Knox councillors vote on decision about council-run kinders

Knox councillors have voted on a controversial move to slash council-run kinder services.

Knox Council is considering moving away from running kinders.

Knox councillors have supported a move to slash council-run kinder services.

All councillors except for one voted to support a motion at Monday night’s meeting that recommended slashing council-run kinder services currently being provided at 29 facilities to just two.

A final decision will be made in August after consultation with staff.

If the changes go ahead other providers would be sought to operate sessional kindergarten services in Knox and the council would be able to lease its stand-alone kindergarten facilities to alternate not-for-profit service providers.

The council would remain a sessional kindergarten provider in its two Early Years Hubs only, at the Knox Children and Family Centres in Bayswater and Wantirna South.

If the plan gets the final tick of approval later in the year, the council will cease providing sessional kindergarten in stand-alone facilities and relinquish its role as an Early Years Manager from December 2024 in line with the expiry of the current kindergarten service agreement.

Local politicians, the union and parents have joined together to demand the council not reduce their sessional kinder services.

After concerns from some in the community the council clarified that sessional kinder would still be available in Knox even if the changes go ahead.

Knox Mayor Marcia Timmers-Leitch said that should council resolve to move ahead with the changes, it would work with the Department of Education to support them in identifiying alternative providers for sessional kindergarten in Knox with the option of council leasing facilities to such providers from January 2025.

All councillors supported the motion except for Cr Sorina Grasso.

Cr Grasso called for the council to remain a sessional kindergarten provider and create a more sustainable service (Option 1 in the council report).

“In order to give the children of Knox continued access to the best start in life I would urge my colleagues to support Option 1,” she said.

Cr Darren Pearce said it was the most critical decision he would be making in his 15 years as a councillor, but it was a decision that had to be made.

He said the council had an “uncompetitive service model” and parents had already been voting rapidly with their feet and wallets, choosing private long term day care that had integrated preschool or kinder programs in it.

Cr Pearce said the free kinder election commitment at the 2022 election blindsided the local government sector, with no consultation or consideration of the consequences.

He said $50-100m in capital works was required to bring all the council’s kinder facilities up to state government standards.

Cr Nicole Seymour said Knox had been delivering kindergarten services in the community for more than 60 years and was well known across the sector for delivering the best quality program with exceptional teachers.

But Cr Seymour said the state government had been driving a significant reform agenda in the early years sector since 2012, which had placed challenges on the council-run model.

In a statement from Knox Council, it said: “There are some big changes coming for kindergarten as part of the state government’s decision to increase hours, make kindergarten free and offer a second year of kindergarten before school.”

“In light of this, council has been reviewing its kindergarten services. This is the responsible thing to do when there are such big changes ahead that could have impacts for our services and our community,” the statement said.

“Knox is one of very few councils left in Melbourne that directly provides kindergarten on the scale that we do so these changes affect us more than other councils.”

The statement said no decision had been made yet and any changes will be effective from January 2025.