Experienced family day care educator grapples with council's service closure

By Jay Bryce

Aug 3, 2023

New chapter: Family day care educator Christine Parker has been forced to moved on after council closed its family day care service. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Christine Parker was a registered family day care educator under the Greater Shepparton City Council’s scheme for more than three decades of its 40-year existence.

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Through this program, the council connected families with local day care educators, ensuring a seamless process for both parties.

The service worked by sourcing children for educators, providing parents with the assurance that the chosen educator met all necessary safety and qualification standards to care for their kids.

While Ms Parker was aware of the concerns facing many educators, with many choosing to move into a different industry, council’s closure of the service still came as a shock.

“I’m in contact with childcare workers all over the country online, and they’re fed up — many are leaving, unfortunately,” she said.

She recalled that when she started, there weren’t strict processes or requirements for people in her field.

Now, given that she operates her family day care from home, she’s liable to receive a visit from the government or council at any time to check her house.

“That’s a good thing,” Ms Parker said.

“But people don’t want to do it anymore, which puts more stress on the people who are still doing it.”

She said having it run through council helped ease the day-to-day stress of having a family day care service operating from her home.

Council cited the lack of available childcare workers as the main reason for the closure.

It was Ms Parker’s understanding that council used to receive funding from the government to run the service, which it isn’t getting anymore.

“Then I saw in the paper the other day, all that new funding they are receiving for the new kindergartens,” she said.

“That was a bit confusing to me.”

Ms Parker was referring to the $300,000 in grants council had recently received to plan new kindergartens in Greater Shepparton.

After the closure, it was a struggle for Ms Parker to figure out what to do next.

As a registered family day care educator, you have to operate under a scheme.

The good thing about operating through council for Ms Parker, beyond having the children sourced for her, was that she had a local office she could physically visit for any queries or questions relating to her day care.

Council operated a space in the North Shepparton Community and Learning Centre specifically for the service.

Now, after finding a new scheme, she is forced to communicate with the operators via email or phone, as they are based outside Shepparton.

“Now anyone can operate a scheme, so lots of people are doing it remotely,” Ms Parker said.

Of course, an alternative would’ve been to work in a local childcare centre, which Ms Parker is more than qualified to do.

However, she much prefers welcoming the children into the comfort of her own home.

“I still love what I do,” Ms Parker said.

“I have the children in the morning and then after school, and then in between I have time to myself, it’s great.”

While council’s closure of the family day care came as a great disappointment to Ms Parker, she acknowledged that council had been proactive and supportive during the transitional phase, making earnest efforts to assist educators in finding new schemes.