When the Federal Government announced free childcare for all Australians last week most of us said "about time" and kicked our heels up.

Most, except those who are part of the Family Day Care or Home Care system.

Family Day Care is where you have you child in a family environment, that is someone's home, rather than a larger childcare facility.

Home Care is where someone goes into another person's home and helps look after their children for a while because of health issues like cancer or disabilities.

Family Day Care is a not for profit organisation that has been serving the Lismore area for 40 years.

Kylie Burnett, a co-ordinator for Family Day Care Australia said that day care Educators are registered and regulated professional who are on the front line looking after kids for those that work in essential services such as teachers and nurses.

"A lot of our educators are getting paid less money because of the the 50% payment from the Federal Government. Our people are feeling very undervalued", Kylie said, "they are doing the same job for half the pay".

One hundred and fifty Family Day Care educators provide childcare services for 1300 children in the Northern Rivers. Lismore and surrounds has 38 sole trading educators providing care for 325 children.

One of those educators is Rebecca Newton who lives in North Lismore.

Rebecca has been providing child care for the last eight years while bringing up her own three children.

"This is very heartbreaking", Rebecca said, "we are encouraged to stay open as we are providing an important service for essential workers but we are getting paid less money for the same work".

"Teachers, nurses, even supermarket workers all have to go to work and we are running as normal to help them and with a higher health risk".

"I have run some numbers and by my calculations I will be $200 a week worse off but I will need to confirm this when the first government payment comes through", she said.

Rebecca and the 38 other sole traders in our local area, had the 50% payment start on Monday April 6. The 50% payment is determined off the usual fees that the day care facility received over a two week period before March 2.

The problem for Family Day Care providers or Home Care providers is what happened in that two week period. If a person had their own children sick and had to close for a day or two or they simply had less kids during that period because the children themselves were sick, they would receive less than they normally would for the next three months.

On top of this calculation, there is the upcoming school holiday period when schools are closed and parents look to facilities like family day care for the two week period. This certainly will not be taken into consideration when the 50% payment is calculated in late February. In effect, these essential workers are not being paid for this extra work.

What appears to be an unfair part of the Federal Governments free child care package needed some clarification. The call went out to Federal Local member Kevin Hogan to shed some light.

Mr Hogan replied "Family Day Care services are eligible for the Government’s Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package and the JobKeeper payment.

Under the new plan, the Government will pay 50 per cent of the sector’s fee revenue and provide a $1500 fortnightly wage subsidy. 

If educators require additional support, they can apply for further funding amounts via the exceptional circumstances process. This will open today, Thursday 9 April on the dese.gov.au website.

Australia’s child care centres have had a significant reduction in enrolments. This threatened their ability to provide care. In response, our Government introduced a new system to ensure families could still access child care while also ensuring the viability of services".

CEO Northern Rivers Family Day Care & Children Services said in response to Mr Hogan, "We are grateful for what the Government is proposing to give us however there are some major loop holes which affect the Educators weekly income. We are aware that changes are coming through daily but in the meantime these are our major concerns below.

• We are Not for Profit organisation that has been operating for 40 years, supporting families within our region.
• We are one of the largest schemes in Australia with over 2,000 children and 180 Educators. For us to remain financially viable during this time is extremely difficult as we have cut our Admin levy by 50% to assist our Educators.
• The Educators from this week lose 50% which is based on a specified period in early March. During this period some Educators were not working due to taking holidays or sick leave and had no income that week, therefore they will not be entitled to the full benefit of the subsidy. Some also have more children then what they had during that period and these children are not included in those numbers. Potentially they are taking on more children and not being paid.
• Some of the families requiring care are nurses, doctors and ambulance workers, whom work shift hours and these are out of core hours which usually attract a higher fee.
• The Job Keeper payment is not eligible to all Educators. Some Educators have been working less than 12 months and we are still not clear on what the criteria is. This payment doesn’t come in until May – Educators who are eligible will go without money until then.
• The majority of our Educators are the main bread winner in their household or single parents therefore putting a huge strain on them.
• Our Educators are caring for children within their homes and are essential workers to ensure the economy keeps going, however they are expected to take half the pay. Some of our Educators are the Sole bread winners in their family so this can make life extremely difficult for them
• Educators are putting their own families at risk by having the children of frontline worker in their own home due to the risks associated with COVID-19.
• We are very concerned that the CCCF Special circumstances COVID-19 grant has been abolished as our educators were relying on this grant if they weren’t eligible for the Jobkeeper payment. We have serious concerns about Educators that need assistance to stay viable.
• Since the FREE CHILDCARE has been offered, we have experienced a spike in non-working families returning to care. This concerns us as families do not appear to be adhering to the Governments isolation guidelines.
• Our In Home Care service is suffering tremendously. We have had to give notice to 15 families with child protection concerns, medical conditions such as cancer, parents with disabilities and children with disabilities and shift workers. Educators are disadvantaged in so many more ways due to the nature of this service. They are not eligible for Job Keeper and their pay would drop by approximately 75%.

While most of us rejoice about free childcare, keep in mind that some groups are disadvantaged through this new Covid-19 policy.