Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am a strong advocate and supporter of family day care in my electorate of Dobell and the Central Coast. With over 38,000 commuters daily leaving the region for work, I understand the need for reputable and reliable childcare services, and family day care makes up part of this important service. I know firsthand the value of childcare providers, especially family day care, better than most, as a working mother of two boys. My sons attended day care from six months right until they finished school. I greatly admire and appreciate the dedication, the patience and the enthusiasm of childcare staff. Their genuine love of their chosen profession meant that I knew that my children were in safe hands.

I regularly meet with Child and Family Services Wyong Shire Inc., an FDC in Dobell who have discussed with me the impacts of changes in this federal funding on their organisation. This is an organisation that provides a critical service to my electorate of Dobell. This organisation is well supported, diligently run and proactive in ensuring its financial sustainability. To ensure they can remain sustainable in the future following the implementation of changes to the Community Support Program funding, they have been responsible and assertive in making hard choices and changes to their organisation to ensure their continued success, and for that I commend them. In my role as their elected representative, I aim to do as much as I can to support them with these changes, to be a voice for them when needed and to provide practical solutions for the way forward.

I feel that, in my role not only as a politician but as a supporter and previous user of childcare services, it is my responsibility to address incorrect and irresponsible statements suggested in this motion. This issue is not about cutting funding to family day care; it is about being fiscally responsible and sustainable while providing help and services to those people that make our community what it is.

The intent of the Community Support Program funding is to provide operational support to organisations to assist them to establish or maintain services in areas where the needs of the community are unable to be met. It was not designed to be used as an income stream to prop up unsustainable services. These changes mean that equity and fairness for all providers are experienced across Australia.

A 2012 audit showed that 71 per cent of Community Support Program funding was going to FDC services, despite them caring for only 10 per cent of the children in approved care. This is inequitable, especially since the intention for the funding was for operators in regional and remote areas, and now the majority of family day care services are in metropolitan regions and not in regional areas such as Dobell. New FDC services in metropolitan areas have grown 74 per cent since 2011, with FDC services in regional areas decreasing.

This change in funding does not impact a service operator's ability to open or expand an FDC service, nor does it impact on the ability for a service to provide care for families. This funding is not received by the educators or the parents but by the operators of the service. Funding remains available; however, it is now capped to ensure fairness. It also aligns the family day care sector with other service types, such as long day care and outside-school-hours care, who are required to adhere to more stringent and rigid regulations. It is essential that we have a strong, robust family day care sector if we are to successfully deliver a childcare system that is flexible, accessible and affordable.

The change to this funding was not considered lightly. A business development package was developed with peak bodies in the family day care sector, and there are procedures in place to make this transition as smooth as possible. As a result of growth in the family day care sector, the Community Support Program budget has been exceeded, and it is as simple as that. It is about balancing the budget and making sure that the operators who are doing the right thing are recognised and supported and that those doing the wrong thing are made accountable. It is not about cutting funding.

Consultation and the provision of an open and transparent dialogue have been a large component of these changes. This engagement with family day care providers has not changed. Neither has the fact that the Community Support Program funding is unsustainable in its current format and has, unfortunately, been subjected to rorting by a few, to the detriment of operators who do the right thing. Family day care is an essential service that I will continue to support, especially for my electorate of Dobell.

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