SWAN Hill’s childcare crisis is getting worse, with one of its largest providers struggling in the face of a staggering 200 children on its waiting lists.
Young Adventurers Early Childhood Education Services owner Marg Hartshorn employs 45 educators at her two facilities and between childcare and kindergarten caters for 165 children a week.
Facing desperation for places for more than double that number of children, she sees the system across the two sites buckling under the pressure of demand and frustrated families.
Ms Hartshorn said she had gone public after seeing a story in The Guardian quoting Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh reporting his office as being “under siege” with concerns about local childcare services.
She said not only was the 200-strong waiting list twice as long as the 100-odd referred to by Mr Walsh, the situation was going to get a lot uglier.
“We have looked at how many available spots we may have in 2023 and have estimated just 10 of these families may be offered a couple of days a week,” Ms Hartshorn said.
“Unfortunately, in 2023, most spots are being offered to families already at our centres, who have younger siblings also waiting to pick up childcare days.
“We also have 10 families on our kindergarten wait list for 2023 as this program is also already booked out.
“That means 10 families, just at our two centres alone, who won’t be able to access free Victorian Government-funded kindy as there simply aren’t enough places available.”
But Ms Hartshorn said she had plans to at least alleviate the decision, with her business good to go with the construction of a new module at the rear of her Yana Street facility.
But she said the plan looked like getting bogged down in the planning process.
“The building will provide two new kindergarten classrooms, which will free up room in our existing building to support more families with childcare,” Ms Hartshorn said.
“More families will also be able to access three and four-year-old kindergarten.
“I am concerned these plans may be stalled at Swan Hill Rural City, where its planning department has already warned me, at a pre-planning meeting on June 28, they are understaffed and have been experiencing long turnaround times for permits.
“It’s not their fault. Lots of organisations and businesses are having enormous trouble finding qualified staff, sometimes any staff, so we do understand that.”
