Broken Hill Mayor confident about the future of FDC as provider search continues

Broken Hill Mayor Tom Kennedy has reassured locals that the Council remains confident that a provider will be found to take on a family day care (FDC) scheme operating in the town after Cobar Shire Council that has announced it will withdraw from the market. 

Cobar Shire Council has been present in the Broken Hill FDC space since 2020, working with educators as part of the broader Far West FDC scheme, however the Council recently indicated it was withdrawing from the Broken Hill market. 

At the time of indicating it would withdraw, the Cobar Council contacted Broken Hill Council about potentially taking over the service, however Broken Hill Council declined as its operations “lack the resources, experience, and regulatory and compliance knowledge required to operate day care services”.

Mr Kennedy remains optimistic that a dedicated early childhood education and care (ECEC) provider will step in, noting that Cobar has received “a number of enquiries from private providers about operating the service”.

“Cobar has had a lot of interest from providers looking to take over the service, which is a far better outcome than Council trying to run it,” he said.

“My understanding is that Cobar will spend the next few months going through the regulatory and approval processes that are required for the service to be handed over to a suitable private provider.”

Mr Kennedy again reiterated that FDC provision in Broken Hill has never been in danger of immediate closure, and that it was “unfortunate” that there has been undue worry in the community. 

“Some of the commentary and reporting around this issue has been a bit disappointing and misleading, I personally don’t see the value in needlessly scaring people,” he said.

“We’ll remain in contact with Cobar around the service changing hands and offer any assistance where we can, and in the meantime continue with our own long-term efforts to bolster childcare in the city.”

“We want to see new dedicated childcare centres established and we want existing providers to be able to expand, and we’re continuing to fight to free up Crown Land to make this possible.”

“We also want to see improved childcare education options made available in Broken Hill so childcare specialists can be trained and retained in Broken Hill, and we’ll continue to advocate for this at State and Federal levels.”