report from the roundtable - 24 jun
A busy night in the gallery, standing room only, I would estimate that
at least 80% of the people there were there to listen to the debate on the Cessation
of the Family Day Care Service.
After a motion to change the order of business so council considered
this item first (this item was 13th on our agenda), the debate was on.
A parent of the Shire's Family Day Care (FDC) service presented to
council. She talked about the trusted, supportive framework, how important this
model of care was to her children. How she only learnt about the potential
cessation on Friday (20 June) and only had 2 days to prepare. It was a
heartfelt presentation, a compelling submission from a FDC family.
I had a number of questions to ask our Director of Social and Economic
Development, from my read of the report and based on the emails we'd received
there were many unresolved issues for me.
One of the key concerns for me was around submissions that 5 educators
(the people who provide FDC services) were about to be recruited last week and were
told not to bother. I was also concerned about the veracity of information in
the report in relation to educator numbers and retirements, the review process,
the lack of information on social impact to families, the lack of benchmarking
in comparison to other FDC providers and a range of other matters.
I asked about the length of the waiting list for Yarra Ranges FDC and
although the Director couldn't answer, many in the gallery clearly knew the
number, 200.
After an exhaustive question process a motion to cease the service was
put by Cr McCarthy.
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I have had a long history of campaigning to save
childcare, this article dates back to 2004 where
I was part of a group of parents trying to save long day
care at Sherbrooke Children's Centre, at the time we were
celebrating one year of successful campaigning to keep the
centre open, it was that campaign that led me to run for
council back in 2005 and I've been a councillor ever since.
There was a lot of parallels between the issues that influenced
that campaign and the current consideration to close
family day care. It almost felt like dejavu. |
I could not support the motion, in speaking against the closure I talked
to a range of issues in an attempt to persuade councillors that FDC was a
valuable, highly regarded quality service.
The provision of FDC aligns with our Children's and Youth strategy in
that it provides affordable early childhood education , ensures parents can
enter the workforce and that care options meet the needs of families and children,
particularly those more vulnerable families.
I was concerned about the timing of the notification, it is not acceptable
to give families and educators 6 days notice, 2 of those days Saturday and
Sunday, it doesn't allow proper community participation.
I talked about the service, the strict monitoring, stringent safety
checks, requirements of excursions and travel, it's benchmarking and
accountability standards. It is a highly valued service, committed to
excellence in early childhood.
I spoke briefly about the other providers and how comparing those
services to Yarra Ranges is not comparing like with like because of the
difference in quality standards and benchmarking. I asked councillors do they
value the service, do we have a commitment to the triple bottom line, taking
into account social, environmental and economic impacts, do we even know what
family day care is?
I talked about the need to provide choices to families, that settings
such as long day care don't suit all families and FDC plays an important role
for families with special needs children and those vulnerable families. It also
is far more flexible in terms of coverage of hours, especially useful for
families with shift workers.
I turned to the finances as much of the report and the debate centred
around this and cost neutrality of the service.
The report mentions a loss of $38,000 projected for 2014/15, this
equates to 0.02% of Yarra Ranges total budget of $177million or .67cents per
rateable property. I highlighted to councillors that there is potential for the
service to achieve cost neutrality, particularly if given the opportunity to recruit
the additional educators.
In summing up I asked councillors if this is an informed decision they
are making, from my perspective it seemed FDC has been set up to fail with the constraints
of the review and inability to recruit additional educators. I asserted that the report was incomplete,
not factual and went as far to say it was biased noting this is the first time in my time on council
that I have said a report is biased.
The report had no consideration of social impacts, scant mention of recruitment
and the potential to break even and achieve cost neutrality.
The service is highly valued, well loved, is a minimal cost to council, it
fulfils our strategy and our mission to "build healthy, connected and
viable communities".
In finishing I said "we all know if we get it right in the early
years we get it right for life".
The vote was put and to my great surprise was lost.
Crs voting to cease FDC: Crs McCarthy, Child and Avery
Crs voting against the motion: Crs Dunn, Cox, Cliff, Witlox, McAllister
and Callanan.
As part of my opposing the motion I foreshadowed an alternate motion.
I moved that "Council resolve to continue to provide Family Day
Care into the future and recognise the important role Family Day Care plays in providing
childcare options to families across the municipality."
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It was great to be able to celebrate the victory with
family day care families, when I walked into council
I really didn't think this would be the outcome and
I'm delighted that council has reaffirmed our support for
council run Family Day Care.
My thanks to Jesse and the Mail Newspaper Group for the pic. |
Although much had already been said I thought it was worth restating a
few points. I talked about the demand for the service, the waiting list, that
27 educators was the 'magic number' in terms of achieving cost neutrality. I
said the service had been reviewed to death and it was time to get on with the
getting on. I talked about the positive
recruitment drive over the last 8 months, post the review. I also restated the
quality and standard of the service.
I was happy to accept some amendments to the motion that gave it more
strength. The motion was put and to my very great delight it was won.
Crs in favour of retaining the service: Crs Dunn, Cox, Cliff,
McAllister and Callanan
Crs against: Cr Child, Witlox, McCarthy and Avery.Labels: childcare, cr samantha dunn, family day care, fdc, yarra ranges council
