Gabrielle Duykers, Naracoorte Community News
A new childcare program in Edenhope is one step closer to commencing after an expression of interest process showed significant demand for the service.
Over the past few weeks families took advantage of an opportunity to indicate their interest in enrolling their children in a pilot childcare program facilitated by West Wimmera Shire Council.
Council set aside $20,000 in its 2020-21 budget to investigate childcare needs in the shire, which led to it commissioning a study led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and a subsequent feasibility study led by Community Child Care Childcare.
Council CEO David Bezuidenhout said the keen interest from Edenhope locals was “fantastic”.
“The market testing process proved the demand is there and we hope to get the service open for these families as soon as possible,” Mr Bezuidenhout said.
“This is great news for the community and the many families who need to access a childcare service.”
Council said about 30 families registered an interest for the service.
The childcare will run from Monday to Thursday from 8am to 5pm and be integrated with the Edenhope kindergarten.
Eight places for each of the four days were available for children aged under three.
However, demand for early childhood care was particularly strong, with the number of families wanting places exceeding those available.
“Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer places to everyone who applied, at least in the initial months of the service commencing,” Mr Bezuidenhout said.
“The number of children under three we have places for will be reviewed and we hope to progressively increase places to meet the demand in the future,” he said.
The service could potentially expand to take up to 12 children under three each day and open on Fridays as well.
However, Mr Bezuidenhout said opening up additional places would be dependent on council acquiring enough adequate staff.
For children over the age of three, enough places were available to accommodate all applications submitted.
The proposed childcare program would also better accommodate families wishing to access long daycare and ‘before and after care’ at the kindergarten.
The kindergarten would run from 8am to 5pm for 48 weeks of the year instead of its current operating times: 8.30am to 4pm for 40 weeks of the year.
The extended hours were added to the pilot program after council received feedback from a group of Edenhope parents about the proposed service model.
Mr Bezuidenhout said council was excited to begin offering childcare in Edenhope.
“We know this is a much-needed service in the town and we are excited to move forward with the next stage of delivering this program,” he said.
Over the next few weeks, council staff will be contacting families who expressed an interest in enrolling their children to confirm their places.
A waiting list will be established for families who were unsuccessful in securing a place.
The proposed start date of the pilot program is aimed for April 26, 2022.
Council has begun the search for childcare workers, which are currently in short supply,
“Having adequate qualified staffing to meet demand will be an ongoing challenge and (council) staff are currently working hard to recruit enough people to commence our pilot program,’ Mr Bezuidenhout said.
“Having a model which wraps around our existing kindergarten program will provide a sound foundation for the extended program and also for recruiting additional staff.”
Staff application forms are available via the West Wimmera Shire Council website at westwimmera.vic.gov.au/Council/Employment/Early-Childhood-Service-Staff-Application.
This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.
