Staff, parents say regional childcare has been neglected in harrowing submissions

Regional Victoria’s crippled childcare system has teachers staying in backpacker hostels and parents waiting more than two years to enrol their children, a federal advisory body was told.

Harrowing submissions have exposed regional Victoria’s crippled childcare system where staff risk their safety to get to work and long waitlists force parents to enrol children before they’re born.

The dire condition of some of the country’s 14,473 family and after school care centres is highlighted in more than 300 submissions and comments to the federal government’s Productivity Commission’s Early Childhood Education and Care inquiry.

Several fed-up Victorians demanding extra funding and support for childcare services in the regions were among those who contributed, with Regional Development Australia (RDA) Barwon South West former chair Anita Rank discussing the lack of facilities and staff in Apollo Bay and Glenelg Shire.

She said staff travel dangerous distances along the Otway National Park and Great Ocean Road to get to work, while others can only afford to live in short-term backpacker accommodation and share houses due to the housing crisis.

The beachside town also risks losing one of its childcare facilities in the new year as it has been asked to relocate – a request the provider, which was not named, said isn’t financially viable.

The dire state of regional Victoria’s childcare system is exposed in harrowing submissions for a Productivity Commission inquiry.

Parents wishing to enrol their child into long day care in the Glenelg Shire have to wait years for a spot, with “approximately 173 children on waiting lists for council-managed early year programs”.

This is also the case for Phillip Island Early Learning Centre (PIELC), where some children have been on the waitlist for nearly two years due to staff shortages.

“PIELC has lost childcare staff to the kindergarten sector, due to more favourable work conditions,” its submission said. These conditions include smaller classes and more annual leave.

Not-for-profit community group Meli also contributed to the inquiry’s submissions where it revealed some vacant early educator positions in the Colac Otway Shire took more than six months to fill.

Councillor for the shire Graham Costin called on the government to increase wages, abolish the child care subsidy activity test and increase funding in rural areas to support the sector, in his submission.

The government has been urged to rise wages for childcare workers.

Greater Bendigo City Mayor Andrea Metcalf on behalf of the Loddon Campaspe Group of Councils, also urged the government to increase childcare subsidies and support “co-location of childcare services with primary schools (and) kinders”.

Meanwhile RDA Loddon Mallee chair Leonie Burrows said the lack of childcare services in the regions not only impacted child development, but also local tourism.

“Without access to childcare, families have lower disposable incomes (and) the region’s businesses are adversely affected,” she said.

Opposition education and early childhood spokesperson Jess Wilson said finding affordable and accessible childcare remains “out of reach for too many young families”.

“Having accessible and stable kinder and early childhood education options is key to ensuring our kids get the best possible start in life, as well as supporting parents to get back into the workforce," she said.

“The workforce crisis plaguing this sector has been years in the making, and the Allan Government’s poorly planned interventions are only shifting the problem from one area to another and in many cases making a bad situation worse.”

Submissions are open until February 14, with the final report release date yet to be determined.

A department of education spokesperson said it welcomes the Productivity Commission’s draft report, “which acknowledges that childcare should remain the responsibility of the Federal Government and the need for more funding and action from the Commonwealth”.

“The Victorian Government has already provided free kindergarten programs for up to 140,000 children in 2023, supported initiatives that have helped grow the kindergarten workforce by more than 50 per cent since 2019, and opened or expanded 450 new services in the same period,” they said.

“The Department of Education takes a data-driven approach to determine where new facilities will be located, to deliver additional kindergarten and early childhood education and care places where they are needed the most.”