WA’s regional childcare crisis forcing parents to turn down work or commute several hours to access care

A critical childcare shortage in regional WA is forcing working parents to take unpaid leave or turn down job opportunities, while others are commuting to Perth or neighbouring towns to access care. Parents, childcare providers and educators have shared insights into WA’s “childcare deserts”, where the economic and social wellbeing of communities is being threatened by a lack of affordable, accessible care. Narrogin mother Candy Taylor is a research scientist with the CSIRO and commutes to Perth every week so her daughter, Lexie, can attend childcare while she is at work. She has been unable to secure a childcare spot for her daughter in Narrogin, which would allow her to work from home regularly. Instead, she drives to Perth on Mondays and returns home on Fridays. When Ms Taylor wrote to the council inquiring about a planned new childcare centre, she was advised to drive to neighbouring Williams, or Wickepin, for childcare while she waited for a local place. “This would be two hours of driving a day, it feels easier to manage to go to Perth once a week and drive on the day I’m not working,” she said. “It’s challenging. In the interim, lots of parents are driving to neighbouring towns but that sounds like a nightmare too. “We are used to it now, we have morning and nightly video calls so she can talk to her dad. “On the bright side the daycare in Perth is wonderful and we know she is enjoying it, but it would be nice to avoid the travel if we could.” Dozens of families in Kununurra are still without childcare three months after the town’s main daycare centre closed suddenly in early December. Ewin Early Learning was recently re-opened by regional provider One Tree Community Services, but at a reduced capacity. Local business owners Bec and Luke McMullin are among those impacted; juggling work while caring for their sons, aged two and six months, full time. The couple run a tree and vegetation management business. Mrs McMullin put her name down for childcare when she fell pregnant with her eldest son, who attended Ewin Early Learning until it closed in December. She now has both children on the wait list. “It’s been pretty stressful and we don’t have family support here. There are a lot of parents in similar situations, we help each other out with the kids and we are just making do,” she said. “It’s had a significant impact on our business. My husband has had to take on much of the administrative workload I would normally manage, which has pulled him out of day-to-day operations and meant we’re often catching up on work after hours. “I can’t think of an industry that wouldn’t be affected; nurses, police, teachers, so many rely on daycare.” Mrs McMullin said some parents were taking extended unpaid leave from their jobs. She has written to both State and Federal politicians requesting more be done to ease the pressure on families. She supported a growing call for government rebates to be extended to include family day care, au pairs or nannies. “We want young families to move to town to keep industry going, but keeping families here is hard when there are big wait lists” she said. Regional operator Kids On Childcare has recently opened two new services in Kalgoorlie and Esperance to cater for growing demand. Area manager Chloe Bennett has worked in the industry for 23 years and said attracting and retaining staff had become increasingly challenging. “Families move to regional towns to make a life, but it’s got to the point where only one parent is working because of limited care opportunities, or families are turning down job opportunities because full-time care isn’t available,” she said. “I’ve seen a pattern of families putting kids on the wait list when they fall pregnant to guarantee they can return to work, and it heightens families’ anxieties, during maternity leave, as to whether or not they are going to find care.” While the company offered visa opportunities, sponsorship and relocation for educators, a lack of suitable and affordable housing was making it harder to find staff. “Children are missing out on crucial development opportunities, there are children in Esperance who have turned four and never been in an early learning environment,” she said. “It’s where they build independence, communication, and especially for vulnerable children it provides support and early intervention.” Regional Early Education and Development has 26 services across the State, including in Narrogin where 22 children are on its waiting list. REED chair Wendy Newman said the centre was limited by its licence cap but there were plans to expand the premises to meet demand. Out-of-school-hours care is also urgently needed in the town, with REED closing its service in 2024 due to issues finding a suitable premises. “Across eight of our services we have a waitlist of 34 places due to shortage of staffing,” Ms Newman said. She said the Federal Government’s 15 per cent pay rise to educators had helped ease retention but housing remained a barrier. But she welcomed recent successes in the sector, namely reforms to improve child safety. REED has recently opened in five regional centres and Ms Newman said local and State governments should be applauded for their commitment to early learning through advocacy, leasing, community engagement and funding. Australian Childcare Alliance WA spokesman Frits Grader described the situation in regional and remote WA as “very challenging.” “It’s difficult to attract and retain qualified staff, let alone experienced educators,” he said. Mr Grader said the Midwest region, Port Hedland and Kununurra were the hardest hit, with high attraction costs, a lack of housing and increasing rents the biggest barriers. He wanted to see governments prioritise affordable housing, additional funding to support the ongoing viability of childcare centres in rural and remote locations, and a potential payroll tax exemption for rural providers. A recent Federal inquiry into child safety concerns in the early learning sector was told about the ongoing issue of childcare deserts, with nearly 700,000 people living in areas with little or no access. In its submission to the inquiry, lobby group The Parenthood said Australian families did not experience genuine choice in how they combined work or care. “Instead, they face severely constrained options dictated by financial limitations and geographic availability rather than what is optimal for their child’s development and their family’s wellbeing,” the group said. In its submission, the Australian Childcare Alliance highlighted how a “highly complex policy environment” involving State, Federal and local governments created a lack of alignment which impacted supply, demand and viability, The group has called for a “market stewardship” to be established to coordinate planning across all tiers of government. “Better coordination is required to prevent localised oversupply while ensuring underserved communities, especially those in regional, remote, and disadvantaged areas, are not overlooked,” its submission read.