Child care centres cannot wait for government to act to save the sector from total collapse

As parents of young children grapple with whether or not they should send them to child care, the sector is crying out for immediate help or risk closing down forever.

TASMANIAN child care centres cannot wait until Friday for advice from the Federal Government and face closing for good if something is not done sooner, says local providers.

On Monday, March 30, Early Childhood Australia Tasmanian president Ros Cornish said centres faced downturns of up to 90 per cent due to job losses and government advice for people to stay home.

The only change to the sector from the Federal Government came last week with an

announcement young children would be allowed an extra 20 absent days before their parents lost government subsidies on childcare fees.

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Parents are still required to pay the gap on those absent days.

Many parents are left with the decision of choosing between continuing to send their child to care at a time when advice is to remain at home and schools have transitioned to online learning, pulling their child out of care and having to pay for a service they are not using or withdrawing them from care and losing their place.

Premier Peter Gutwein said this morning the National Cabinet would discuss child care on Friday and “I’m hoping we’ll have more to say about that on Friday.”

Giggles Early Learning proprietor Linda Wooldrage said Friday was going to be too late.

“We can’t wait (un)til Friday for this to be sorted out – I cannot in this day and age understand why it is taking so long to help us out – every day it’s another day of stress and worry and a day closer to closing,” she said.

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“The economic downturn for our sector was immediate. We can’t afford for centres to close without support because once they close they will never rebuild.

“All our costs are fixed – it doesn’t matter if I have three or 34 children in care.

“The JobKeeper package sounds great, but that’s going to be too late too – the money doesn’t start flowing May.”

Mrs Wooldrage said she had to make all of her full time staff at the Smithton centre part time and educators were worried for their own health and safety.

“We cannot meet the Government requirements for social distancing. This is putting the health and safety of our educators and children at risk,” she said.

Child care centres are not eligible to receive the Federal Government child care subsidy if they lose enrolments and choose to close.

“To save our educators jobs and livelihoods, we need the Government to shut us down so we can continue to receive CCS and pay staff leave,” Mrs Wooldrage said.

Director of Cambridge Road Play and Learn Centre in Warrane, Jackie Hughes with kids Arvin Lowe, 4 and Sophie Swain, 4 as there is increasing pressure on the child care sector due to the COVID-19 crises. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

Cambridge Road Play and Learn director Jackie Hughes said attendance at the Warrane centre was down by 80 per cent and while she was confident the business would survive in the long term, the same could not be said for all centres.

“There will be businesses they may never recover from this,” she said.

“I’m beyond disappointed [by the lack of support from the Federal Government] – I’ve worked in the sector for 27 years – it’s a low paid workforce, it’s not an easy job, you do it because you love it, but it’s times like this the government has really proven how little they value the whole sector.”

Cambridge Road Play and Learn Centre staff and children, (front) Jackie Hughes with Gracie Jenkins, 4 and (rear) Nat McNally, Lily Winzil with Eden Jordan, 2, Teresa Swain with Sophie Swain, 4, Cheynie Byrns with Henry Tyrell, 1 and Amelia Rogers with Piper Connors. The centre has seen an 80 per cent drop off in attendance during the COVID-19 crisis. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

Mrs Hughes said the centre was also having to deal with other issues behind the scenes.

“Personal protection equipment – rightfully so that’s going to the frontline services like hospitals, but that’s leaving us short in things like gloves – masks and aprons are not even accessible for us,” she said.

“Antibacterial and sanitising products are very scarce for us. We supply all meals for the children, but the limits in the supermarket apply to us too so we can only get 2lts of milk a day and one tin of vegetables.”