Outside School Hours Care mass closures over coronavirus
Outside School Hours Care providers are closing across Victoria due to the coronavirus crisis, in a move that will have devastating and widespread effects across the nation.
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Major Outside School Hours Care providers have decided to shut their doors over the coronavirus crisis, putting thousand of Victorian workers out of a job and leaving even more children without care.
Childcare workers across the state have today been stood down as 30 per cent of the nation’s Outside School Hours Care market begins closing services.
Attendance at some OSHC centres have plummeted — some with no children coming at all — amid health warnings over COVID-19.
Five service providers including Junior Adventures Group, TeamKids, Camp Australia, TheirCare and the YMCA, have started closing services in Victoria.
The closures are expected to escalate over the next few days nationwide.
A coalition of service providers has today warned the sector faces collapse without changes to the Federal Government’s Child Care Subsidy.
“Our sector faces no choice but to commence the closure of services across the country, leaving large parts of our workforce without work,” said Sinead Ryan for the OSHC providers.
She said the decision followed “crippling losses” of some providers, as attendance rates dropped dramatically.
“Sadly, the situation has become untenable,” Ms Ryan said.
“In the last three weeks, attendances at the hundreds of schools around Australia where we provide our services have fallen by as much as 98%, and in many cases this week we opened services to provide before and after school care and attendances were zero.
“The children in our care are at the forefront of everything we do. We are heartbroken for our
childcare professionals, who provide a vital and valuable service, but without a change to the
funding model we simply have no revenue coming in. We need a resolution from Government on assistance to the sector immediately.”
There were also fears over the long-term impact to the sector, as some childcare workers were expected not to return after the crisis.
Junior Adventures Group, which runs OSHClub, sent staff formal notices to stand down today.
It stated that with schools closing, government advice to stay home, community concern about contracting the virus and mass cancellations, it did not have any work for staff.
Staff have been told they will be stood down from close of business today until the end of term 1 school holidays, which conclude for students on April 15, with a review following that date.
Meanwhile, the same company this morning emailed OSHClub families to offer school holiday programs at limited centres.
“(W) e know that there are families that still require care and we want to be there for you,” the email from Junior Adventures Group said.
“That’s why we are opening seventeen awesome, action-packed and safe school holiday programs across Melbourne — available to all families (not just those of essential service workers).”
The full list of OSHClub holiday program offerings can be found below.
The OSHC Coalition said it had been in “productive” discussions with Federal Government over the past few weeks, but funding access had not been executed and “the sector has run out of time”.
“The Outside School Hours sector has been completely forgotten by State and Federal Governments, despite the essential role we play in caring for children outside of school hours,” Ms Ryan said.
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The group is calling for government support based on attendance in the last week of February as a baseline before the impact of the crisis hit.
OSHC providers get their main source of funding from the Child Care Subsidy, which is calculated on attendance.
OSHCLUB HUBS OPEN FOR HOLIDAYS:
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Bridgewood Primary School
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St Peters Catholic East Bentleigh
Carlton Gardens Primary School
Greenhills Primary School
Melton Primary School
St Anne’s Catholic Sunbury
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St John’s Catholic School, Footscray
St Monica’s Catholic School, Moonee Ponds
Banyule Primary School