MORE than 250 families with 400 children could face cost rises for day care due to an imminent slash to a federal funding package.
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The not-for-profit Inverell and District Family Services (IDFS) Family Day Care scheme currently receives Community Support Programme (CSP) funding that looks to be compromised by new eligibility criteria introduced this month.
“If there’s any other scheme in your area, no one is allowed to apply for (CSP funding),” said IDFS Family Day Care manager Lisa Szumowski.
IDFS is not alone.
Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) has estimates that 72 per cent of family day care services that rely upon CSP funding nationwide will have funds cut or removed as of July 2015.
“The other criteria they’ve put down is, if there’s unmet demand in the area (there will be CSP provision), and our argument is, take us away, and there’s unmet demand, but we need to be here, or otherwise there’s no child care. That’s 400 positions lost in one fell swoop,” Ms Szumowski said.
CSP funding has provided the IDFS service to run the fully-regulated unit, and support the qualified pool of about 40 local educators who look after up to four children within the home.
Ms Szumowski said recent years have seen the landscape of in-home child care transform from a baby-sitting service to a preschool preparatory experience for children in regards to life and learning skills.
“To me, taking all this away, it’s going backwards. It’s going to encourage backyard care, because it’s going to be more affordable,” Ms Szumowski said.
She said the recent increase in the federal child care benefit sees families getting an 11 cent per hour bonus to apply toward care, but withdrawal of CSP funds means the money won’t stretch to make up the deficit.
She said closing the doors of the service to families is not an option.
“One point we want to make is removing our funding equates to roughly a $1.12 an hour, so for us to survive and recoup this loss, we obviously have to put our fees up,” Ms Szumowski said.
“Whereas, it looks like the families are getting a little more in their pocket with 11 cents an hour, when we increase it, they’re actually going to be worse off.”
Families enrolled with IDFS Family Day Care have been submitting ballots to lobby their local Member to review the changes.
There is also an online petition to review the changes at the website www.familiesneedfamilydaycare.com.au.
