Shaken Australian parents seeking alternatives to childcare centres

Worried Australian parents are looking for alternatives to childcare centres after sexual abuse allegations were levelled against an educator.

The quality and safety of some larger childcare services have been called into question after Melbourne worker Joshua Dale Brown was charged with dozens of sex offences, including allegedly sexually abusing eight children.

Brown was known to have worked at 24 facilities between 2017 and his arrest, with several centres added to the list initially compiled by police.

"Parents across Australia are understandably shaken," said the For Parents collective, which formed in the wake of the allegations.

"This news deepens the grief, fear and anger many are feeling, and it raises serious questions about how our current systems protect children and families."

Another educator at Milestones Early Learning Tingalpa in Brisbane has since been charged with indecent treatment of a four-year-old in his care.

The parenting group says the system is broken and needs to evolve to meet the needs of modern families.

"Our children deserve more than reactive responses — they deserve a system which works for them from the start," the group said.

It has sparked a co-ordinated push, with a petition of more than 5000 signatures, for childcare subsidies to be paid directly to families who choose not to send their children to traditional daycare centres.

For Parents co-founder Jen Fleming believes government grants should be widened to include grandparents, nannies, au pairs and co-working spaces that allow parents to keep children close.

"Lots of people who can't access childcare have to either sacrifice going back to work, or they sacrifice from their income to pay for someone privately," Fleming told AAP.

The childcare subsidy helps families manage childcare costs, but access and the amount is dependent on specific eligibility criteria, with federal childcare subsidies predicted to exceed AUS$16.2 billion (NZ$17.6 billion) in 2025/26.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the government was not considering widening the subsidy to include care provided by grandparents.

Rachel Wilson, a professor of social impact and education at the University of Technology Sydney, described expanding subsidies for families as potentially opening a "Pandora's box" due to a lack of provisions.

Professor Wilson was unaware of any governments currently offering a system like the one proposed.

"It's a completely unknown space in terms of public policy," she said.