Family day care

Does anyone know if you can run a business out of a rented dwelling? I want to start a family day care with a limit of two or three children but Im renting at the moment.

Also, if anyone is currently running this sort of business i would be really interested in your comments.

Thanks,Happy

My limited knowledge includes -
You'd have to have the landlords permission to run a business from the premises.
You'd have to have councils permission to run a business from a residential premise and may have to meet other criteria too, parking spaces etc.
Plus I think you have to meet certain requirements as a childminder, safety gates, play area, toilet facilities etc. - all occ health and safety stuff. This may fall under the council too. Plus they may require you to have some sort of qualification?

I'd start with the council first and see what they have to say - unless of course you're doing it all by word of mouth and aren't really going to register the business or advertise the fact you're minding kids and so avoid the rules and regulations then you'd only need the landlords permission.

Cheers
Olly

The zoning of the title deed would have to be something other than purely residential for it to be a goer.

If this step is not fulfilled, the Landlord's permission means nothing. That is, as always, the local council / shire always comes before the Owner of the lot.

Getting any form of 'for profit' child minding centre up and running is what I'd describe as "more than onerous" in today's litigous and regulated society. Good luck, you're gonna need it.

Family Day care has different requirements to an actual child care centre, and can be run in a normal residential home. But I have no idea of any requirements that need to be complied with.
You might also be able to get information on the Family Assistance office website.
Pen

All my kids (3) have been through Family Day Care (one still there).

I agree with Dazzling, forget it unless you want to build an army of centres to challenge ABC Leaning. I believe the requirements are onerous. You must be approved via Family Services if the parents are to get any CCB. I have a feeling you must be approved anyway - even without getting CCB... ??

Going the other way - no advertising, word-of-mouth, non-approved status etc is, in my view, too large a risk to take for such small returns. Worse still is your renting - more hoops. Just one little kid badly hurt and you are in very, very, big trouble.

My opinion only. I'm a qualified parent, that's all.

To just mind children via the family day care is not like running an ABC centre. A friend used to mind three children with three of her own. She had somebody come out and check her house for cleanliness and safety and I believe she might have had random spot checks, but not sure.

If this is what you are considering, it is different to running "day care centre" and should be okay, but the insurance thing needs to be checked out.

I used to think I would do this, until I had children of my own, and realised how hard it was with just mine, without the added burden of extra ones .

wylie said:

To just mind children via the family day care is not like running an ABC centre.

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My point was on the ROI and ROR (Return on risk [associated]). A friend of ours canned the idea quick smart because she realised the requirements of local council and FACS. When she did the sums just a few kids was not worth it. What she would of had to charge was well in excess what the local operators were charging and she could not (even remotely) compete with the programs they were running. I'm not sure what the point of setting up a daycare 'business' would be if you did not want to turn a profit.

Our commitee has a constant challenge between numbers (of kids), space (legislated), and fees.

I'm not saying that you have to 'aim' to be like ABC. What I am saying is that there are a host of requirements that must be adhered to for a:

- kosher operation,
- one that parents (if only three) are happy to send their kids to, and lastly
- one that parents are happy to pay for (potentially without being 'approved long day care' - and hence no CCB). That's a cruncher for many.

As I said, I'm sure there are many out there that just look after a few families kids during the day for some cash-in-hand, simple. It's just not simple making a profit.

PS. A FACS handbook covering different types of care is here.

We looked into it a few years back when our child was born as we thought it would be a good way to earn a few extra $$$ while raising our own child.

It didn't stack up in our circumstances but may for some.

Start here http://nswfdc.org.au/

sorry your SA try here http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/familydaycare/pages/cg0001106/fdchome/

Dazzling said:

The zoning of the title deed would have to be something other than purely residential for it to be a goer.

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Not so sure about that. I know of a number of businesses that are ran from home - remedial massage, accountant, financial planner, ceramics to name a few - and they are all in just normal residential zoning and the remedial massage is run from a rented house. I know because at the time I was thinking of running computer workshops from my garage and asked them what hoops they went through (they are all from different councils areas too.)

When I approached council about my idea zoning wasn't the issue-it was whether I could provide adequate parking for the amount of people I would be having there, not cause undue traffic, noise, toilet facilities, hours of operation etc

Olly

Hi happy,

I run a family day care buisness from my home, and have done for ten years. I live in company housing ( my husbands company) I had to get written permmision from the landlord otherwise i could not get the public liability insurance which is required by family day care. Other than that you have to complete a certificate 3 in childrens services you can do that through family day care ,mandate notification and update your first aid regularly . It is a huge responsibilty looking after other peoples children but can be very rewarding.

Thanks tori

Fair enough Olly. Those business' you mention up and running, did any of them have formal Council approval ?? I mean, there's literally hundreds of businesses that operate from home, but my understanding is that they are doing it without the full written support and blessing of the Council. If anyone wishes to complain officially they are pretty much stuffed and would be forced to shut down if the Land was zoned residential. In a former life, we had a brothel operating across the road from one of our IP's. She did it discretely for about 4 years before someone else in the street complained and the Council shut her down within 2 weeks after the formal complaint. Could be wrong.

Great input Tori.

Dazzling said:

Fair enough Olly. Those business' you mention up and running, did any of them have formal Council approval ?? I mean, there's literally hundreds of businesses that operate from home, but my understanding is that they are doing it without the full written support and blessing of the Council. If anyone wishes to complain officially they are pretty much stuffed and would be forced to shut down if the Land was zoned residential. In a former life, we had a brothel operating across the road from one of our IP's. She did it discretely for about 4 years before someone else in the street complained and the Council shut her down within 2 weeks after the formal complaint. Could be wrong.

Great input Tori.

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In my first post I was addressing the point that businesses could be run from residential premises - even rented ones. To answer your question - I'd have to say the businesses I know of had council permission as far as I know - they said they did. They certainly weren't hiding the fact they were running businesses - they had signage out the front, ran ads in the local papers etc.

I find it hard to believe she ran her business for 4 years without council knowing. Usually everyone in town knows where the brothels are no matter how discreet they are. Maybe your brothel had council permission and was allowed to run UNLESS there was any complaints made and once it was it was bye bye time. Maybe she WAS running it without council permission but once found out it was bye bye time. Maybe her customer service skills weren't up to scratch. Maybe she missed paying her 'special' council payment one week.

Cheers
Olly

My last rental property is still a rental property, and it runs a family day care centre like you're describing.

So, yes it can be done legally. Of course, getting LL's permission is another thing. If I were your LL...NO WAY.

Family day care is different to daycare centers. Last time I had The Child in daycare it turned out that every center within a 30 minute drive of my house had a 1-2 year waiting list, there were no family day care providers in the same radius, so I ended up sending her to family day care in Elizabeth even though I practically lived in the CBD. There were so many providers in Elizabeth I got in with a day's notice. There were other people in my apartment block who registered on the local childcare waiting lists before they even had the baby.

If you need childcare because you're not willing to sit around not working for 2 years while you wait for a local provider, then you take whatever childcare you can, even if its zonks away from your house. I'm not sure where the government pulls its figures that there's lots of childcare for everyone. That or its changed for the better recently.

Kid is in school now, which is just as well. Its free, and again I'm living somewhere with absolutely no childcare (no daycare, no centers, can't afford a nanny)