REVEALED: South coast childcare ‘deserts’ paint a grim picture

Parents hoping to place their children into childcare are facing years-long waitlists as new research sheds light on the region’s childcare “deserts”.

A research report calling for universal access to childcare has revealed which suburbs in NSW have the least options for young families, with areas on the south coast ranking among the worst.

The report from Victoria University affiliated Mitchell Institute claims that 3 million people in NSW are living in what it classifies as ‘childcare deserts’, places where there are more than three kids under five for every childcare place available.

Almost all of NSW’s childcare deserts are in regional and rural NSW, with the remainder in west and southwest Sydney.

A large majority of the childcare oases — suburbs where there are enough childcare places for every child under five to attend three days a week — are in the inner city, and northern suburbs.

On the south coast, the research showed there were almost three children (2.93) for every childcare place available.

Around half (50.9 per cent) of the region was considered a desert, with only areas around Broulee and Bermagui receiving a positive rating.

In nearby Shoalhaven, it was a similar story, with three children to every childcare place, and 47 per cent of the region being considered a childcare desert.

The crisis has triggered calls to action from local centres and councils.

In Batemans Bay, the SDN Preschool had 130 families on its waitlist at the start of 2022.

SDN Batemans Bay students Hudson, 4, left, with Aston, 5, and Violet, 4. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

The school, which prioritises families who are considered vulnerable, currently hosts around 75 children during the week, and is pushing to open up more spots.

Director Rebecca Lester said one of the biggest challenges the school faced in providing more positions to children throughout the year was a staffing shortage.

“The only thing that is holding us back is trying to find staff,” she said.

“Staff get more money working at Woolworths than they do in an education and care setting.”

As a result, Ms Lester said many parents were being left without access to childcare, which had a knock-on effect for the whole family.

“Families can’t go back to work because they can’t get care for their children,” Ms Lester said.

“You might have parents that have mental health issues, that just need a break.

“We’ve even had some families that have been homeless, but we can’t offer their children a place because we don’t have the staff to be able to run it.

“We’re full, we don’t have the room.”

Ms Lester said the situation was “breaking the hearts” of staff.

“It‘s frustrating because there is not a lot we can do,” she said.

“We would love to be able to open the doors and provide education and care for as many children as we can to support both families, whether it’s around mental health or around returning to work.”

SDN Batemans Bay student Liv, 4, with director Rebecca Lester. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

The SDN Preschool in Batemans Bay has been calling on the Eurobodalla Shire Council to open another room to the school in the council building where the centre is located, Ms Lester said.

In doing so, they could provide space for another 40 children, but still face staffing issues.

According to the council, there are about 394 local children on waitlists for care across the area, painting what it describes as a “grim picture” for local families.

The Eurobodalla Shire Council’s community development manager Kim Bush said a range of factors were involved in creating the current crisis.

They included lower-than-average pay rates for qualified staff, no locally-based training options, a national framework placing additional administrative pressures on centres, as well as a lack of health and support services for families in the region.

Ms Bush said the impacts went beyond parents scrambling to find care, and mirrored Ms Lester’s view that the crisis was also impacting the mental health of staff, as well as children’s wellbeing and development – and the local economy.

“Research is clear that a child’s early learning environment plays a key role in their development, and those who go without access to early education are automatically behind when they start school,” Ms Bush said.

“Add to this an increase in children presenting with behavioural issues, and little to no access to appropriate allied health services.

“If you invest in the early years you get a better community outcome long-term – instead we’re continuing a cycle of disadvantage.”

SDN Batemans Bay are urging the Eurobodalla Shire Council to open a nearby room to the school in order to increase spots available to students. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

A forum hosted by the council on March 12 brought together representatives from care centres, as well as health and not-for-profit organisations to workshop solutions.

A resulting plan detailed priority actions that needed to be taken, including advocating for government subsidised wages, more collaboration across the industry, and reinstating early childhood courses at Batemans Bay TAFE.

“We’re calling for more government investment in our most precious assets – our children – and for universal principles so everyone can access early learning,” Ms Bush said.

“We’re at a moment in time when our sector needs leadership. Council will be demanding action and advocating to anyone who will listen.”

Currently, there are no face-to-face childcare courses at TAFE Batemans Bay, according to Ms Lester, despite, in her opinion, there being plenty of teachers interested in the role.

Elsewhere in NSW, the report found the places with the least options for parents are Broken Hill and Far West NSW, with an average of 7-8 children under the age of five for every one childcare place and the Upper Hunter, with 5-6 children for every one childcare place.

The report’s lead author, Dr Peter Hurley, said that in regional areas “People are talking about getting their child on waiting lists before they even get pregnant.”

In Batemans Bay, Ms Lester said parents could be on the waitlist for as long as five years.

“We’ve got families that have just had babies that have been put on our waitlist,” she said.

“Some of them even add themselves to the list when they find out they’re pregnant.”

The situation sits in stark contrast to Sydney’s inner city, where there are 1.57 children under five for every childcare place.

Chatswood and Lane Cove on the north side of the harbour boast 1.73 children for every childcare place, and for families in Kur-Ring-Gai, there are 1.85 children under five for each child care place.

In Sydney’s innerwest suburbs of Marrickville, Sydenham, and Petersham, there are roughly two children for every one child care place.

SDN Batemans Bay students with director Rebecca Lester. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

Dr Hurley argues that the privatised childcare sector isn’t opening centres where the demand is highest, or where the benefits of early education will be most felt.

Instead, they are being opened where operators can charge the highest fees, according to their data.

“More competition in these areas isn’t driving down prices. The incentive is for providers to go where they can make the most profit,” said Dr Hurley.

The report also notes that women living in childcare deserts were less likely to be in the workforce while they had children under five.

Hannah Matthews, a policy fellow at the Mitchell Institute, explains that it’s not simple to differentiate between which factor comes first: availability, or demand.

“Lower levels of workforce participation will affect levels of childcare, but it could work the other way, leading them to choose to not participate in the workforce or as much as they’d like while their children are young,” Ms Matthews said.

Within Sydney, that plays out in western suburbs like Mt Druitt, Fairfield, Liverpool and the Blue Mountains — all considered childcare deserts in the report — with three kids competing for every one childcare place.

One childcare centre in Fairfield with high ratings had a waiting list of 400, 160 of which were families which already had one child enrolled in the school.

While it would cost money to implement, the report’s authors point to research which shows that the increased costs would be offset by taxes paid by women able to stay in, or re-enter the workforce instead of taking on unpaid care roles.

But availability issues can’t be solved solely with subsidies, according to Dr Hurley, as he argues for universal access to guide the design of the childcare system.

“Changing the sticker price won’t affect all those structural issues,” Dr Hurley said.

“If there’s already a three-year waitlist, how’s a price change going to help?”

SDN Batemans Bay students Ellie, 4, left, with Sophia, 4. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

How the results are calculated

The report uses data from Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which rates the more than 8,700 childcare centres that operate nationally.

The report’s authors decided on using data for childcare places for 0-4 year olds, only including centres open more than forty hours per week, and excluding children who attend pre-school.

From the ACECQA data, that equalled out to 602,000 places nationally for 1.52 million children.
This results in a ratio of about 0.396 childcare places per child, if childcare was equally divided across the country.

The authors classify childcare deserts as places where there are more than three kids for every childcare place available. That also equals a score of 0.33 or lower.

By comparison, an oasis is a place that scores 0.6 or higher, meaning there are 0.6 places for every child in the area, significantly above the national average.

The authors explain that the score of 0.6 equals out to three full days of childcare available for every child, every week, meeting the bar of ‘universal access’.
To calculate how many childcare options an individual ABS-defined statistical region had, travel times were used as a metric instead of distance, LGA, or suburb, to more fairly consider how people move in regional areas, according Dr Hurley.

SDN Batemans Bay teacher Natasha Dobson, left, with director Rebecca Lester. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

For example, two opposite ends of a peninsula might be within 10km, but an hour drive away.

To calculate the score of each region, the team used a baseline of a 10 minute drive for metropolitan Sydney, and a 20 minute drive for regional areas, then weighted the numbers higher or lower depending on whether the childcare options were within the travel time.

So a region with multiple options that were 2.5 minutes away would score higher than a region with the same options that were 10 minutes or more away.

That also allows for a fairer comparison between two households in opposite ends of the same small regional town, and equalises the difference in convenience.

Because the authors have chosen to weigh the childcare places available against travel times, the scores aren’t straightforward comparisons of availability, they also take into account convenience, which the authors believe is a huge factor in parent’s childcare choices.

It more fairly weighs up the issue of accessibility, according to Dr Hurley.