THE region’s family day care services are still staring down the barrel of savage funding cuts, the extent of which won’t be known until well into next year.
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May’s federal budget revealed the changes to the Community Support Program (CSP), which will slash more than $157 million from family day care programs across the country over three years.
It means the Department of Education will end all CSP contracts with approved services from July next year, forcing operators to reapply for funding and be assessed under tightened criteria.
Critics argue the cuts will threaten the viability of services and force up the costs for parents.
Tamworth Family Day Care manager Joanne Spinner said the services were in a precarious position, given they wouldn’t know the extent of the cuts until they reapplied for funding in April next year.
Her colleague at Gunnedah Family Day Care, Kerrie Patterson, said it was hard to make contingency plans for next year when there were still so many unknowns.
“It doesn’t give a lot of time to work out a plan B,” she said, while remaining hopeful her service would still be eligible for funding.
Mrs Spinner said they received $250,000 a year under the program at present, the loss of which could impact on the quality of the service they prided themselves on.
CSP funding is currently used to help train and certify family day care educators, and helps monitor the homes where children stay.
Rather than the regular three-weekly visits paid to educators at present, it could mean these would have to be reduced to, say, once every three months, Mrs Spinner said.
Staffing levels could also be affected. Tamworth Family Day Care, with almost 500 families registered and 76 educators, has already opted not to replace a co-ordinator and an administrative staff member who have recently left.
The service presented several hundred signed cards from their families to federal member Barnaby Joyce’s office as part of a nationwide campaign against the cuts, but has yet to secure a meeting with him.
Mrs Spinner admits she’s frustrated by the uncertainty, and both she and Mrs Patterson are weary of the constant regulatory and funding changes family day care has had to absorb in recent years.
But both are equally adamant they are here to stay.
“We have had to reinvent ourselves and think outside the box, because we’ve had to to keep it affordable for our families,” Mrs Patterson said.
“It’s been just one hurdle after another, but family day care is very innovative and we will adapt to this change, just as we have to all the others.”
