Hi, I’m Christina, the ‘Sydney mum and former auditor’ you saw on Four Corners tonight, talking to Gold Walkley-winning journalist Adele Ferguson.
About me
I spent 15 years in business, eight of them auditing companies. Then I became a mum, and childcare failed my family. Like many first-time parents, I didn’t realise I was navigating a multi-billion-dollar for-profit industry when I decided to put my child in daycare.
So now I teach parents how to audit their daycare the same way I used to audit businesses. Because that’s all daycare is. It’s the business of children.
Governments move slowly. But here’s why you shouldn’t feel powerless.
After tonight’s episode, I think we can all agree the system is broken and reforms are critically needed. But that message isn’t very helpful to the parent sending their child off to care tomorrow. The parent with no village and little choice, because two incomes are needed to pay the rent or mortgage.
We can’t afford to wait for governments to step in and policy to catch up. If you have a young child in daycare right now, chances are they’ll outgrow the system long before any meaningful policy change happens.
The truth is, not all daycares are unsafe. Some are good and some are bad. The challenge for parents is figuring out which is which, when we only see 5% of the day at drop-off and pick-up, and from the outside they all look much the same. When I worked in corporate audit we had a saying: trust, but verify.
Three simple things you can do today
Follow the money. Know who actually owns your centre. You can look it up on the government’s Starting Blocks website. Hundreds of local centres are owned by private equity, publicly listed companies and corporate giants, and you want to know how profit-motivated yours is. In childcare, roughly 70% of costs are labour, so that’s where corners get cut. But it’s also the most devastating thing you can cut for a child, because they need consistent, responsive care from their educators.
Do a two-minute headcount every time you visit. We don’t have to wait years for a regulator to show up and assess supervision. Know your state’s ratios, then do a quick headcount every time you visit, and check there are enough adults in the room. Then every so often, when your schedule allows, turn up at a time you normally wouldn’t. If you drop off at 7am and I drop off at 9am, we’re looking at totally different centres. If there isn’t enough supervision, raise it with the director and your state regulator, and put it in writing.
Know every adult in your child’s room. Ask for the name of every educator in the room, how long they’ve been there, and whether they’re permanent or casual. These people change your child’s nappies. You should know who they are. If everyone in the room has been there less than a year, that’s a red flag. And if you can’t keep track of who’s looking after your child, that tells you something too. It’s likely a revolving door of casual staff, and the consistency is gone.
None of this needs government reform. It takes minutes, and you can start tomorrow.
More ways to check your centre
Already enrolled? 17 checks to do: How to tell if your daycare is a good one
Who owns your centre? Video walkthrough, coming Wednesday
Subscribe free and I’ll send you the summary questions and checks on two pages. You can bring it along to your daycare tour or if you’re already enrolled, do the checks next time you visit.
Don’t forget: Holding centres accountable helps educators too
When I flagged understaffing, one educator thanked me. She didn’t want to work in an understaffed room any more than I wanted my son in one. We’re the ones paying the bills, so we have leverage educators don’t. When we speak up, we’re advocating for them too.
I don’t want any other family to go through what we went through. If you don’t either, subscribe and share this with one parent who needs it.
— Christina
Such an important conversation to be leading, Christina. So proud of how you show up to advocate for parents, and how valuable your practical advice always is ❤️