What is vacancy.care?
| vacancy.care is Australia’s first service dedicated to raising the profile of child care vacancies at all types of care providers. We enable care providers to share their vacancies, permanent and temporary, in real-time. We are focused on improving the relationship between child care providers and parents in a way which incentivises parents to share care they won’t use creating a platform for providers to improve communications. We are also home to the world’s first rewards program for Parents; Parent Rewards. This incentivises parents with payments and priority on extra care. |
Is there a change in child care needs and demand that I should be aware of?
| Australia’s parents needs have changed dramatically in the past 30 years. The rise of part-time and flexible workplaces means that mums in particular may have set permanent days, but also often require extra days of care when weekly needs change – we call it semi-permanent care. Australia has a very high ratio of part-time work compared to other countries and women hold nearly three-quarters of those jobs. According to the 2016 HILDA survey, the most comprehensive long-term study of Australians, this has helped create the 1.5 worker household – with a full-time dad and part-time mum – which has become standard across modern Australia. |
How can we incentivise parents to notify absences earlier?
| Many parents don’t see the need to give notice or inform the centre of their short term vacancies because they are paying for the place anyway. Most parents also disullsioned with child care centres asking for holiday planning and the practice of replacement without any benefit to them. The Share Care Rewards program changes all of that and gives both payments and non-monetary rewards that share the benefits around – making happier parents who are much more likely to refer your centre. |
I don’t think there is any vacancy in my child care centre – how can you help?
| In our experience there is quite a lot of hidden vacancy to uncover. Parents currently have little incentive to report absences early and sometimes, not at all. Even completely full and in-demand day care centres experience 10-15% natural vacancy that can go to as high as 30% during the year – we have surprised a lot of centre directors! Nearly every day, across all ages, our care providers experience vacancy that could be made available to other parents. This is not permanent vacancy but arises from child sickness, from holidays or other parental reasons. A lot of vacancy is under-reported as parents have no incentives to report early. With our Share Care Rewards program, parents now have a reason to notify absences early. |
Does it save me administration time and marketing efforts?
| Yes, vacancy.care streamlines several areas of effort that saves administration. It automates absences, extra bookings and improves communication with current in-centre parents as well as provides real-time management of waitlists, without the standard ring around to find parents still needing care. With our single hosted family profile, it is much easier to manage completion of the correct information and automates contact with new family customers. It saves a lot of back forth with telephone messages as well as marketing efforts for new vacancies, because we do it for you! |
We manage all of our vacancies internally, what benefits would you bring?
| Terrific, the service would help you to automate this process and encourage parents to give you more notice. This in turn drives more positive parent relationships so you can reward parents with our Share Care Rewards which drives improved business outcomes. We have found that more than 50% of temporary vacancies could be better reported so that you could respond, either by booking in other parents for extra care or by reducing staff.
Also, the parents that have given notice in advance do not necessarily respond in a positive manner if their places are being re-sold and they receive nothing for it, whilst still being charged for the place. Some of our corporate child care centres received negative parent feedback last Christmas in sending a letter to parents in order to trick them into communicating when they were going to be away, instead of fairly sharing some of those benefits. This lead to an unfortunate situation and is why vacancy.care is well suited to manage the process on behalf of child care providers and parents. We can also guarantee that we will drive a lift in your revenues from vacancies by 20%, ask us how today. |
How will my child care centre make more revenue?
| We do this in two ways, firstly by marketing your permanent vacancy to families and parents looking for immediate care AND secondly, by empowering you to develop stronger relationships with waiting list parents who can use your temporary vacancy today. If a waiting list parent can start to use your temporary vacancy caused by absences, it will not only mean greater occupancy and revenues – but a new family ready and able to fill any permanent places that become available. |
Will vacancy.care introduce new parents and families to my centre?
| Absolutely. Vacancy.care is about matching permanent and temporary vacancies with demand for extra care from current parents, as well as new families that are looking for child care. |
Do I want more waiting list families?
| Waiting lists in practice can be difficult to manage and difficult to prioritise – you simply do not know if waiting list parents have already found care elsewhere. Vacancy.care builds a stronger relationship with your waiting list parents by allowing them to book occasional care when you have vacancy, until permanent spots come up. This allows parents to update their status in real-time, which means that parents that want care from you, can start booking temporary (occasional) care from the moment you approve their registration. Happy new parents, happy care providers! |
What is a permanent waiting list registration?
| Some care providers may want to allow parents who are waiting for permanent places to be able to book extra care just like current permanent parents. Vacancy.care has management settings that give providers complete control. |
How will I integrate my current waitlist?
| Many of our current child care providers have realised that vacancy.care is the best way to manage their waiting list and keep a steady flow of new parents coming into centres. Should you want to, you can also easily manage and integrate vacancy.care waiting list requests into other systems. |
Can I prioritise my permanent parents wanting extra care over waiting list parents?
| Yes, child care providers have the ability to setup and manage the ways they want to prioritise and handle bookings, including the ability to only permit permanent parents to book places in real-time. All other bookings need to be approved. |
Can I require approval before bookings for care places are confirmed?
| Yes |
How will I save time with vacancy.care waiting list management?
| Parents who register for your child care centre through the Vacancy.care mobile app build a central family profile that becomes instantly available for you to download at any time. This means that your waiting list is constantly engaged and will be automatically updated, from new parents picking up temporary care to parents finding care elsewhere. The vacancy.care profile means they can change their status on your waiting list at anytime, meaning that if they find care elsewhere, you won’t need to spend time calling prospective parents looking for a match – your next set of permanent parents will be right in front of you! |
Does your service work for small day care centres and family day care?
| The smaller the service, the greater the impact of vacancy. Even in small family day settings with less than 4 children, vacancy.care can help to increase occupancy and ensure the best use of resources and returns. |
We currently reduce staff when children and families go on holidays, how can we manage extra bookings?
| Some vacancy is created by planned holiday absences, where you have time to plan. However there is still substantial resources and occupancy not being utilised. You can still manage your centre efficiency by reducing staff when there are less children, by ensuring that you set your bookings to approval before confirmation. This allows you full control over which extra bookings you would like to accept. Note that in many of our child care centers which have started with this approach, there is awareness that permanent parents are still paying for places – often with resentment. The benefits of the Share Care Rewards program is parent positivity. |
How much does the vacancy.care app cost?
| Free. Our mobile app is for parents only and allows them to register absences, book extra child care and also receive notifications and messages from your child care centre. |
What does vacancy.care cost?
Our Unlimited plan is priced based on the size of your services, reflecting the value in the number of places we can fill for you and the hours each week we save with our automation tools. It makes no business sense to be leaving places empty for the improvements we can make to your parent marketing, communications and occupancy. There is no commitment required and you can cancel at anytime, so why wait? Please contact us for a demo or to find out more.
Does the centre have to pay parents for Parent Rewards payouts?
| No vacancy.care looks after all parents payments, priority notifications and benefits. |
Does Parent Rewards incentivise parents to notify absences early?
| vacancy.care’s world first rewards program for parents is built to improve relationships with day care centres and care providers of all kinds. It incentivises parents both with payments where they share in revenues made from giving up their permanent care spots, but also with other benefits, such as priority for extra care when they need it. Parents in most centres today are generally discouraged from notifying early that their child will be absent, as they are aware that a replacement will bring them no benefit. The Parent Rewards program changes all this and drives early updates from parents, whose payments and priority is tied directly to the length of notice time given. |
Can’t we just refund parents direct?
| Not without affecting parents government benefits and child care centre revenues. It requires a third party service which is what our Share Care Rewards program is all about. |
How can we prioritise current permanent parents over waiting list families looking for vacancies?
| You can easily control how you prioritise and process registrations and bookings and whether they need pre-approval, meaning that you can select which families and bookings you accept. It is also important that you follow our guidelines after sign-up on how to best communicate to current parents your new care absence and booking app. |
Can I update parent profiles and approve new details?
| Yes, quite easily. All approved centres can update parent and child details whether permanent or waiting list through the vacancy.care management portal. |
Can I block families and parents that we do not want booking at our centre?
| There is a lot of flexibility accepting registrations at the beginning and also with how you decide to accept bookings for extra care. All registrations need to be accepted by you initially, which means you can block specific registrations, but you can also decide to require pre-approval before bookings are confirmed. We would be happy to take you for a spin, please use the contact form to drop us a note. |
Can I control my own vacancy settings?
| Absolutely, through our management portal, you are able to control all elements of your services and vacancy. |