COUNCIL REVISITS FUTURE OF FAMILY DAY CARE SCHEME
Yarra
Ranges Council will reconsider a proposal to end its Family Day Care scheme due
to rising costs and following unsuccessful attempts to recruit enough educators
to its service.
The
proposal follows Council’s decision in June last year to continue providing
Family Day Care and to undertake marketing activities in an effort to grow the
scheme and recruit more educators.
A
report will be presented at a Council meeting on 13 October highlighting
concerns for the future of Council’s scheme given the strong potential for the
scheme to shrink further, and federal funding cuts.
The report will also detail that there are a number
of other Family Day Care providers of proven quality active in the Yarra Ranges
who are able to operate at a lower cost than Council.
Yarra Ranges Director Social and Economic
Development Ali Wastie said that despite best efforts to achieve cost
neutrality, Council had been significantly subsidising the scheme for a number
of years. A recent cut in Federal Government funding was making cost neutrality
even more difficult to achieve.
Ms Wastie noted that an increasing number of
Councils had been facing similar challenges, and that Family Day Care was now
only provided by a minority of Victorian Councils.
“The scheme currently costs Council more than
$130,000, which is unsustainable when you consider it provides for three per
cent of families with children aged 1-4 years in the Yarra Ranges,” Ms Wastie
said.
“We understand that Council’s Family Day Care
scheme is of a high quality and is valued by the families that use it.
“We also understand that there are a number of
other active schemes in the Yarra Ranges that also provide a good level of
service, and are more sustainable than Council’s scheme.”
Ms Wastie said that while Council’s scheme had
struggled to recruit significant numbers of new educators, and was also losing
educators through retirement, it appeared other schemes were growing.
“A recent assessment of our scheme has also
highlighted that, should the scheme continue to operate in 2016/17, we would
need to increase fees significantly in order to make it cost neutral for
Council and we are concerned of the impact this would have on families.”
Ms Wastie said if Council decided to support the
proposal to cease its Family Day Care scheme, officers from Yarra Ranges’
Family and Children’s Services team would work with educators to transition them
to alternative providers.
“There are now a number of other Family Day Care
providers in the Yarra Ranges that have been assessed as providing a service
that meets or exceeds the expected national standards for Family Day Care.
“We are confident that families currently using our
service would continue to receive a high standard of education and care for
their children should Council decide to close its scheme.”
Further information about Yarra Ranges Council’s
Family Day Care Scheme will be detailed in Council’s 13 October public meeting
agenda. Copies of the agenda will be available online at www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au
from 7 October.
