WITH the Mid North Coast experiencing a crisis in childcare which sees parents struggling to find care for their children when they return to work, NOTA spoke exclusively with Sue Parker of Midcoast Family Day Care (MFDC) to discuss some of the challenges.

Prospective family daycare educators in NSW must register with an organisation like MFDC to offer their services, and the long-running business has more than 90 educators providing care for close to 1000 children across the region.

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“There have been a number of changes over the past few years affecting our industry leading to an overall drop in available places,” Sue told NOTA.

“I can tell you we will not have a vacancy in our service until at least 2027 and this means the urgent reform of the system needs to start now,” she said.

According to Sue, most landlords do not allow tenants to open their homes for family daycare, and there are many costly legislated requirements for homes offering the service.

One example of this is a requirement for safety glass.

Other costs for educators include training courses in child protection, first aid and safe sleeping as well as working with children checks and insurance.

“Many educators are frightened to take babies because of the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and restrictions in place to ensure their safety,” Sue said.

While not advocating for the safety regulations to be dropped, Sue would like to see regulations change to reflect the specifics of either home daycare or centre-based care.

She believes not enough has been done to highlight the work of home day care providers and the childcare industry in general.

“We used to have our own department within government with great support for the sector but over the years this has been eroded by all sides of government,” she said.

To help educators set up their homes for family day care, Sue would like to see “set up grants” returned to community-based services and believes the current focus on setting up new large day care centres is unfair.

She is also calling for greater access to the Inclusion Support Subsidy for family day care educators, which provides extra funding for children with disabilities.

Sue also believes family day care should be a compulsory unit of study (rather than an elective) in the Certificate III of Early Childhood Education, and argues travel grants should be restored to support providers who must travel many kilometres to visit educators.

“Currently this has to be absorbed by the income we raise through levies to parents,” she explained.

“For the last few years governments of all sides (Labor and Coalition) have been shifting the cost of childcare back onto parents,” said Sue.

Victoria, although now retired, was a long-term family daycare educator in the region.

She agrees that the family daycare model can provide an unrivalled level of care for children.

Victoria told NOTA she believes children benefit from the relaxed family-centric environment, while parents frequently report that they love the consistency of having the same educator each day.

Passionate advocates for their field, both women hope that family day care can continue to be an option for parents into the future.

“The demand is so high and I feel terrible when I have to tell parents that I have no places available,” Sue said.

By Ned COWIE