Childcare Subsidy Calculator: How Much Childcare Really Costs in Melbourne After CCS
August 27, 2026
Choosing a childcare centre is one of the bigger decisions a family makes, and knowing the right questions to ask childcare centre staff on a tour makes it far easier. Underneath every other question — the hours, the fees, the days available — sits the one that matters most: will my child be safe here?
A tour is where you find the answer. A website can tell you what a centre believes; walking the rooms tells you how it actually works. So before you visit, it helps to know what to ask. The ten questions below are the ones we’d want a family to bring to any centre they’re considering — not just ours. We’ve included why each one matters and what a reassuring answer tends to sound like, so you can tour with confidence and read what you’re seeing clearly.
One thing worth saying first: a good centre welcomes these questions. How a centre answers is often as telling as the answer itself. If a question is met openly and specifically, that’s a good sign. If it’s brushed aside, that tells you something too.
Photos are lovely, but they’re chosen. On a tour you get the unedited version — the tone educators use with children, how calm or chaotic a room feels, whether the space is genuinely built for young children or just decorated to look that way. Give yourself time, bring your list, and don’t be shy. The questions that follow are a good place to start.
For a broader parent-friendly overview of what quality care looks like, the Starting Blocks website — run by the national regulator, ACECQA — is a genuinely useful, independent resource to read alongside this.
Every centre in Victoria operates under the Child Safe Standards, so the real question is how those standards show up in practice. Ask what child safety actually means in the running of the centre — in staff recruitment, in training, in the everyday culture. You’re listening for specifics, not a poster on the wall.
Good centres make it easy to speak up, and they don’t bury the pathway. Ask how concerns are raised and whether there’s a way to do so anonymously. At Starfish, an anonymous reporting line is part of how we operate and is linked from every page of our website — because a safe centre is one where raising something is simple, not awkward.
Ratios are set by regulation and vary by age group. Ask what the ratios are in the specific room your child would be in, and how the centre staffs to them across the day — including at busy times like drop-off, pick-up, and lunch. You want to hear that the numbers hold up all day, not just on paper.
Ask about the qualifications in your child’s room specifically. Across our centres, educators hold the required Certificate III or Diploma qualifications, and our funded kindergarten rooms are led by Bachelor-qualified Early Childhood Teachers. Ongoing professional learning and reflective practice are part of how our team works — good care comes from people who keep growing.
Ask how people get in and out, how children are signed in and out, and — importantly — how the centre confirms who is allowed to collect your child. A clear, confident answer here reflects a centre that has thought carefully about the boundary between the outside world and the rooms.
If your child has a dietary or medical need, ask how it’s managed. Our centres are nut- and egg-aware, our chefs prepare fresh meals on a four-week rotating menu, and the Centre Director works with families on individual plans — talking directly with the chef where food is involved. Bring the details on your tour and you can talk it through properly.
For babies and younger children especially, ask how sleep is supervised and how the centre follows safe-sleep practice. You want to hear that children are checked and supervised while they rest, and that home routines are respected rather than overridden.
This is about transparency, not surveillance — a good centre gives you a genuine window into your child’s day without turning care into a camera feed. At Starfish, every room keeps a Daily Routine board recording meals, sleeps, and milk for babies; educators share Daily Learning Journals; and each Centre Director sends a Weekly Wrap-up with photos and learning stories. You’ll know how your child ate, slept, and spent their day — from the people who were with them.
Starting care is a big step, and how a centre handles it says a lot. Ask what settling in looks like. We offer two one-hour orientation play sessions before a child’s first day, with more available if a child needs them, and we shape the early weeks around the child rather than rushing them. A centre that never rushes settling is a centre that understands young children.
Ask to meet the Centre Director — the person who sets the tone, knows the families, and is your point of contact every day. Continuity of relationship is quietly one of the most important safety features a centre has: when the same trusted adults know your child well, a lot of good follows. On a Starfish tour, you’ll meet the Centre Director in person and can ask them anything.
Beyond the questions, trust what you observe. Do educators speak with children rather than at them? Is the space calm, purpose-built, and set up for the ages it holds? Is there a natural flow between indoors and outdoors? Are children absorbed in what they’re doing? When you’re choosing a childcare centre, these small, real signals often tell you more than any single feature on a list. You’ll usually feel the answer before you can explain it.
You can also check any centre’s current National Quality Standard rating directly on the ACECQA register — an independent, public record worth looking up for any centre on your shortlist.
Print this list, or jot the ten questions into your phone, and bring them along to every centre you visit. Touring two or three centres with the same questions is the fairest way to compare — and the clearest way to notice which centre answers openly and which one hesitates.
When you’re ready to see how a Starfish centre feels in person, we’d love to show you around. Book a tour of your nearest Starfish centre — meet the Centre Director, walk the rooms and the garden, and ask us every one of these questions. You can also call us on 1300 168 881.
Play, Discover, Explore, & Wonder.