Rebecca Mohr Bell, a cattle farmer and business owner, lives 100km south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory, and with three young children, has relied on in-home childcare since 2018.
The little-known taxpayer supported program is used by about 800 families with children who cannot access mainstream care, including because they live in remote locations, have serious illness or a disability, or because their parents work unusual hours.
Mohr Bell and her husband have a full-time live-in childcare educator, but recent cost increases not covered by the government have left her family in a difficult situation. She said her gap payments after receiving the childcare subsidy have skyrocketed in the past two years due to the rising cost of accommodation and wages.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email“It’s just going to mean it becomes unaffordable. I just can’t afford to do it or I’ll have to cut the hours for my educator which is not really feasible either,” she said.
“We’re not asking for anything special. We’re just asking to be treated equitably and ensure that our children have got access to the same quality of childcare that children in metropolitan [areas] have.”
Nearly one in three childcare operators providing last resort services for regional and remote families, and children with disabilities and other complex needs say they are at risk of shutting down, warning government-funded pay rises for workers in mainstream childcare centres must be extended to in-home care.
Workers in the program have been excluded from the federal government’s childcare worker retention program, which will increase wages by more than 15%, staged over two years. That cost is instead being absorbed by families, who are reducing hours or leaving the system altogether.
A survey of providers by the peak body found 31% said they are now at risk of closure, with more than half declaring they are operating “under significant pressure”.
The survey of 23 providers, which service 810 families, found some services were concerned that after the next wage increase on 1 July, up to 50% of families could withdraw from the program, and the services could be placed on a “direct path to closure”.
Already, the sector says it has seen a reduction in hours of more than 30% and almost three-quarters of providers have seen families reduce hours or withdraw entirely.
The sector’s peak body, the Australian Home Childcare Association (AHCA), said providers on already thin margins were being forced to pass on the wage increases to families, many of whom are “the most vulnerable in the country”.
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