Bendigo appeals for more FDC educators as demand surges and workforce crisis grows

Bendigo Family Day Care has launched an appeal for more educators to come on board as dual challenges of rising demand for early childhood education and care (ECEC) and workforce shortages in the sector combine to challenge families in the district. 

Coordinator Tamarra Tie said the FDC, run by Bendigo Community Health Service (BCHS),  has waiting lists which are continuing to grow, but educator numbers fell during the pandemic. 

“While we have less educators at present, we have parents who are preferring the intimate home-setting of family day care,” she told The Bendigo Times.

BCHS has recently increased hourly payments for staff in hopes of attracting and keeping workers, and educators already employed with the service, including Deborah Towerton, encouraging others to consider family day care as a career path. 

“It’s been both financially and emotionally rewarding,” Ms Towerton told the paper. “I’ve felt rewarded simply by being a part of an awesome service that works together to support not only the child but the family.”

Sharing in more intimate “one on one” moments, and sharing in the lives of families are some of the things she values most about working in family day care, along with feeling like you are part of the extended family caring for a child. 

To learn more about the recruitment drive, see here. For the original coverage of this story, please see here.