What’s Different About Mother Duck Childcare?

Choosing the right Childcare Centre for your child can be a big decision. A quick Google search will provide you with many blogs and articles about what to look for including location, size of the service, facilities, how the educators care for the children, turnover of key educators among many other things.

Something that is often missed in these articles is for families to gain insight into how decisions including policies and operations are made for the service and who makes these decisions?

To give some insight into this for Mother Duck Childcare, it’s important to first take a trip down memory lane…

The first Mother Duck Childcare was founded in Enoggera in 1990. Founders Ros and Denis Hinton breathed new life into an old church hall working hands-on in the Centre. Ros worked as Director of the Centre for nine years before retiring. Denis continued to lead the company which today consists of 10 Centres.

Today, Mother Duck Childcare operate a Franchise model. This is quite unique compared to other childcare services in South-East Queensland. Generally, most other services are either a large group owned by a private or public corporation or are owner-operated by a provider that owns one or two services.

Whilst many other businesses like restaurants and retail stores operate with the Franchise model, the difference with Mother Duck Childcare is that our Franchisees are hand-picked from our loyal educators. It is a privilege to be offered the unique opportunity of owning a business and it means that the successful educators who become Franchisees have extensive knowledge and already proven skillset to be able to oversee a successful childcare business.

How does this model impact the daily operations of the service? Our Franchisees work regularly in their service as the Nominated Supervisors and/or Educational Leaders. They are responsible for all daily operations. The advantage of this is that the owner-operator is always readily available to respond to the needs of the children, families, and educators. Our Franchisees all hold formal qualifications in early childhood education and have worked as a hands-on educator in their careers with Mother Duck.

The bigger decisions including policy decisions are made by the Mother Duck Management Committee. The Committee is made up of 12 seats, with each seat holding the same vote. There are currently 10 Centres, and each Centre holds one seat, the Board Chairman holds one seat, and the CEO holds one seat. There is no right of veto on any decisions. The seats held by the Centres are held by the Centre Franchisees who work in the centres, and all hold early childhood qualifications with substantial experience in the profession.

Your Centre Franchisee holds an important position on the Management Committee as the representative of the children, families, and educators of their service. Ensuring that all voices are heard when making decisions. Further to this, the Committee has more recently made a commitment to Article 3 in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to ensure that all decisions are made with what is in the best interests of children.

This unique business model ensures that the operation of each centre is guided by a professional who is committed to providing the highest quality of early childhood education and care. Many of our franchisees have worked with Mother Duck for many years and have helped shape the values of the company.

Miss Karen