Dalby parents desperate for childcare forced to wait up to two years for place

Two Dalby daycare providers say mandatory staffing ratios, cost of living pressures and population growth have left their wait list at their highest. Find out more.

Dalby families seeking daycare are finding themselves out in the cold, with some parents waiting up to two years to secure their child a placement.

Local daycare providers say mandatory staffing ratios, cost of living pressures and population growth have all contributed to the growing problem.

In a community Facebook group of almost 700 parents looking to find their children a daycare spot in Dalby, a poll showed 62 per cent of people had waited between 12-18 months while 24 per cent had waited 6-12 months.

Play Early Learning Centres owner Sarah Courtney said they were the busiest they’ve ever been.

“We have a long wait list particularly for younger children, I even have unborn children on our wait lists,” she said.

“On average I am getting about four to five calls a week from parents looking to secure their kids a place but this week I got 15 and 12 in one day.”

Educational leader at Milestone Early Learning Dalby Belinda Reid echoed this.

“The wait list for toddlers and babies is probably the longest, we are seeing people wait for 12 months,” she said.

“We are an 80 child centre and our babies and toddlers are full every day.

“The children tend to stay on as well, we have had children here who are started in the nursery and they continue their care until they go to school.”

They said there were a number of factors which were placing pressure on centres and parents.

“Our wait list all depends on staff, if we have a staff shortage it’s longer and staffing has been a real issue,” Ms Reid said.

Ms Courtney agreed.

“It is difficult because we need to ensure we have the right staffing ratio, you need to have one adult for every four babies, one adult for every five two-to-three-year-olds and one adult to every 11 children (aged) over three,” she said.

“At the moment we have 27 children a day and we just recently got approved for kindy which will increase our capacity to 45.

“Another local centre just lost their kindy for 2025 and we have been inundated with kindy requirements.”

Ms Courtney said care centre quotas also impacted parents’ ability to secure a spot for their child.

“Some people can be waiting for two years and some people can be waiting two months, it really depends on how many days they choose,” she said.

“We are privately owned so we don't see this but with some care centres they will have a quota to meet so it makes more business sense to accept kids looking for five days of care.

“People looking to find their children a spot for one to two days a week will have a much harder time trying to get in.”

She also credited growing population and cost of living with the long wait lists.

“It is the cost of living crisis we have people coming up from Brisbane and the Gold Coast because the cost of living in easier in the regions,” she said.

“They often struggle to find rentals but as soon as they get a rental they move here and look to get their children into daycare.

“It’s a vicious cycle, families want to be home at home with their kids but with the cost of everything at the moment they need to work to afford to live.”