The Victorian Government’s plan to build more early learning centres across the state was discussed in parliament last week.
Late last year, the Victorian Government allocated $14 billion to the Best Start, Best Life reform, which aims to transform early childhood education in Victoria.
The reform was announced in June 2022, and the government has since run over 100 consultations with 5000 Victorians from August 2022 to June 2023 to work with them to create changes that work best for everyone.
These consultations were with families, the early childhood workforce, providers, peak bodies and experts. Methods used included focus groups, forums and a public Engage Victoria survey.
The government has said ongoing consultations throughout the life of the reforms and continued engagement with families and the sector will continue as the reforms roll out.
However, state Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland has criticised how childcare issues have been handled, saying regional communities continued to struggle with a lack of staffing, availability and accessibility.
“So far, there are very few details or a clear plan to overcome the very probable staffing challenges that will arise in the new locations,” Ms Cleeland said.
“We know that additional resources will be required at these centres; we can learn from the experience of trying to attract teachers to primary and secondary schools in regional communities.
“For the few childcare facilities that my region has, staffing is already a key issue despite them operating for years.”
The Australian Childcare Alliance surveyed over 600 childcare centres across one week in February 2023, with over two-thirds saying they had capped enrolments due to staffing shortages, equating to over 16,000 places cut off from Australian families.
Ms Cleeland said disruptions and distortions to the market could significantly reduce the number of childcare places.
“Given we are already at crisis levels of workforce shortages, any interventions in the sector must be well thought out, organised and executed so there are no disruptions to existing service providers,” Ms Cleeland said.
“We must ensure that getting staff to these new facilities does not take away from our already struggling system.”
The government estimates it will need about 700 educators to operate its childcare facilities, plus another 100 teachers, as well as administrators, support staff, cooks and more.
Ms Cleeland said an ongoing cycle of staff shortages would continue if neighbouring centres and kindergartens had to sacrifice their own staff for the new centres.
“The hundreds of staff will need to be ready to go in these centres from day one, and they (the government) have no plan to ensure that these staff are not coming from existing centres,” Ms Cleeland said.
“They will have to reduce the number of places that they offer, taking places offline at a time when we need to be growing capacity in the sector.”