Mapped: 42 new childcare centres springing up around Adelaide – but will this worsen the shortage of early childhood educators?

Dozens of new childcare centres are being built around our city – but experts say this could actually be bad news for parents.

Dozens of childcare centres are poised to open across Adelaide sparking fears the “boom” will worsen an oversupply of places, threaten quality of service and further fuel a workforce crisis in the sector.

A Sunday Mail investigation can reveal plans for at least 42 new childcare centres have been lodged with councils since January last year, adding potentially thousands of new places into the childcare system.

The new projects – spread across Adelaide and the Hills – represent a 10 per cent increase on the existing 430 long day care centres currently operating in SA, according to figures from union United Workers Voice.

Industry figures say the growth will undercut existing centres and worsen a shortage of early childhood workers.

They want planning reforms preventing new centres being built in areas of high competition, and more incentives to attract staff into the sector which is experiencing a staffing crisis.

Australian Childcare Alliance SA vice president George Skrembos said there was a “huge oversupply” of centres in SA.

He said interstate operators, wanting to increase their market share, were driving the recent expansion, in part due to cheap land.

“We battle to see why they are needed, the demand is not there,” he said. “At a lot of our members’ centres there are lots of vacancies … and none of our local operators, to my understanding, are building any more centres.

“Our observation is these new centres are being built close to other centres … and that puts enormous pressure on both operators and what they end up doing is discounting fees and if you do that your quality of care goes down.

“We have a huge shortage of qualified educators in SA, we are all struggling to find qualified educators.”

Mr Skrembos, whose organisation represents 106 long day care members in SA, estimated another 800 staff would be needed for an additional 40 childcare centres.

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority this year estimated Australia would need an extra 39,000 early childhood workers by 2023.

The Advertiser reported in March that almost one in five South Australian childcare centres were not meeting the required staff-to-child ratios.

The ACA and the United Workers Union, which represents childcare workers, have called on state and federal governments to impose zoning restrictions that would prevent centres from opening in areas where there is no proven demand.

Little Nook Early Learning Centre owner/operators Richard and Sandy Munro with attendees Delilah and Hugo. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The union’s early learning executive director Helen Gibbons said the “boom” in the “for profit” sector was concerning.

“If there’s another 42 childcare centres on the way, that’s almost a 10 per cent increase. That’s enormous and I can’t imagine that there is a need for that,” she said.

“I know that childcare is expensive for parents but if you have this for-profit sector come in to erode and compete against the not-for-profit sector, you are going to drive down quality and you’re going to create more chaos in the early education workforce.

“The state government should have a look … what are the permissions and planning processes that are allowing the for profit sector to build centres where they are quite frankly not needed.”

Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page said there must be better co-ordination among all levels of government to determine if new centres are needed in areas looking at demographics, housing and vacancy rates at existing centres.

“Often people building the centres aren’t the ones running the service so they don’t necessarily know the vacancy rates in the area,” she said. “They might be putting another childcare centre down the road out of business or both centres might struggle because they are half full.”

This proposed childcare centre at 345 Gorge Road, Athelstone will have 82 places. Picture: Insite Architects

ASX-listed property fund Arena REIT, which has 226 early learning centres nationally, is adding another centre to its existing stable of eight in Adelaide.

Executive director Robert de Vos said SA had a “proportionally higher new supply” of centres in the past two years.

“The majority of the new supply has been well considered and tenant led rather than speculative development,” he said. “Ultimately this will improve consumer choice in those communities.

“SA is a great place to invest (with a) growing population, strong employment, supportive government initiatives, and we continue to see pockets where sensible early learning centre development will benefit the community.”

Hard work, low pay puts stuff under pressure

Excessive workload, low pay and feeling undervalued has created a perfect storm for the state’s childcare industry which is facing a critical staff shortage.

More than 140 childcare jobs in SA are currently advertised on SEEK, a 58 per cent increase in 12 months.

The United Workers Union said the number was likely to increase in coming months due to an increase in centres.

The union’s Helen Gibbons said staff retention would be a major problem for the state in the near future.

“So what all these new centres will be doing is spreading the resources more thinly and cannibalise educators from other centres, adding more stress to the industry,” she said.

A union survey last month found a third of SA’s childhood educators planned to leave the sector in the long term. This despite a 2.5 per cent increase to the minimum pay rate which was introduced in July.

Australian Childcare Alliance SA vice president George Skrembos said the state government needed to do more to ensure there was a “pipeline” of educators.

“They can do that with simplifying courses, more incentives, grants,” he said.

The ACA is also lobbying for a specific birth to five early childhood teaching degree.

“The only qualification accepted by the Teachers Registration Board in SA is birth to 8

degree which also qualifies graduates to teach in Junior Primary rather than specialise in the vital skills that are required for children in the birth to 5 age range,” it said in a submission last month to Education Minister John Gardner.

Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page the Covid pandemic had exacerbated the worker shortage.

“There were already workforce shortage, that’s largely due to poor working conditions and people feeling they could earn more in less stressful jobs,” she said.

“We’re seeing more people walking away from management positions because they can’t get enough staff … we’ve got providers closing sessions because they can’t get staff.”

A state government spokesman said the government is increasing paid traineeships in early childhood education and care “to take advantage of the employment opportunities that exist in the industry”.

He said the government worked directly with industry to “support a more flexible workforce solution to ensure the continued delivery of quality care”.

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