The Narrandera community has initiated a petition calling on the local government, local schools and relevant authorities for increased availability of out-of-school care services.

The petition outlined the stress many working parents are experiencing around balancing their careers and the care needs of their children.

There are currently no after school programs or services available and only a few childcare facilities to service the 5,700 people in Narrandera.

However, the child care centres are either at or near full capacity, and they do not accommodate children over five years and have limited availability for those under three years.

According to a source, the need for more child care facilities is definitely evident however the remedy may not be as simple as opening out-of-school care facilities.

“There was an afterschool care in Narrandera… and it wasn’t getting utilised to its capacity so they let it go and nobody picked it up… it’s a lot of work and it’s not as simple as just ‘I need care’,” the source said.

“The [childcare] sector at the moment has a really big shortage of staff… we’re highly governed and there’s a lot of compliance around early childhood so if you don’t have the right staff, the right qualifications and the right ratios, you can’t open your doors and accept children.

“Early childhood care is not just babysitting, there’s so much involved… our sector and nursing is one of the most highly regulated and underpaid industries so whilst we recognise in the healthcare industry that there’s no staff and they’re all working to the bone - our sector is exactly the same.”

The issue however is not exclusive only to Narrandera, with the early education sector nationwide struggling to stay afloat as compounding issues affect their ability to give care.

In a 2022 report by the United Workers Union, they delved deeper into ‘the crisis in Early Education’ and found that 37% of educators in Australia do not intend to stay in the sector long-term, while 74 per cent intended to leave within three years.

Around 71per cent of early education centre directors say they have seen a significant increase in staff leaving the sector since the pandemic began and even more say there have been difficulties in attracting and recruiting staff (81per cent).

The report also noted that the top three reasons early educators wanted to leave included:

• Excessive workload and insufficient time to provide quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) (73%)

• Low pay – I can’t afford to stay (63%); and

• Feeling undervalued’ (47%)

In the education sector, teachers have reported similar experiences with many schools reportedly understaffed and not paid enough to support themselves sufficiently.

The situation has been dire for many years and is predicted to only worsen in the coming years as interest in becoming teachers decreases.

The severity of the situation prompted the federal government to initiate the $10 million Be That Teacher advertising campaign last October, aimed at encouraging people to choose teaching as a profession.

With childcare providers and teachers barely able to function under their current workload, some of these underlying issues may need to be addressed before opening out-of-school programs becomes a possibility.

For those wishing to help petition for the creation of out of school facilities, they can do so online at https://www.change.org/p/establish-out-of-school-care-facilities-in-narrandera?source_location=search.