December 2018 brings a surge in new OSHC services in VIC and NSW

Both New South Wales and Victoria experienced an increase in the net number of new outside school hours care (OSHC) services in December, according to The Sector’s latest review of the Australian’s Children Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) database.

Despite slowing growth and a slight decline in the number of OSHC centres across Australia in recent months, December saw a large growth in new centres opening in the two south-eastern states. New South Wales had a net increase of 11 centres, an increase of 0.8 per cent, whereas nine new OSHC centres (an increase of 0.7 per cent) opened in Victoria. This is a significant jump on previous months which saw average increases of 0 per cent. The Northern Territory instead saw the closure of four OSHC centres, a decrease of 7 per cent of OSHC services in the area.

There has been a large decrease in the number of family day care (FDC) centres in NSW during the month of December. A net decrease of 18 centres was observed, a drop of 7.6 per cent of the number of FDC services in NSW. This is a large increase in the number of centres closing compared to previous months, which saw on average only a 1 per cent decrease in FDC services.

The number of new long day care (LDC) centres opening decreased across all of Australia for December, with all states experiencing a reduced rate of growth compared to previous months. The state with the largest proportion of new centres was South Australia which had a growth of 0.7 per cent in LDC centres. All other states experienced growth of 0.1 per cent or less. Also notable was the large number of licenses closed with a total of 19 LDC centres closing their doors for the last time in December.