More ECEC space needed in Cooma, provider says

The regional New South Wales town of Cooma is known for many things – being the gateway to the Snowy Mountains, for its place in Australia’s gold rush history, and for being a popular destination for those who love the snow.

More recently, however, Cooma has drawn attention for being the latest town to suffer from the dual blows of a post COVID-19 baby boom and an increased demand for care as families relocate to the region to work on the Snowy 2.0 project.

Currently, according to local sources, Cooma has two preschools and a variety of outside school hours care (OSHC) and long day care (LDC) options, but they are at capacity, with waiting lists also full. One LDC service, the Cooma School for Early Learning, is actively seeking additional premises to expand the services it is able to offer, with all 81 licenced places full, and with 40 children on a waiting list for care.

Owner Angela Davis, who bought and reopened the centre four years ago, described the situation as “crazy” when speaking with journalist Gail Eastaway from About Regional.

“We have good staff, 25 in total, but more places would mean new staff,” she said, expressing concern about staff who are new to the ECEC sector, and the proliferation of incoming ECEC professionals as a result of fee-free qualifications being made available through TAFE.

“Anyone doing those courses would also need hands-on experience before they would be fully competent in the workplace,” she said, adding that while her existing staff team are “great” there have been instances where new staff had not lasted the distance, for example, they went to lunch and did not return.

Ms Davis has been connecting with Snowy Monaro Regional Council, Snowy Hydro, local business people and the Cooma Chamber of Commerce to help locate suitable premises to house the preschool element of her service, but so far has been unsuccessful.

She believes that the demand surge will only be temporary, lasting as long as it takes for the Snowy 2.0 work to be completed, as some of the workers from the project might not remain in Cooma, but at present, the problem was “quite acute”.

Other ECEC services in Cooma are experiencing similar problems, Ms Eastaway reported, with Cooma North Preschool, established more than 60 years ago to accommodate children from the original Snowy Scheme, also at capacity, along with Cooma’s Lambie Street Preschool.

Lambie Street Director and teacher Cathy Toohey said she had daily requests for placements but was unable to assist.

“Some people get quite upset, but without infrastructure, there’s a limit to what we can do.”

Many of the newly arrived residents, she said, are accustomed to children having access to preschool from three years of age, however priority had to be given to children in the year before school, which is causing some issues. To access Ms Eastaway’s coverage of this story, please see here.