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What does this mean?

In Kids Stats affordability refers to the out-of-pocket costs that families pay for child care.

Why is it important to monitor?

Affordability, together with availability, determines a family’s ability to access child care services [1]. 
 
Affordability is affected by the cost of care and parents’ income and is offset by Australian Government child care subsidies [2].

It is important that high quality child care services are affordable for all families, including disadvantaged families whose children benefit considerably from high quality child care [3].
 
Reductions in the affordability of child care can have a range of negative consequences including the use of child care services of poor quality or less stable care arrangements.

Indicator

Currently, there is no routine measure of the affordability of all child care services collected in NSW.
 
The indicator used in Kids Stats to monitor the affordability of child care is:

Out-of-pocket costs for families with children in full time centre-based long day care,, as a proportion of weekly disposable income, by gross annual family incomes. 

This indicator does not examine the affordability of other child care services offered in NSW.

Main findings

In 2006, there has been a decrease of approximately 30% in out-of-pocket child care expenses for long day care in NSW.

• The impact of that increase is felt differentially by families depending on their household income levels and the number of children in long day care. For example, for one child families with a gross annual income of $35,000 there has been a 34% decrease in the proportion of their average weekly disposable income spent on long day child care, while for two child families in the same income grouping, the decrease was only 25%.  For both one and two child families with a gross annual income of $65,000 the increase has been 30%.  
• Compared with families in Australia as a whole, families in NSW spend a higher proportion of their disposable income on Long Day Care. 

Notes: [1] Press, F & Hayes, A (2000). OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy, Australian Background Report. Commonwealth Government of Australia, Canberra.
[2] Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision (2002). Report on Government Services 2002. Volume 2: Emergency Management, Community Services, Housing. Productivity Commission, Canberra.
[3] Shonkoff, J. & Phillips, D. (2000). ‘Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development; Board on Children, Youth and Families,’ in From Neurons to Neighbourhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, National Academy Press, Washington D.C.