Struggling to Find Care?

Hints, Tips & Stories
 29 Jul 2024

If that perfect childcare place continues to elude you, it may be time to get a little flexible.        

BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

JULY 29, 2024

Flexibility is important for many things, and when it comes to the childcare search, sometimes you do need to bend and flex to land that great childcare place.  

This may be unappealing if you’ve set your heart on one centre since pregnancy, or pinned your hopes to two waitlists (and two waitlists only!), but it’s definitely better to keep your options open wherever possible. 

And in time, you might find that the place you didn’t know you were looking for, is the best place of all! 

To this end, here are four ways you can revise your childcare search if you’re finding a high-quality vacancy hard to come by: 

1.  Look at different childcare types 

If you’ve always assumed your child would go to long day care, or think a community kindy/preschool is the only proper place to prepare for school, then it might be time to consider another childcare type.  

For instance, family day care isn’t always on the radar of long day care-seeking parents, but it can offer great upsides, like a homely environment, flexible hours, small group sizes, and childcare for both early learners and school-aged children.  

Likewise, it’s good to know that long day care can be an amazing option for your kindy/preschool kid.  

There are many providers that offer high-quality, government-subsidised kindy/preschool programs, with the added benefit of centre inclusions and wrap around care to make those drop-offs and pick-ups so much easier.  

You might also like to consider ‘sandwiching’ a couple of care types together, if possible.  

For example, some families are able to lean on grandparents, regular babysitters or even nannies to provide informal care in addition to their formal childcare.  

2. Change your childcare search area 

If you’ve been looking for childcare close to work, it may help to turn your search on its head and consider vacancies close to home, or vice versa, and it can also help to re-assess your original search area.  

For example, you may have ‘written off’ one suburb early in your search, only to find that it’s not actually that much further away.  

Or perhaps, after looking at the price and quality of different services in an area, you’re now happy to go the extra mile for a special childcare place? 

3. Re-assess your childcare wants  

No matter how tight the childcare market is, it is totally fair to want the best for your child.  

However, if you’ve been holding out for that popular centre with the amazing playground, or have been totally set on a particular educational approach, it might be worth touring a few different services and seeing what their childcare offering actually looks like.  

You may be pleasantly surprised by the environment, early learning program and team when you tour a service, and might even find yourself happily applying for a place you hadn’t originally considered.  

4. Change your childcare days, if possible 

If you’ve been looking for specific days and can’t find vacancies to suit, then it may be worth taking what your preferred centre can offer and letting them know that you’re keen (like, very keen!) to pick up extra or different days as soon as they open up.  

You might find that your employer can accommodate your revised childcare needs without too much hassle. For example, by letting you switch work days or work-from-home, and if they really can’t help, maybe your partner’s employer can? 

At the end of the day, it’s not always possible to magic up a childcare place exactly when and where you want it, but it does help to be active and open-minded when searching.  

This means thinking outside the square if need be, and remaining as flexible as you can.   

Keeping an open dialogue with different childcare centres is also recommended, so you can be front of mind when opportunities do arise.  

And as for those two waitlists you’re on? Well, it helps to go on a few more!  

This is because waitlists move in their own ways, and while one might be slow-moving or seized up, another may be nimble – just like you! 

Good luck, and remember that it’s super easy to play around with your childcare search preferences when using the KindiCare App and kindicare.com