Naracoorte Primary School OSHC will not reopen after school holidays closure as operator Happy Haven struggles to find staff

Parents have been left scrambling for out of school hours care for their children as the only provider in this South-East town struggles to find enough staff.

Parents were given just days’ notice that the only vacation care option in the South-East town of Naracoorte would not be available this school holidays because of staff shortages.

And now The Advertiser can confirm the out of school hours care (OSHC) service at Naracoorte Primary School will not return when students go back for the start of term four.

The service had been operated by Happy Haven OSHC, one of the state’s largest OSHC providers.

Chief executive officer Nicholas Smith said skills shortages in the sector were “extreme” and when an educator resigned just prior to the school holidays the company “had no choice but to close the program” in Naracoorte.

“Finding appropriately qualified and experienced educators in metropolitan areas is extremely challenging, and in rural areas it can be near impossible,” Mr Smith said.

“We cannot guarantee that by term four we will have sufficient numbers of staff with the required training and experience to enable a safe and high-quality program that children and families deserve.”

A government spokeswoman said the Education Department had “put a call out for an alternative provider” but uncertainty remains for parents.

On September 25 – the second-last day of term three – Naracoorte Primary School principal Paul Harmer sent a letter to parents advising that Happy Haven had been “unable to appoint enough suitable educators to continue operating this service”.

Mr Harmer said Happy Haven had notified the department of the issue on September 23.

“As a result, Happy Haven will be suspending the operation of the OSHC service effective immediately,” he wrote.

Families were encouraged to try to find care for children at OSHC services in Penola, 50km away, or Mount Gambier, more than 100km away.

“We understand this will cause disruption for families,” Mr Harmer wrote.

Independent MP for the southeast electorate of MacKillop Nick McBride said parents had “been left scrambling for solutions, with no indication of when or if the service will resume”.

Mr McBride said the service had been “unreliable” recently, and was open for just nine days in August.

Liberal candidate for MacKillop Rebekah Rosser wrote to Education Minister Blair Boyer on Wednesday suggesting the government consider a “small, time-limited grant (or) budget increase” to the Naracoorte Primary School OSHC to operate “during this emergency period”.

The government spokeswoman said it was “disappointing the existing private OSHC provider has walked away from Naracoorte”.

“This is not an issue of funding, it is an issue of staffing,” she said.

Mr Smith said the state government had been “extremely supportive” but there was “no state-level funding available to support OSHC operations, recruitment or training, or viability for small (or) rural services”.

He said Happy Haven OSHC had applied for federal government funding for the Naracoorte service “but these grants were not approved and no funding was forthcoming”.

Originally published as Naracoorte Primary School OSHC will not reopen after school holidays closure as operator Happy Haven struggles to find staff