Tasmanian childcare centre facing closure after failure to find new venue

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A childcare centre in Tasmania's north west could soon be forced to close because it can't find a new venue. It has the staffing to take on double the number of children but could instead leave dozens of families looking for care in a region struggling to meet demand.

Transcript

00:00 Three year old Parker goes to coastal family daycare three days a week.

00:07 But his home away from home looks set to close.

00:11 It's very daunting actually with the unknown of it.

00:15 With its lease ending, the Upper Burnie service has been searching for a new venue, without

00:20 success.

00:22 Next year it will be forced to close, leaving more than 30 families without childcare.

00:27 Without having the daycare available I will not be able to work.

00:31 Uma's daughter Jhanvi has improved her English at the centre.

00:35 Before starting childcare my daughter wasn't comfortable to play with other kids.

00:39 She used to just keep to herself.

00:41 Uma's worried if it closes it will affect Jhanvi's confidence.

00:45 It's a terrible feeling, unthinkable.

00:48 The service has the staff to take on double the number of children.

00:52 When families call and they're crying out for childcare we want to help and potentially

00:58 if we had a bigger space we could be helping.

01:00 Nicole has tracked down landlords, talked to private organisations, turned to local

01:05 state and federal governments, even door knocked.

01:09 We've gone around a number of times it feels a little bit like nobody can help us.

01:16 Before even the closing or potential closing of this childcare centre through lack of a

01:22 facility we were already having essential workers not come to our region because they

01:27 can't get childcare.

01:29 That includes health workers and teachers and there's also future growth to consider.

01:33 With energy projects in the pipeline Ms Forrest says more skilled workers will be needed and

01:38 many of them will have families.

01:41 She's appealing to all levels of government to help find a solution.

01:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended