Did you know that at an average cost of childcare is $123.50/day, Bardon is one of the most expensive suburbs for childcare in Queensland?
Read: Why Well-off Families Choose This Bardon School For Their Kids
Based on Care for Kids’ estimates, the average cost of childcare in Bardon is slightly higher than that of Queensland overall, which recorded an average of $10.83 hourly or $108.33 per day for 10 hours.
One of the leading long daycares in Bardon, located at Boundary Rd and has 64 approved places, charges up to $133 per day but currently has no vacancy.
Childcare costs in Brisbane increased by up to 6.5 percent in 2021, driven by staff shortages and high rents. To somewhat help families with the soaring childcare costs, the State Government has invested more than $1 billion for the kindy funding reform package.
The reform, which has been created to help make kindy more affordable and more accessible, will benefit more than 40,000 Queensland children a year, regardless of whether they attend a community kindergarten or kindy in long day care.
A family with one child in kindy could save up to $3,200 per year whilst a family with two children in kindy could save up to $6,400.
Education Minister Grace Grace said the reforms would kick in at the start of 2023.
“Fourteen thousand children will also be able to access completely free kindy: this will be for our most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in areas we know kids can miss out.
Ms Grace said around 20,000 children have reduced kindy fees at present and a very small number of them receive free kindy, so this investment will benefit thousands of families.
“This is a significant change for the sector, and we’ll be working closely with providers in the coming months on things like software upgrades, contracts, and consultation with families to ensure they’re ready for the new program in 2023.”
Minister Grace said the package also included an expansion of the Kindy Uplift program and extra funding for children with disabilities.
“We’re thrilled that this increased funding means we can more than double the number of services covered by the successful Kindy Uplift program to 930,” Ms Grace said.