Melbourne mums turn child care challenges into business opportunity
- Written by Tess Sanders Lazarus
Every parent who has juggled the challenges of work and family knows how hard it is to deal with the financial pressures of child care and the stress of dropping off and picking up kids from day care.
A group of Melbourne mums have decided there has to be an easier way, so they have established a new business concept called 'Our Child Care'. The new online child care platform is about to disrupt the child care industry and change the lives of parents for ever.
“The child care centre industry is a booming industry in Australia and it is doesn’t really benefit anyone but the centre operators,” Co-founder and CEO of Our Child Care Ms Tanya Chronopoulos said today.
“Centre operators keep getting richer, child care fees keep going up and parents and families are the ones being squeezed. The sad truth is that child care workers don’t get paid very well either.
“I’ve been through the difficult times where I’ve had to pull the kids out of bed early in the morning, drop them to day care, go to work and then pick them up later in the evening. It is a stressful time for everyone and awful for the kids. If you don’t have family nearby to help you, you don’t have any other choice.
“In speaking with my friends and family, I decided there had to be a better way. There had to be a better system of child care that was more affordable, more flexible and more community based – and so a few of us got together and created Our Child Care.”
Our Child Care is an online platform that connects parents with child carers. Child carers include child care workers, au pairs, nannies, babysitters, tutors and teachers.
Parents can find carers by either listing a job on the site or searching carers who have registered with the site. Parents and guardians are able to choose a child carer who will look after their children in a more personalised and devoted environment for a fraction of the fees that childcare centres charge.
“I believe Our Child Care will revolutionise the future of child care in Australia, making it more accessible, flexible, affordable and reliable and above all educational and safe for parents and care givers,” Ms Chronopoulos added.
“The site also acknowledges professional and non-professional child carers keen to establish and operate their own business – giving them a fairer and more equitable working environment.
“The other key element is that Our Child Care also provides professional indemnity and public liability insurance for carers who secure work through the site. All carers registered with Our Child Care are required to provide current police and working with children checks.
“For parents, the new system will also give them more control over who cares for their child, what they learn, with whom and for less cost.
“Services will cover day, night and weekend child care to kinder programs, school drop offs and pickups, vacation care and even weekend drop offs for out of school activities that can be difficult especially when families have two or more children.”
The platform also provides links to various Government agencies associated with regulations and requirements for the set up and running of home based child care services.