Childcare staff crisis
Families forced to wait for places
INCREASED demand for places and difficulties recruiting staff are putting pressure on Tasmanian childcare providers, with some centres in Hobart with more than 200 families on waiting lists.
For Goodstart Early Learning there were 180 families on the waitlist at their 55-place Hobart childcare centre, 220 on the waiting list for their Hobart West 94-place facility, and 270 for the North Hobart centre which has 113 places.
Goodstart Early Learning Tasmanian Performance and Practice Lead Bronwyn Tamplin said the waitlists were a mixture of current and new families.
“Current families are needing more days of care for their child or a position at the centre for a sibling and new families are also on the waitlists for 2022 entry.”
Rosny Early Learning Director Fiona Morley said there were calls daily from parents seeking child care.
“We’ve got over 60 children on our waiting list for this year and already the same again for next year, and we are a small centre with just 38 places,” she said.
“We’re fully staffed and at capacity, but it’s good to see there are new centres being built … that can hopefully respond to this demand.”
Early Childhood Australia Tasmanian
president Ros Cornish said the shortage of places was being exacerbated by recruiting difficulties.
“There are some restrictions on the offering of places because some services have had to reduce the number of spaces available because of an inability to recruit educators,” she said.
“There needs to be an active campaign to support new staff and support for funding for training or the cost of receiving qualifications.”
Ms Cornish said centres due to open soon at Glebe Hill in Howrah and also in Sorell, both with about 100 spaces, would take some of the pressure off, but the issue of recruitment was still there.
“These new centres are also recruiting from existing places, meaning the problem (of staff shortages) is still there,” she said.
Ms Cornish said mentoring for new recruits was also important to ensure staff were set up for success and not failure.
She said the federal government had undertaken a workforce study through the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority as part of a long-term strategy, but demand was here and now.
A Department of Education, Skills and Employment spokesman said the government was providing significant investment to support job seekers to upskill or retrain.