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Northern Beaches Council ceases Vacation Care due to operational losses
Freya Lucas
Feb 25, 2025
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New South Wales’ Northern Beaches Council will cease to offer Vacation Care services after the autumn school holiday period due to declining demand and the fact that the program is operating at a loss.
Initially started to support local working families during the school holiday period - particularly for families who did not have access to Vacation Care if their school does not offer it - the program has been in a slow decline since 2017 when the Council consolidated its five vacation care services due in part to declining attendance numbers.Council closed one centre in 2018 and another, Forestville Vacation Care, in 2022. It appears Manly Vale may have also already been cut as only Cromer and North Harbour are advertised to run the Autumn 2025 school holiday program before the service is shut down completely, local news source Manly Observer reports.
In 2021, the Council developed a new Children’s Services Strategy which outlined that the Vacation Care service had to be cost-neutral (similar to Council’s early learning services).
The decision to close the service comes despite a recent vote during a December meeting to apply for a rate increase to increase council services.
“Due to the significant ongoing decline in attendance, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close the Vacation Care service operated by Northern Beaches Council,” a recent letter to parents utilising the service reportedly read.
Council attributed the decrease in attendance numbers to COVID, shifting working patterns, an increase in Vacation Care services operating on school sites and privately run vacation care programs.
In 2019 (pre-COVID), attendance was at 72 per cent (160 of the 220 available spots per day), however, by 2023/2024 attendance had fallen to 53 per cent (85 of the 160 available spots per day with the closure of Forestville Vacation Care). In the last school holidays, Summer 2025, attendance was down to 46 per cent. To be financially viable, Council said they required attendance to be at 85 per cent.
Increasing staff costs and overall general affordability issues linked with the rising cost of living were also said to have contributed.
Both the Cromer and Manly Vale Vacation Care services operated out of local community centre spaces, while the North Harbour Vacation Care operated out of a building used as a preschool during the school term.
“It’s always difficult to close a service, but as the service was required to be cost neutral yet consistently operated at a loss, it was the only responsible thing to do,” Mayor Sue Heins shared with the paper.
“Increasing costs and competition, changes in family work arrangements post COVID and ultimately decreasing attendance, all impacted to make the service no longer viable,” she added.
“I’d like to thank everyone who used the service over many years and give a shout out to the great staff that kept so many young locals entertained during the holidays.”
Access the original coverage of this story here.
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