Member for Euroa meets with GRPSA to discuss shortage of services in the region

Annabelle Cleeland, Member for Euroa, has met with Ronni Druitt from not-for-profit group Goulburn Regional Preschool Association (GRPSA) to discuss childcare and kinder availability in the region which has been defined as a “childcare desert”.

Along with availability, the pair discussed reforming licencing agreements to better reflect regional circumstances, cost of living pressures, and the labour crisis being experienced by the early childhood education care (ECEC) sector.

“So much of our region has been designated a childcare desert, something I know so many young families are aware of every day,” Ms Cleeland told regional publication The North Central Review. 

“Ronni and her team at GRPSA run 18 preschool centres right across the Goulburn Valley with many facilities having extensive waitlists and not enough licensed places.”

Ms Cleeland said there were shortages in Avenel, Nagambie and Seymour. 

“While Seymour is receiving a new childcare centre, these issues won’t be resolved overnight,” she added, advocating for reforms which would see a lessening of the overlap between different levels of government. 

Ms Cleeland said reform was necessary to address childcare deficiencies, with significant overlap in responsibilities between different levels of government, describing the regulatory system as “incredibly complex”. 

For a regional centre, she said, there’s licensing, management and land arrangements that often involve all three levels of government.

“In metro areas, childcare centres are usually separated from kindergartens whereas this isn’t the case in regional areas,” she continued.

“This has real implications for availability of care with organisations like GRPSA having to make difficult decisions.”

To read the original coverage of this story, please see here.