Women's Reflections on Choosing Quality Long Day Care in a Regional Community

THIS ARTICLE QUALITATIVELY EXPLORES women's experiences of choosing quality long day care in a regional community. The study complements recent quantitative research on the quality implications of increased for-profit childcare provision. It also adds to our understanding of current childcare policy by focusing on the experiences of women in a regional location. The women in this study associated the expansion of the corporate childcare sector with a decline in care quality and claimed that the ‘market’ approach to child care provision had diminished their choices. Corporate, one-size-fits-all child care services, managed in distant capital cities, were seen to be unresponsive to the needs of their regional community. These results challenge the Federal Government's rhetoric on child care choice and encourage policy-makers to re-examine the quality implications of a dominant corporate care sector.