Community-run, staff who were there the whole seven years we attended, great education, and sensible fee arrangements like not charging families for a day they didn’t use each fortnight during their kindy year.

New parents have enough stress and things to learn.

Lucking into great child care where their kids aren’t seen as “profit” shouldn’t have to be one of them.