Bunbury childcare services facing unprecedented staffing crisis as families scramble to find care

Childcare providers in Bunbury are being forced to turn families away as an unprecedented worker shortage begins to take its toll on the sector. The shortage has become so dire that some companies are having to reject applications for any more youngsters, while directors at others are having to work on the ground themselves. Since 2017, childcare workers in Australia are required to have a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care, which takes 18 months and 120 hours of practical work placement to complete. Claire MacDonald, education and care consultant at The Pod, an agency established to support early education and care providers, said rigorous industry regulations were contributing to the looming crisis. “There has been a few issues that have come together to make the crisis as big as it actually is,” she said. “Staff can go and probably get paid the same to work somewhere that doesn’t require that level of responsibility and qualifications. There needs to be some incentive to come and join the sector because it is a rewarding industry at the end of the day.” Ms MacDonald said while there were still vacancies around, the crisis had reached its “peak” and service providers were feeling the pinch. “There is a staffing crisis throughout the education care services,” she said. “There has always been an issue with recruiting and retaining suitable, qualified staff however it is probably at the all-time crisis now and we have probably hit the peak. “They are not sitting there just babysitting children like some people might think, there is a great deal more that goes along with the educational side of things as well as the health and safety that goes along with that.” Ms MacDonald said more needed to be done to give prospective childcare workers a better understanding of what was ahead of them before they entered the industry in order to improve staff retention rates. “The Pod would love to introduce an introductory certificate to childcare, so that is something we are going to explore,” Ms MacDonald said. “We would be in a really good situation to be able to provide some sort of base level training before they go and do their certificate so they have got some really good understanding.” A YMCA WA Family Day Care program, which allows people to become educators and run childcare centres from their own homes, has become increasingly popular since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving families more flexibility. Dalyellup resident Bec Nicolas has been in childhood education for 15 years and now runs an FDC out of her own home. She said she had been flooded with requests which she simply could not accommodate. “Since the height of COVID-19, I still get weekly Facebook messages from parents wanting to send their child to a Family Day Care,” she said. “Unfortunately I’m at capacity and am having to turn families away. “Many families I speak to are really struggling to find an FDC who are taking children.” It comes as the Federal Government introduced a Bill which would increase the childcare subsidy for families with multiple children and remove the existing cap in a bid to support people struggling to find care. Forrest MP Nola Marino said she hoped the Bill, which would put money back into the pockets of 250,000 Australian families, could be passed quickly to help ease the pressure.