Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Glen Eira child care

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:59): (559) My adjournment is to the Minister for Children, and the action I seek is an update on the funding and support opportunities available to early learning centres across Victoria. I rise particularly because there are three centres in Caulfield, Carnegie and Murrumbeena that the City of Glen Eira has announced are under consideration for closure. With my colleague the member for Oakleigh and my federal colleagues, we have been inundated with calls, letters and emails from parents who are frantic about what they are going to do with their kids for child care after the end of the year if the Glen Eira City Council at its meeting in December affirms its decision to close these facilities. Parents and staff were understandably shocked when the council, following a closed-door meeting on 3 October this year after first- and second-round offers had already been made in other centres for kindergarten places for next year, announced that they were considering closing these centres.

Glen Eira’s early learning centres offer high-quality, cost-effective education and care for local children, and as the council’s own discussion paper shows, their centres are among the cheapest out there. So these families are going to be facing higher fees next year even if they can find a place in another centre locally. The average cost of early learning and child care in Glen Eira goes as high as $185 a day, compared to the fees charged at the council centres of $142 a day. As well as being low cost, these council-run centres are all rated as exceeding national quality standards. According to the council’s own analysis, parents in Murrumbeena will have the choice of only two other centres within 2 kilometres that have the same quality rating; all other options have a lower or no rating. A similar set of circumstances exist for other parents at other locations, and we know that some of the alternative options only cater for children at different stages. Some do not offer care for babies or they might only offer three- or four-year-old places. So parents are understandably concerned that even if they have got one child, but especially if they have got two, they are not going to be able to find a place for their kids next year. This is a decision that the City of Glen Eira can reverse, and I call on the council at its meeting in December to reverse this decision and keep these early learning centres open to give peace of mind to local parents.