Bellarine Peninsula faces childcare challenge

MANY families across the region are waiting up to 12 months to secure childcare as the sector battles ongoing staffing shortages and growing demand with the rising cost of living forcing parents to spend more time at work.

Across the Bellarine Peninsula, nearly 80 per cent of the childcare providers contacted by this newspaper were operating at or near capacity across most age groups, with only limited vacancies on offer to local families.

Demand varied greatly across centres. Some had greater availability for children over the age of 3, others for those under.

Goodstart Early Learning operate childcare centres across the country, including one in Drysdale.

Tiffany Smith, the company’s state manager for Victoria West, said Goodstart centres were “quite full” with occupancy ranging from 78–100 per cent.

“Staffing shortages are certainly a sector-wide issue..

“National Skills Commission data suggests the early childhood education sector will need 21,900 additional educators by 2026.

“We continue to advocate to the federal government to support the sector to increase educator wages to ensure early learning centres everywhere have the educators and teachers they need to support children.”

Unable to meet legal ratio requirements, these staffing shortages have driven several childcare providers to cap enrolments.

According to the Australian Childcare Alliance, as many as 66 per cent of childcare centres across the country may have been forced to take such action.

Childcare provider G8 Education said its centres were not immune to the sector’s widespread staffing shortages.

“G8 Education does have waiting lists at its centres in this region,” a spokesperson for the company said.

“Staff at our G8 centres will always try to meet the needs of all families, and every day we are looking at wait lists to see where we can place children and support them in their early learning journeys.

“Our best advice to families is about being flexible if you can and getting in touch with your preferred centre as early as you can.”

This advice to families was consistent across many of the childcare providers contacted, with many encouraging families to join centre waitlists before the birth of their child to increase their chances of placement.

However, Amanda Sowden, director of Lonsdale House Childcare, said the state government’s free kindergarten program had begun to affect the vacancy rates at childcare centres for children over the age of 3.

She suggested that families were prioritising services that provided the free kinder subsidy, freeing up space at non-participating centres.

“We’re adjusting to the lower levels of kinder by moving rooms around,” Ms Sowden said.

She said this involved boosting the number of spots available to toddlers and babies in an attempt to reduce the time it takes to place families on their waitlist within the centre.

With wait times extending between 6-12 months, Ms Sowden said this was also a strategy being employed by its sister centre, Woodlands House Childcare, and one she suggested may become more common over the next few years.