For SDN chief executive Kay Turner,shutting the Ultimo centre before Christmas is a tough but necessary business decision for the not-for-profit provider.
And for those involved in childcare policy,it is emblematic of a wider problem.
Alex Mackay and Jess Miller with their daughter Joanna outside SDN Ultimo.Nikki Short
As The Parenthood executive director Georgie Dent put it:“The closure of any quality service has to indicate a failure of policy.”
Increasing recognition of the benefits of early learning and the drive for greater workforce participation has propelled early childhood education up the national and state agenda.
But the sector faces ongoing disruption from working-from-home trends and a severe shortage of staff exacerbated by low wages.
Families meeting outside SDN Ultimo the day after they were told the centre would close in December.Nikki Short
Parents at SDN Ultimo,which operates on the TAFE site,were notified of the centre’s pending closure last week. Turner plans to redeploy staff and move the to Waterloo.
Like other families,Joanna’s parents,Alex Mackay and Jess Miller from Chippendale,are scrambling for alternatives. They used the centre for their 14-month-old four days a week and were due to go up to five days in January.
“In the best-case scenario,we may need to book her in for three different daycares all in different directions from our home,” Mackay said.
“The worst-case scenario,if we can’t get her in,is that one of us would have to stop working for a period of time to look after her,which would be incredibly impacting on our finances and careers.”
Turner said SDN was struggling with workforce issues across its network,especially at inner-city centres like Ultimo.
“It’s hard getting the workforce to travel into the city because that isn’t that where they can afford to live,” she said.
While the babies room was full at current staffing,Turner said the closure was because of low enrolments in the preschool room,as families sought out free preschool where available.
Care for babies operates with higher staff ratios,and many centres rely on preschool enrolments to subsidise the cost.
The NSW and Victorian governments have a 10-year plan for universal free preschool that will involve working with non-government providers like SDN.
Turner said SDN waited until late October for details of a state government funding package for childcare centres,but with the funding attached to student enrolments,it was not enough.
The local state MP,independent Alex Greenwich,said the state government should consider financial support for city-based centres,which have been hit hard by remote working.
“The fact this childcare centre is closing is emblematic of the problems we’re seeing in the CBD,which is still reopening,” Greenwich said.
Greenwich said if more childcare centres closed in the city,workers would be unwilling to return to the CBD,stifling its revival.
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the pay and conditions of early childhood educators were set by the federal government,but NSW had invested $281.6 million over four years to grow and retain the state’s early childhood education workforce.
The Albanese government is increasing the childcare subsidy through the Cheaper Childcare bill,and has singled out early educators as important beneficiaries of its industrial relations reforms.
Dent said wages need to increase dramatically to shore up the workforce,but the government needed to fund it.
“If individual parents are asked to subsidise the wage rise that early educators deserve,it would undermine the Cheaper Childcare reforms,” Dent said.
Dent said the government should also reform the childcare subsidy to allow for the different costs of providing care for different age groups.