Childcare crisis as Out of School Hours Care centres threaten closure

Families with essential workers are caught up in a funding feud over childcare for school students.

Exclusive: Dozens of after-school care centres are set to shut as pandemic lockdowns send half of them broke, providers have warned.

With 80 per cent of students homeschooling in Sydney, Melbourne, southeast Queensland and the Upper Hunter Region of NSW, many centres are struggling to stay open. 

Closures could force essential workers whose children still attend school – such as nurses, police, doctors, supermarket workers and ambulance officers – to quit work to care for their kids at home.  

Out of School Hours Council of Australia co-president Melinda Crole said half the services in Sydney and Melbourne are already unviable. 

She said centres were set to close in Canterbury, Manly, Lindfield, North Sydney and Summer Hill in Sydney. 

In Victoria, only 18 per cent of students attended before and after school care during last month’s lockdown, with Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) centres struggling again under this week’s stay-at-home orders.

After-school care could close for essential workers.

Ms Crole said OSHC services had to pay for the minimum requirement of two staff members, just to care for one or two children of essential workers. 

“OSHC services, with attendances down by 80 per cent, have incurred crippling losses in order to maintain safe care arrangements for families who need it,’’ she said. 

“As the number and rate of centre shutdowns and staff losses grows, it will become increasingly difficult to recommence services once schools reopen. 

“Some will close because we can’t continue to keep them open and viable.’’ 

Ms Crole said some centres in Sydney were caring for just 14 per cent of the children who had attended before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“Without a change to the funding model we simply have no revenue coming in,’’ she said. 

“The situation is now critical, and we are into the eighth week of rolling state lockdowns with no end in sight … a moral and legal requirement to remain open and no sector-specific support for what we were told is an essential service.’’ 

Ms Crole said the federal government had handed centres “viability payments’’ to stay open last year, but had not given any funding this year. 

Melinda Crole, co-president of the Outside School Hours Council of Australia. Picture: supplied

She said the NSW and Victorian governments were providing some rental relief but staffing was the highest cost for centres. 

“OSHC is an essential service in itself,’’ she said. 

“If parents don’t have the opportunity for childcare outside school hours, they won’t be able to go to work.’’

Federal Opposition spokeswoman for Early Childhood Education Amanda Rishworth called on the Morrison Government to provide emergency funding. 

“We risk many providers shutting their doors for good,’’ she said. 

“The Morrison Government absolutely must step in to prevent the collapse of out of school hours care, or it will be devastating for families and our economy.’’ 

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said the government was already supporting OSHC by paying full fees for parents in NSW, and disaster payments for workers who lose hours. 

“Many OSHC workers are casuals, meaning services have more flexibility over their workforce costs,’’ he said. 

“If OSHC workers have lost hours, they are eligible to apply for the Covid Disaster Payment.’’

Originally published as Childcare crisis as Out of School Hours Care centres threaten closure