Andrew Dickens: How many hours of childcare is too much?

A major new Australian study tracking more than 270,000 children has found that long hours in childcare — especially more than 40 hours a week — are linked with a higher risk of children struggling with social competence and emotional maturity by the time they reach school.  

And that makes total sense, doesn’t it? That’s because they basically go into a school system – they're being educated, they’re being taught how to read, maybe they’re being taught how to write, maybe they’re being taught maths. But are they being taught how to socially interact within a community? Something that parents are very, very good at – educators, not so much.  

The research, released by the federal Department of Education, matched childcare, health, and census data with assessments from teachers across five key developmental areas. It found that as weekly childcare hours increased beyond 30, so did the likelihood of developmental vulnerability. Children in more than 40 hours had the highest risk. 

But it’s not all one-sided. The study also found that childcare can be beneficial for language, cognitive skills, communication, and general knowledge. And for children from disadvantaged backgrounds — including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, single-parent families, and children with a language background other than English — formal childcare was associated with better outcomes across all domains. 

Quality mattered too. Children attending higher-rated centres had a lower risk of developmental vulnerability, while lower-quality care increased that risk.  

So they say you need strong, stable relationships with good educators, and they say the problem with early childcare education in Australia, and here in New Zealand, is high staff turnover. If you’re turning over your staff all the time because people get hacked off and they move on, it contributes to poor social and emotional outcomes.  

So in Australia, they’re actually expanding childcare subsidies. They realise that two income families are the norm now – that's the only way you can afford to do it. They’re looking at alternatives, they’re looking at vouchers, looking at income splitting. And they’re looking at extended parental leave so the parents can actually stay there and look after the kids for longer, rather than putting them in the care of an early childcare centre.

Advocacy groups have come out and say, well, if you’re worries about this, you can’t just reduce your hours, but what we really have to do is improve the quality.

So here’s a question for you: how do you make sure that we’ve got good early child care, quality in the sector?

The sector in Australia is under pressure – there's been abuse allegations, there’s workplace shortages. The Government says its pay rise for educators and new funding for not-for-profit centres aim to lift quality and stabilise staffing, but it ain’t working yet. 

The study reinforces that preschool remains strongly beneficial but also highlights that childcare isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and that the quality of care, and the amount of time children spend in it, both matter. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood of Morning's podcast from
News Talks. He'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So when we've talked about early childcare, because it's always
been an election topic. Whenever we talk about it, often
we talk about it in terms of reckons, we reckon,
we think, we believe and it's opinion. This one. They've
tracked more than two hundred and seventy thousand children, and
what they found is that long hours in childcare, especially

(00:34):
if you put your kid in for more than forty
hours a week, are linked with a higher risk of
children struggling with social competence and emotional maturity by the
time they reach school. And that makes total sense, doesn't it.
That's because they basically go into a school system. They're
being educated. They're being taught how to read, maybe they're
being taught how to write, maybe they're being taught how

(00:55):
to do maths. But are they being taught how to
socially interact within a community, something that parents are very
very good at it, educators not so much so. This
major new Australian study track those two hundred and seventy
thousand children. It's been released by the Federal Department of Education.
It matched childcare, health and census data with assessments from

(01:18):
teachers across five key developmental areas, and it found that
as weekly childcare hours increased beyond thirty so did the
likelihood of developmental vulnerability, and children in more than forty
hours a week had the highest risk. But it's not
on one sided that this isn't a studies just proved

(01:38):
that childcare is bad for your kids. The study also
found that childcare is good for language, for cognitive skills,
for communication and general knowledge. It's really helpful for kids
from disadvantaged families such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children,
so here it might be MILDI and Pacifica children. It's

(01:59):
really good for single parent families as well because the
single parent families don't have the resources to educate their
kids before school, whereas early childcare education does. And it's
really good for kids with a language background other than English.
So formal childcare was associated in those cases with better outcomes.

(02:20):
But the other thing they found is that quality mattered.
Children attending higher rated centers had a lower risk of
developmental vulnerability. Lower quality care increase at risk. So they
say that you need strong, stable relationships with good educators,
and they say the problem with early childcare education in

(02:42):
Australia and here in New Zealand is high staff turnover.
If you're turning over your staff all the time because
people get hacked off and they move on, it contributes
to poorer social and emotional outcomes. So in Australia, they're
actually expanding childcare subsidies. They realize that two income families
are the norm now it's the only way you can

(03:03):
afford to do it, So they are expanding their childcare subsidies.
They're looking at alternatives. They're looking at vouchers, looking at
income splitting, and they're looking at extended parental leave so
the parents can actually stay there and look after the
kids for longer, rather than putting them in the care
of an early childcare center. Advocacy groups have come out

(03:28):
and says, well, if you're worried about this, you can't
just reduce your hours. But what we really have to
do is improve the quality. So here's a question for you,
how do you make sure that we've got good early
child here care quality in the sector. The sector in
Australia is under pressure. There's been abuse allegations there's workforce shortages.
The government says it's pay rise for educators and new

(03:51):
funding for not for profit centers aim to lift the
quality and stabilize the staffing, but it ain't working yet.
So basically, this study reinforces that preschool remains strongly beneficial,
but also highlights that child care is not a one
size fits all solution and that the quality of care

(04:12):
from the early childcare centers and the amount of time
children spend in it not too much both matter.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
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