The Parenthood Newsletter August 2023

This week Jessica (our CEO) and Maddy (our Campaign Director) are in Canberra meeting with MP’s and Senators to show that this issue affects a large number of families. Find out more about the campaign in this newsletter.

Dear friends and supporters,

Did you know that 50% of families in regional areas and around 80% of families in remote Australia are stranded in ‘childcare deserts’ (an area where there are 3+ children for every available position).

This has serious consequences: parents struggle to work and children miss out on the social, health and educational benefits of early learning.

This week Jessica (our CEO) and Maddy (our Campaign Director) are in Canberra meeting with MP’s and Senators to show that this issue affects a large number of families, workers and communities - and needs urgent attention.

Find out more about the campaign, our survey results on fee increases, and our media training in this newsletter.

Your support means a lot to us - THANK YOU! 🙌 

The Parenthood team
PS. You can follow Jess’ and Maddy’s trip on our Instagram and Twitter.

ACCESS - A BETTER DEAL FOR REGIONAL, RURAL & REMOTE AUSTRALIA
The reality for families living outside metropolitan areas is that they cannot access early childhood education and care where and when they desperately need it. Without a childcare place for their child(ren), parents and carers cannot go to work. Children miss out on the many benefits of quality, nurturing early learning. Workforce shortages are exacerbated. 

It’s a no brainer: access to high quality, affordable early childhood education and care needs to be improved in regional, rural and remote communities! Find out more here.

SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE
Help us convince federal, state and territory governments to improve access to early childhood education and care. Share your experiences with childcare in regional, rural and remote areas. The more stories we share with decision makers, the harder it will be for them to deny that this is an urgent issue which affects their constituents. Rural, remote and regional children, families and communities deserve better! Share your story here.

SURVEY REVEALS: FEE INCREASE FOR MORE THAN 90% OF PARENTS 
Our recent survey reveals that childcare fees have increased by over 10% for 29% of respondents, and by over 15% for 7.4% of respondents. Our calculations show that 8 to 9 per cent fee increases are reasonable, considering inflation and staff shortages but anything beyond 10 per cent is immoral.
“For some opportunistic, cynical providers to put fees up over 10% and in some cases over 15% is just not cricket,” says our CEO Jessica Rudd. “They are taking advantage of the government’s $5.4 billion investment in cost of living relief for families and pocketing the upside. Families are right to be disgusted.” Read more.

MEDIA TRAINING JULY
Are you interested in representing The Parenthood and sharing your experiences in the media??
If so, please join our Media Training on August 15 at 7pm AEST! Run by our CEO, Jessica Rudd, you'll learn: how to talk to the media (print, tv and radio) and how to share your story with the media. If our media stories can reach more parents, carers and decision makers in Australia, then we can grow our movement and achieve the change families deserve!