Childcare shortages forces parents to keep kids at home

Short-staffed childcare centres are turning kids away, forcing the government regulator to relax workforce ratios for one in eight daycare centres.

Hayley Devereux, with baby Jac, has already found the search for childcare in Melbourne challenging. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

Short-staffed childcare centres are turning kids away, forcing the government regulator to relax workforce ratios for one in eight daycare centres.

Australian Childcare Alliance vice-president Nesha Hutchinson warned that some centres are making enrolled children stay home when an educator calls in sick, ­because they cannot find relief staff to meet regulatory requirements.

“We have services calling parents saying, ‘Don’t bring your child today because we don’t have enough staff’,’’ she said.

“Staff are tired and stressed and leaving or retiring early, and we can’t replace them.’’

Ms Hutchinson said vaccine mandates were exacerbating staff shortages. “We’ve just lost 10 per cent of our workforce who won’t get vaccinated,’’ she said.

Childcare staff vacancies have surged nearly 50 per cent during the pandemic, with the National Skills Commission reporting 4842 vacancies in October this year, compared to 3304 in October 2019.

Ms Hutchinson said staff were being lured into the retail and hospitality sectors, which often pay more than the $20-an-hour minimum wage for entry-level childcare workers.

“Workforce shortages are a problem for us because we’re ­required to have a certain number of staff with certain qualifications,’’ she said.

The nation’s biggest not-for-profit provider, Goodstart Early Learning, is having to cap enrolments below capacity in some centres, due to recruitment problems – despite paying above-award wages.

Goodstart advocacy manager John Cherry said the sector was facing an “unprecedented shortage of educators’’, as existing staff quit and closed borders block ­migrant workers.

“We just haven’t been able to replace those who left – the casual workforce has all but dried up,’’ he said. “Our staff have to be qualified – we can’t just pick people off the street.’’

Staff shortages are so severe that the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority has granted staffing waivers to one in eight long day­care centres across Australia, permitting them to operate without the number of staff required by legislation.

Exemptions are most common in South Australia, where one in five centres are caring for children without the requisite number of qualified staff.

Waivers have been granted to 18 per cent of centres in Western Australia, 17 per cent in NSW, 14 per cent in Tasmania, 12 per cent in Queensland, 11 per cent in the Northern Territory and 8 per cent in the ACT.

In Victoria, where many children were kept home in lockdown this year, only 3.6 per cent of centres have staffing waivers.

New Melbourne mother Hayley Devereux has begun searching for childcare for baby Jac so she can go back to work next July.

“We want to make sure he’s somewhere he’s happy,’’ she said.

“But there can be very long wait lists, and the rising cost of childcare is a challenge to us.’’  Childcare costs are rising twice as fast as inflation, with childcare comparison app KindiCare ­revealing a $5-a-day increase in fees, to $117 a day, averaged across 16,500 childcare centres between May and November – an 4.42 per cent rise in six months.