The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard together with the Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, Maxine McKew, the Minister for Families and Community Services, Jenny Macklin and Professor Fiona Stanley today launched mychild.gov.au
mychild.gov.au is a virtual children’s hub for parents and carers which provides access to important health, early learning, child care and parenting support information in one convenient location.
The new online portal is part of the Rudd Government’s $2.4 billion early childhood education and child care plan to ensure every Australian child gets the best start in life.
In line with the Prime Minister’s 2020 Summit vision, the mychild.gov.au website will be a place where families can go for information about Government initiatives and for assistance with their child care options.
The Rudd Government understands how critical the early years are for children and this website will help give parents and carers the support they need to make informed choices that will lay the foundation for their child’s future.
mychild.gov.au includes a searchable database of local child care centres including the services they provide and the fees they charge. The Government will build on this information as the new Quality Framework is developed and delivered from July 2009.
Providing greater information to parents is part of the Rudd Government’s comprehensive plan to deliver high quality, affordable and accessible child care for Australian children. This is also part of creating a more transparent market for child care services.
The Government thanks those 8000 child care services across the country which voluntarily provided information for publication on mychild.gov.au and looks forward to receiving information from even more centres in the future.
For more information please visit www.mychild.gov.au or call the mychild information line on 13 36 84.