Aussie Childcare Network Forum

I am currently gaining information on how to become a family day care educator, and how to all works.
I've contacted a scheme but I feel that their levies and salary are a bit of a rip off. They charge $1 per hr levies, and also keep the government subsidy, and I receive the parent gap.
Do all schemes keep the government subsidy?
Or, is the subsidy usually paid to the educator as well as the parent gap?
Thanks

Hi Frido9,
I have never heard of a scheme keeping the gov money are you sure you understood it correctly? You can't possibly work for the gap fee....some parents who are on a 104.7% ccb with 3 kids in care and with the ccr going to reduce the fees it could mean you would only get paid roughly $50 a full week. Then if parents get no CCB and pay you the full fees then the scheme would get nothing. Maybe they meant they collect the ccb + ccr form the gov and pay the difference to you?
The $1 parent levy is cheap now, my previous scheme went up to $1.45hr and my new scheme has just up theirs to $1.05 starting July.
What you are looking for is a scheme that lets you set your own fees, FDC was deregulated many years ago and we have been setting our own fees for a very long time. I always refer new prospective educators to the careforkids.com.au website.....there you can type in your area and educators will come up and you can see what they are charging and you can decide what you will charge so you can be competitive.
How fees should work; you charge an hourly rate plus the scheme parent levy.....ie $7 hr+$1 levy= $8 hour. The childs booking is 40 hours so 40x$8= $320. $40 is levy and your fee of $280 comes to you as CCB+CCR+Parent gap fee and the scheme takes out their levy before depositing it to you, some schemes might have different processes but the fee part should be the same and if not find a scheme that does it this way. FYI you don't have to go with a scheme nearest to you, its easier for support reasons but we have educators here near my area ...North Brisbane...that are registered with a scheme in Victoria.... why I don't know but it is done.
Feel free to ask anything you need
All the best
Linsaa fdc

Thanks so much for your reply. Yes, I completely misunderstood, they take the $1 an hour out of the government subsidy and give me the rest, as well as the parent gap.

There is so much information its so easy to get confused