SWAN HILL’s sole occasional day care program has had to severely cutback its services, following an unsuccessful last-ditch effort for further funding.
Back in August, Swan Hill Neighbourhood House’s occasional day care was not on the list of recipients to receive Federal Government funding for childcare services.
As a result, the organisation’s three-day-a-week occasional child care will now be reduced to a single day: Thursdays between 9am and 1pm, commencing from next week.
Swan Hill Neighbourhood House coordinator Lea Johnson said the organisation had been subsidising its childcare program for many years but, due to the lack of outside funding, this could no longer continue.
“We would prefer to keep the service going as we see its value, but the situation with funding has made it impossible to continue doing that,” she said.
“With increased wages and the new regulations that came into play we cannot continue subsidising.
“It’s the same situation for a lot of occasional childcare across the state — it is a big black pit.”
Ms Johnson said this reduction in services would be a further blow to an already stretched system.
“We haven’t had enough childcare in the area for a long time,” she said.
“Long day care centres are full to capacity — women returning to work are disadvantaged because there is nowhere to place children.”
Neighbourhood House day care worker Angelique Weston, who has lost her job as a result of the service reduction, said a big gap would be left with the closure of the service.
