Child care goes 24/7 with new extended hours trials Goodstart Childcare centre manager Jacquiline McCann plays with Sofija Jovanovic and Calah O'Carroll, both 3, in Mosman, New South Wales. AROUND-the-clock child care will be trialled for 500 families across Australia to discover if late-night and after-hours care can work for shift- workers, including nurses and police officers. The Gillard Government will today announce new national trials that will include family daycare options in the home for parents who do not work standard 9am-5pm office hours, and extended childcare centre hours. The experiment will cost $5 million and seek to answer the question of not only whether extended hours are viable for centres, but also whether they reduce the stress levels of families. Parents would still pay for child care, but in some cases taxpayers would subsidise the cost to ensure it was viable for centres to trial after-hours care. "We know modern families want more flexible approaches to child care to meet their families' needs, and to be able to rely on quality, affordable, accessible child care," Childcare Minister Kate Ellis said. We hear from parents all the time who struggle with the tag-team run to pick the kids up, and we want to increase the flexibility of child care to better meet the needs of modern families. We recognise that every family is different, and we want to give families more choice when it comes to child care so they can make the decision that works for their family. Childcare policy is looming as a major battleground at the September 14 election with Tony Abbott considering options to increase flexibility and even offer tax deductibility for some wealthier mums. But both sides of politics agree that for most families the current 50 per cent rebate would still deliver more value than a tax deduction. As The Sunday Times revealed last year, the Government is also considering proposals to deliver an effective freeze on childcare fees through an increase to the childcare benefit payment for low and middle-income families. Other options under consideration include subsidies to the childcare industry in exchange for price agreements. Family Day Care Australia to provide overnight and weekend care for police and nurses doing shiftwork. Extended weekday care at six Goodstart Early Learning Centres across Australia. More out-of-school-hours care will be offered with the Government funding the Network of Out of School Hours Services. In New South Wales, the scheme will fund family day care for police officers and in Queensland it will focus on nurses. Expanded childcare centre hours and after-school care will be offered in Victoria, South Australia and WA to other families enrolled in participating centres.