Childcare educators’ health ‘neglected’ by government, as enrolments plummet

A DARWIN childcare centre director has spoken out about the struggles she is facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying she feels the health and safety of childcare workers is being ‘neglected’ by the Federal Government.

La Creche director Louise de Bomford-Scott has spoken out about the struggles she is facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying she feels the health and safety of childcare workers is being “neglected” by the Federal Government. Picture: Glenn Campbell

A DARWIN childcare centre director has spoken out about the struggles she is facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying she feels the health and safety of childcare workers is being “neglected” by the Federal Government.

Director of La Crèche on the Avenue in Parap, Louise de Bomford-Scott, said enrolments in the centre have dropped by more than 50 per cent, jeopardising the jobs of the centre’s 45 staff members.

“In the last two weeks it’s (the drop in enrolments) been quite dramatic,” she said.

“We’re licensed for 145 children (and) normally our utilisation is 95 per cent. Now we’re well below 50 per cent.

“We still have a mortgage to pay, we’ve got body corporate, provision of meals and resources for the children.”

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Aside from the financial struggle, she feels that she and her staff are being forced to risk their own health by remaining open.

“When you consider the rest of the world is being told to isolate and you can have full capacity at a child care centre or school, it just seems very contradictory,” she said.

“I just feel in many ways that the health and wellbeing of us has been neglected.”

However, Early Childhood Australia NT branch president Sarah Lloyd said many families would be “really disadvantaged” if centres were to close.

“There’s still a lot of workplaces in the NT where people still need to go to work,” she said.

“We’re doing lots of scenario planning of what this could look like (and) we’re working hard to do what we can to support people to keep going to work.”

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An NT Education Department spokeswoman said the Department supported “the continued operations of childcare services”.

She said NT childcare centres financially affected by the pandemic may be eligible to apply for the Federal Government’s JobKeeper program, which forms part of the $130 billion stimulus package announced on Monday.