Families in regional and remote areas are the most at risk of suffering from poor access to childcare, a report has found.
The report from the Mitchell Institute shows metropolitan-style consolidation of services occurring in regional centres at the expense of small towns.
In Shepparton between 2.14 and 3.59 children compete for each childcare place, depending on the neighbourhood, according to data mapping by the ABC.
Greater Shepparton City Council manager of early years Sally Rose said the biggest concern, and limitation, for childcare and early education in Greater Shepparton was finding enough staff to run the centres.
“Depending on the age group of children is how many staff needed ... there are very strict guidelines around what qualifications those people need to have,” Ms Rose said.
“So unless we’ve got enough staff, we literally have to close a room.”
“We're not closing childcare rooms, but it's having a big impact on kindergartens.”
The population centres most likely not to have any childcare accessible within a twenty-minute drive are towns with a population under 1500, the report found.
“I could only get my daughter in to Shepparton, which is annoying having to drive over and back,” Tatura area resident Jay Corrigan said.
Ms Rose said there wasn’t a municipality-wide shortage, but a lot of families did have to travel more than 20 minutes to access childcare in Greater Shepparton.
“We've got reasonably high demand, but we've also got a fairly high supply in the City of Greater Shepparton ... Mooroopna is not too bad, Tatura is less well serviced, and then smaller towns have kindergartens but not long day cares,” she said.
“For example, Dookie doesn’t have childcare, but nor do they have a community big enough to support it. The smaller the town, the less capacity they’ve got (for childcare to run).”
Report lead author Dr Peter Hurley said for many regional towns, Australia’s policy approach to early learning was a complete absence of provision, especially for towns with a population of fewer than 1500 people.
“These are not thin markets but rather an absence of a market as the current policy settings mean it is not viable for providers to offer childcare,” he said.
Tatura mum Amanda Firebrace said the area needed another childcare facility because the town’s population had increased.
“The centre is full and so are the family daycares ... With all the new estates and families moving into Tatura now, council needs to focus on schools, daycares even parking ... it's a fast-growing town.”
In Tatura between 2.85 and 9.2 children compete for each childcare place, depending on the neighbourhood.
“We have G-M Water, Tatura Milk and Unilever all (in Tatura), plus two new estates. Surely these daycare chains can see we have a huge demand here?” Tatura resident Carmel Ford said.