By JESSE GRAHAM
THE YARRA Ranges Council may end its Family Day Care (FDC) scheme a year after saving the program, citing “rising costs” behind the potential closure.
Councillors will debate ending the FDC scheme on Tuesday, 13 October, 15 months after deciding to keep the service running across the municipality.
Citing rising costs and unsuccessful attempts to recruit educators in a release on Friday, 25 September, the council said it had concerns for the future of the program.
The release also stated the “strong potential” for the scheme to shrink further and lose Federal Government funding as reasons for bringing the topic of closure back to the table.
Director of Social and Economic Development Ali Wastie said that although the council had tried to achieve neutral costs for the service, it had been “significantly subsidising the scheme for years”.
“The scheme currently costs council more than $130,000, which is unsustainable when you consider it provides for three per cent of families with children aged 1-4 years in the Yarra Ranges,” Ms Wastie said.
She said that, for the scheme to continue into the 2016-’17 financial year, fees would need to rise “significantly” to make it cost-neutral.
“We are concerned of the impact this would have on families.”
She said the scheme provided day care “of a high quality”, but said other FDC schemes provided “a good level of service” and were more sustainable.
Ms Wastie said that if the FDC scheme ended, the council’s Family and Children’s Services Department would help to “transition” educators to new providers.
The move to end the scheme comes 15 months after councillors knocked back a similar proposal.
At a meeting on 24 June last year, councillors voted six to three to keep the service running, after more than an hour of fierce debate.
Then councillor, Samantha Dunn, opposed ending the scheme, and accused the council at the time of setting the scheme up to fail by not actively recruiting educators.
The public gallery at the meeting was full of FDC families and educators, who cheered and applauded when the motion to end the scheme was lost.
Councillors Fiona McAllister, Len Cox, Noel Cliff, Samantha Dunn, Andy Witlox and Jason Callanan all voted against closing the service last year, while councillors Jim Child, Terry Avery and Maria McCarthy voted in favour.
Ms Dunn told the Mail on Friday that the level of service – not its price – should be the most important issue for council.
“The reality is that local government doesn’t operate in a cost-neutral environment, that’s why they charge rates,” she said.
“That’s the whole point – it helps pay for services.
“If there’s been federal funding cuts, that’s incredibly disappointing because of the impacts on families, but I don’t think, ever in my time in local government, I was a fan of cost neutrality being the benchmark as to whether your provide services or don’t.”
Following last year’s decision, the Mail reported that the scheme serviced 101 families through 21 educators.
In Friday’s release, Ms Wastie said that a failure to recruit educators was one of the causes of concern, bringing the discussion back to council.
Though Ms Wastie said there were now 197 families and 24 educators in the council’s scheme, the increase was “not significant enough” to “improve the outlook for our scheme into the future”, with one educator retiring recently and another due to retire in December.
“Even if the current number of educators and families was to remain constant, our fees would still need to rise significantly to make the scheme sustainable,” she said.
Ms Dunn said she would attend the 13 October meeting if possible.
The council said its report on the matter will be published online at www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au from 7 October, with the council set to discuss the matter on Tuesday, 13 October.
