Child-care cost may rise

Press, 1 May 1980, Page 6

Child-care cost may rise

Charges at the Cathedral Square creche and the Civic Child Care Centre in the Arts Centre are likely to rise as the Christchurch City Council moves to cut running losses.

The council’s community services committee yesterday approved recommendations to increase the hourly rate at the creche to 70c for one child, $1 for two, and $1.30 for three children from the same family.

At the child-care centre the recommended new charges are $4O a week for a child under two years and $35 a week for a child over two, where the child attends for more than 30 hours a week. The committee deferred considering other ways to reduce the deficit for the two facilities. Staff will report on possibly reducing the creche’s opening hours. They will also examine the possibility of handing the running of the child-care centre to another organisation.

The committee intends to consider submissions presented yesterday by the Civic Parents Group, formed by parents using the childcare centre.

The group suggested measures it said could bring in up to $66,000 towards the centre’s running costs and reduce the deficit from this year’s estimated level of $45,000. to less than the deficit of about $31,000 last year.

Suggestions included a 48week minimum annual booking for every child, increasing the ratio of full-time children to part-time ones, and the possibility of employers subsidising the cost of care for children of their employees. The group also suggested a weekly charge of $33 for a child over two years, and $4O for a child under two. Its spokesman, Mr P. W. Scollay, said the parents were interested in forming a trust to run the child-care centre independently. A report to the committee showed that the deficit on running the council’s six child-care facilities last year was $151,600. The Cathedral Square Creche’s loss was $76,500. Before any fee increases, the estimated total deficit

for the presest financial year was $154,200.

Estimates of annual expenditure from rates presented to the committee showed a rise of 10.5 per cent from the spending on community-service activities last year. The estimated rise in running costs was 22 per cent, and capital spending was down 29 per cent.