Victorian childcare centres facing a staffing ‘disaster’

A crippling shortfall in this area has experts warning that Victorian childcare centres are facing “an impending disaster”.

A crippling national shortfall of up to 12,000 childcare educators has led to worrying numbers of unqualified staff caring for children, insiders say.

The sector-wide early learning staff shortage has prompted the Andrews government to offer incentives to attract staff to three-year-old kinders in the lead-up to statewide rollout next year.

The government will on Monday announce cash incentives of $9000 to $50,000 for preschool workers as part of the new Victorian Early Childhood Teacher Financial Incentives scheme.

But national early learning lobby group Thrive by Five is calling for more to be done to address the workforce crisis nationally.

It says 7 per cent of jobs in the sector are vacant and federal action is needed to halt a 30 per cent turnover of staff and a sharp downturn in early childhood qualification enrolments.

Official projections suggest the sector will need 24,000 new educators and 7000 teachers over the next five years.

The most recent figures for Victoria show that 123 services were given staff waivers because they couldn’t meet federal standards for qualified staff in 2019.

Thrive by Five chief executive Jay Weatherill said the sector was facing “an impending disaster that has not been adequately addressed by government consultation”.

“We need accurate targets, strategies and funding to fill in the supply gap and make a difference now before it’s too late,” Mr Weatherill said.

Cardinia Lakes Childcare staff Brooke McCoull, Carly Oldfield and Dee Pintar with some of the centre’s pupils. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Carly Oldfield, a three-year-old kinder educator at Cardinia Lakes Early Learning Centre, said qualified workers were deserting the sector in favour of working in schools due to the pay gap.

“Staff also don’t get recognised as educators by parents, who think we’re just babysitters,” she said.

Under a revamped state incentives program, qualified early childhood teachers joining the sector, or returning, as well as those coming from interstate or New Zealand, will be eligible for the first time.

The incentives will be available in selected three-year-old kinder services in hard-to-staff programs.

Grants will also be available for teachers moving more than 200km to take up a position.

The government has set up an online “jobs board” where people can look for opportunities and incentives.

Early Childhood Minister Ingrid Stitt said the government was “giving our early childhood teachers the best support”.

See more on the jobs board at: ECjobs.educationapps.vic.gov.au

Originally published as Victorian childcare centres facing a staffing ‘disaster’