Geelong faces childcare challenge

MANY families across the region are waiting more than 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.

Of the more than 50 childcare centres and providers contacted across Geelong, upwards of 56 per cent were at or nearing capacity, with only limited vacancies on offer to local families.

Demand varied greatly across the region.

Vacancies rates were highest in Corio, Norlane and Lara, while all of the centres contacted in Highton, Grovedale, Waurn Ponds and North Geelong were effectively at capacity with waitlists extending a least a year.

Goodstart Early Learning operate childcare centres across the country, including eight within the Geelong region.

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,” she said.

“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.

For the manager of one local childcare provider – who asked not to be identified – the need to cap enrolments had contributed to the growth of its waitlist to 600 families.

“Just like all services, we need staff. If we have more staff, we can open up but at the moment we are at capacity,” they said.”[Our waitlist] says a lot about the centre, but it also says a lot about the area.

“They could easily open up two more centres and be very successful, but there’s no educators.”

While illustrative of the challenges facing the sector, it should be noted that families frequently join multiple waitlists to increase their chances of placement within a centre and often forget to remove their name once a position becomes available with a childcare provider.

Jane Rathjen, director of Geelong Children’s Centre, said her centre had always had a waitlist but she had “never seen it like this”.

“The trend in our service is that existing families have gone back to work more.” The centre is now in the process of expanding next door to meet the demand.

The trend is the same for Town & Country Children’s Centre in Highton.

“Three years ago, [families would] do 2-3 days a week and now they’re all doing 3-4 days of childcare a week,” centre manager, Kerri McKenzie, said.

“We’ve filled the centre this year but with 20 less families.”

The advice 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.