Arghgh!... There's No Place at the Kindy!

Parents are going stir crazy trying to find a kindy or child care facility which has vacancies, while other centres are struggling to keep afloat. Some believe that it's where the new kindies have been built that is causing dramas for parents, with critics of the program — and even some beneficiaries — pointing to glaring inefficiencies.

By Freya Petersen

IN BRISBANE'S inner southeast, child rearing has become like a competitive sport, so scarce are vacancies in some day care centres and kindies.
An uneven spread of child care and kindy services in Brisbane is causing anguish for parents and business owners alike, with some centres hopelessly oversubscribed while others struggle to survive.

In Bulimba recently, dozens of parents were queued up from before dawn in an effort to get their children a berth at a local kindergarten for 2014.
Meanwhile, in other suburbs, early learning and day care businesses are struggling to survive because of competition against state-built centres they say weren't needed.

Critics have blamed poor analysis and political interference with creating a problem they say could have been avoided.

Starting from scratch

After its re-election in 2009, the Bligh government sought to increase participation of the state's 53,000 kindy-age children in some form of early learning program from 29 per cent in 2007 — the lowest in the country — to 100 per cent (or "universal access") by 2014.
Since then, they've built 102 new state-owned kindergartens, out of 240 originally promised by 2014.
By 2011, the government announced that it had exceeded its targets, with 69 per cent of four-year-olds already enrolled in an early education program delivered by a qualified teacher.
But it's where they've been built that is causing dramas for parents, with critics of the program — and even some beneficiaries — pointing to glaring inefficiencies.

Early one Sunday morning

Bulimba mother-of-three Felicity Donaldson knew from experience what to expect when trying to enrol their daughter Claire at the once-yearly sign-on day for the 88 berths at the local C&K kindergarten.
"My husband got up at about 5.30 on Sunday, and he was probably there a bit after 6," Ms Donaldson said.
By the time he got there, the line was already stretching up the block. Still, they got their spot.
"We went at about the same time for each of them… For Emma (their older daughter), we were about 65th on the waiting list, whereas for Claire we're 28th.
"The local recommendation has been that if you don't go to the sign-on day then you probably won't get a place for your child because of how popular the kindy is."
Popular, and the only purpose-build kindergarten program within a 10-minute drive, which for busy mums and dads (often with multiple care- and school-age kids) can mean the difference between a busy morning and a breakdown-inducing one. Adrienne Webster said her middle child missed out on a place at Bulimba C&K after making a flood-delayed move to the suburb from Adelaide, despite her eldest child securing a place at Bulimba State School, a less-than-one-minute walk from the kindergarten.
"So for an entire year, I had to drive to Coorparoo, and it almost broke me," she said.
Mrs Donaldson said it was neighbourhood lore that before the centre added places a few years back, parents had even camped out overnight to ensure their child a place at the kindergarten — one of a critical few in an area has seen its population of well-to-do young families multiply in recent years.
Bulimba C&K director Sue Reynolds said the centre actively discouraged camping outside the night before sign-up, and while it did have a "healthy waiting list", all those who lined up on sign-on day for the past three years had secured a place at the kindergarten for two years later.
The Logan-Woodridge area was one area where C&K kindergartens were filling “much slower than (in) other areas".
“That would suggest one of two things — either the government got their formula wrong, or more likely the community doesn't understand yet — or doesn't appreciate yet — the benefit of a proper kindergarten program.”

The flipside of the coin

Meanwhile, just across town, Moorooka C&K director Simone Sullivan said their centre had six vacancies out of 22 places offered.
Karen, who works at Moorooka Early Learning Centre, says of the area's many child care and early learning centres that "everybody's struggling. I don't think there's enough children to spread around".
C&K chief executive Barrie Elvish, whose company was contracted by the Department of Education and Training to operate many of the new state-school-based kindergartens, said both kindy and regular child care services were unevenly spread across Queensland generally, and the Brisbane area in particular.
So much so that C&K recently commissioned Access Economics to assess of the government's funding model for the new kindergartens.
“As soon as the election is over we'll go and talk to the government, whoever it may be, as to the deficiencies that have been identified by this independent review,” Mr Elvish said.
He said while the majority of C&K centres in the state were full, “there are some which aren't full and which are struggling for numbers and they're primarily in areas where there is an oversupply of long day care services”.
Mr Elvish said that in some areas of the state, "you could suggest that the infrastructure's got ahead of the demand, whereas in the past, demand exceeded supply".

Dozens of parents were queued up from before dawn in an effort to get their children a berth at a local kindergarten for 2014.

"After its re-election in 2009, the Bligh government sought to increase participation of the state's 53,000 kindy-age children in some form of early learning program from 29 per cent in 2007 — the lowest in the country — to 100 per cent (or universal access) by 2014."

"Queuing overnight for a spot in your closest kindy can mean the difference between enduring  busy mornings and breakdown-inducing ones."

Numbers game

In planning the roll out of new services, the state government said it relied upon a combination of 2006 census data and Office for Economic and Statistical research, which estimated the population of four-year-olds in a statistical local area.
It also used vacancy rate data from the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
Meanwhile, Childcare Queensland — an umbrella body for many of the state's privately run long day care centres — provided its own research that suggested vast disparities in the vacancy rates of centres across Queensland.
An acute example was in Cairns, where the group's research — relying on respondents to an annual survey — showed at least 470 vacancies per week.
"We're just surviving," said a spokeswoman for the private Sunshine Child Care and Learning Centre in Aeroglen, who gave her name only as Dawn.
"We have 72 per cent occupancy. But Cairns is not a very big area."
A spokesman for Childcare Queensland, Peter Price, said the group initially welcomed the government plan to improve access to early childhood education in Queensland.
"We thought, this is great because in all the areas of need there will be more (centres) being built," Mr Price said, adding that politics could have played a part in decision-making.
"Politicians lobby, particularly with a state election coming up. (And) they don't look at the reality.
"And you get silly situations where there are a lot of vacancies and the government announces that they're going to build a centre.
"It's another ABC debacle all over again, essentially," Mr Price said, a reference to the collapsed child care group run by entrepreneur Eddy Groves.
Child care Queensland's president, Gwynn Bridge, warned in 2008 of the impact of the new centres on existing services, writing in an editorial on the Care For Kids website that, "should these centres begin to appear in areas where services are experiencing low occupancy rates, it is a concern that we will see market failure of existing services. Already some state/territory governments are building early learning services next door to or in close proximity to existing services."
Graham Sagar, the group's treasurer and himself a centre operator, agreed that while investment in child care was to be encouraged, poor planning posed risks to existing services.
"If an area needs a centre and doesn't get one, that's an issue. What's a bigger issue is if an area doesn't need a centre and the state government decides to put one there."