Shire fights funding slash

By Tania Martin
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges is joining forces with other eastern councils to lobby against a reduction in Commonwealth funding for family daycare services.
This comes after the Federal Government announced it would be changing the way it calculated grants for the Family Day Care Scheme (FDCS).
O’Shannessy Ward councillor Monika Keane said the proposed changes could result in substantial reductions in services offered by the program.
“Family daycare provides an affordable homebased childcare service for many families both within the shire and across Victoria,” she said.
Cr Keane said the Federal Government needed to recognise the impact the funding changes would have on families.
The shire, in conjunction with other eastern councils, has written to federal family services minister Kay Patterson in the hope that a review of the proposed funding changes will be undertaken.
The shire’s director of social and economic development, Alison Crane, said the change would result in a funding loss of $29,000 per year.
Ms Crane said this would mean a permanent reduction of staff resources.
She said the shire’s FDCS offered families a more flexible and affordable form of long daycare, compared to centrebased care.
She said the shire, as a sponsor of the FDCS, received grants from the Federal Government to help fund a coordination unit, which helped to identify the needs of the families taking part in the scheme and train all care providers.
A Department of Family and Community Services spokesperson said FDCS funding was being reformed to ensure childcare places were available in the areas of greatest need and that service providers were funded for only the number of places that they actually provided.
He said the new funding arrangements for family day care would be fully operational from 1 July 2006.
Healesville carer Tanya Bleach said the funding helped to buy equipment such as prams and high chairs, and provide training for carers.
She said the funding allowed for a resource officer to visit the carers once a month to provide one on one support.