Parents help to keep child centre going
PARENTS who send their children to Lady Gowrie Waratah Child Centre at Manunda are preparing to do the grunt work to keep it open.
Lady Gowrie chief operations officer Louise Jackson announced the closure of the Waratah Dr centre, planned for June 1, in an April 9 letter.
“The service has been operating under the management of The Gowrie since 2015,” she said.
“While every effort has been made with staffing configurations and operational streamlining, the service is no longer financially viable due to low enrolments, plus increasing staff and operating costs and other impacts under the National Quality Framework.”
But Lady Gowrie has since done an about-face, deciding to keep the centre open, after holding meetings with parents begging it to stay open.
Rebecca Wright’s 15month-old son Toby has been going to the centre for more than a year.
She said the prospect of having to change daycare centres while also juggling fulltime work was daunting.
“It’s an amazing centre with amazing care,” she said.
“As a parent you’re quite picky about where you put your baby.”
She said being able to keep the centre running was now down to parents drumming up more enrolments for the centre.
“Now we have the chance I know that we can increase the enrolments and make it a viable business option for Lady Gowrie,” she said.
Ms Jackson sent another letter to parents advising the enrolments would be boosted by having families hand out flyers and posting to social media about the child care centre.
“A review of advertising and social media is being undertaken and families will be provided an advertisement that can be placed on social media as discussed at the parent meeting on the 12th April,” she wrote.
“Flyers for families’ workplaces etc will also be distributed and available for families from Monday, April 23 to support increased engagement at the service.”
THE PARENT GROUP BELIEVES IN THE CENTRE AND THE AMAZING LEVEL OF CARE PROVIDED.