Rebecca Mohr Bell, a cattle farmer and business owner living 100km south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory, has relied on in-home childcare since 2018 for her three young children. The little-known taxpayer-supported program serves about 800 families who can't access mainstream care due to remote locations, serious illness, disability, or unconventional working hours.
Mohr Bell and her husband employ a full-time live-in childcare educator, but recent cost increases not covered by the government have left them in a bind. Her gap payments after the childcare subsidy have skyrocketed over the past two years thanks to rising accommodation and wage costs. "It's just going to mean it becomes unaffordable," she said. "We're not asking for anything special. We're just asking to be treated equitably."
Nearly one in three childcare operators providing these last-resort services for regional, remote, and disabled families say they're at risk of shutting down. The reason: government-funded pay rises for mainstream childcare workers haven't been extended to in-home care. Workers in this program have been excluded from the federal government's childcare worker retention program, which boosts wages by over 15% staged over two years. Instead, families are absorbing the cost by reducing hours or leaving entirely.
A survey of 23 providers covering 810 families by the Australian Home Childcare Association (AHCA) found 31% at risk of closure, with over half operating "under significant pressure." Some services fear that after the next wage increase on 1 July, up to 50% of families could withdraw, placing them on a "direct path to closure." The sector has already seen a 30% reduction in hours, with almost three-quarters of providers reporting families cutting hours or dropping out.
AHCA president and in-home care provider Nicole Morgan noted: "The majority of the families we support come from complex medical, child protection, and high-risk backgrounds. Services will close. Families will lose care. Educators will exit the workforce. And children - already identified as vulnerable - will be left in increasingly unsafe and unsupported environments."
The program is also plagued by bureaucracy: just a quarter of its 3,200 places are filled, down from 37% in 2022 and 59% before 2018. A 2024 productivity commission report found the hourly rate cap for in-home care doesn't account for operating costs and recommended a review. In-home care is pricier than centre-based care due to higher qualification requirements and lower educator-to-child ratios.
Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May said she's heard from families including shift-working nurses and doctors, parents of children with cancer, and cattle station families "hours from the nearest childcare centre, who are all at breaking point." Some have unenrolled because they simply can't afford it. "All the red tape just to enrol in in-home care means the program is going underused," she said. "Instead of expanding to offer real choice to those who need it, the sector is fighting for survival."
Childcare minister Jess Walsh wouldn't commit to increasing funding, noting that families using in-home care already receive the childcare subsidy. "I know that in-home care is important to the around 800 families who use it," she said. Which is government-speak for: we acknowledge the problem, but we're not opening the wallet just yet.