Griffith is a ‘childcare desert’ according to new research

There‘s four kids for every childcare spot in Griffith according to new research that has examined access to childcare across the country.

The waiting list at one Griffith childcare centre is “like an old phone book” according to a staff member - and it’s a similar story elsewhere.

The major regional city is a ‘childcare desert’ according to the first research of its kind in Australia, which takes an indepth look at access to childcare.

The report from Victoria University affiliated Mitchell Institute revealed that some three million people in NSW are living in what it qualifies as ‘childcare deserts’, which are places where there are more than three kids for every childcare place available.

In Griffith there‘s around four (4.17) children aged four or under, for every one childcare place, while about 90 per cent of the area is considered a childcare desert.

That compares to 2.87 kids in Tumut/ Tumbarumba to every childcare place, with about a third of that area a childcare desert; and 2.66 kids to every place in Wagga Wagga, with a quarter of that statistical area considered a desert.

In Griffith, wait times for a childcare place can take up to two years.

That‘s the current length of the wait list at Dorothy Waide Centre For Early Learning which has been operating for 30 years.

In Griffith, wait times for a childcare place can take up to two years. That's the current length of the wait list at Dorothy Waide Centre For Early Learning which has been operating for 30 years. Picture: Dorothy Waide Centre

“Our waiting list is like an old phone book,” centre spokeswoman Kerry Ross said. “Parents will put their name on the waiting list before the birth of their child.“

At the Community Kids Griffith Early Education Centre staff shortages have contributed to the issue, a spokesperson said, with the longest waits for a place for kids aged two years and under.

In Wagga, where the waiting lists are shorter, staff shortages are also an issue.

“Every centre would have the situation where they don’t have enough staff to fill the demand,” a Shaw Street Children’s Centre spokeswoman said.

“You cannot judge the waiting lists as they are tricky to gauge because people move around.“

Statewide issue

Almost all of NSW’s childcare deserts are in regional and rural NSW according to the recent report, 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.

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.

Compare that to Sydney’s inner city, where there are 1.57 children under five for every 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.”

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.

How they calculated it

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.

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.