The entire July 21, 2021 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

BY DYLAN DE JONG 

A childcare shortage in West Wimmera municipality is in the hands of a Melbourne researcher, who joined Wimmera leaders last week to assess the situation.  

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute manager Rachel Robinson is at the helm of a project to identify possible solutions for the lack of childcare services in the area. 

Wimmera Development Association project manager Sally Marcroft is assisting Dr Robinson with the project. 

Dr Robinson said they heard from about 35 people at Goroke, Kaniva and Edenhope during a series of community consultations investigating childcare needs across the municipality. 

“All of these people either have young children, school-aged children or are people who work in the family and community services sector,” she said.

“They all have a range of views about early childhood education and care, and what they need. What they really need is the best life for themselves and their families. 

“We’ve met lots of women who have degrees and professions who want more time working in their professions.” 

Dr Robinson said developing an equitable service for all residents was a key focus. 

“Much of our interest is ensuring that regardless of where you live, you experience equity of experience to get what you need to thrive in life,” she said. 

“West Wimmera might be an ageing population, but the ageing population still requires services.” 

The evaluation, policy and service-development specialist has been working with communities since 2007 to improve conditions for families raising children.  

She has also been working on award-winning Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership early learning project By Five for the past three years.  

“We’ve been working with the regional partnership since 2019,” Dr Robinson said. “We are delighted to be back working with families within West Wimmera Shire Council to find out more about their needs for early childhood education.” 

West Wimmera mayor Bruce Meyer said he hoped Dr Robinson’s findings would help provide direction for future childcare service provision. 

“We appreciate the assistance given to the shire to try to resolve the issues and we need a lot of advice on modelling and costing so we can formulate a decision as we move forward,” he said. 

“Dr Robinson will collect data and look at the modelling and what providers are available, then she will come back to us with her report.” 

Case study

West Wimmera Shire Council allocated $20,000 in its 2021-22 budget for a case study into resolving the municipality’s childcare issue. 

The commitment came after a group of Edenhope parents asked the council to provide $50,000 to investigate the issue as part of its budget. 

The group was desperate to find childcare options after the one person working under Uniting Wimmera to provide family day care services to Edenhope announced her resignation in early June. 

Cr Meyer was unable to guarantee when childcare would return to the municipality. 

“There are models where you could use existing buildings where they might be able to happen in a reasonably short time, but that depends on the services being delivered,” he said 

“The big part of that involves costing, not only from us but for any potential providers, availability of centres, building costings. All of this needs to be taken into consideration.” 

The parent campaign group was concerned lack of childcare options would result in job losses, with parents unable to return to work. 

A parent-led community survey in the town showed there were 38 children who required family day-care services. It also showed the number would increase to 41 by the end of this year.