KINDERGARTEN staff shortages across Bass Coast are causing a ripple effect through the community with pre-school children at a disadvantage for prep.
Several parents who preferred to remain anonymous contacted the Sentinel-Times raising their concern with the new Y kindergarten centre in Newhaven that opened its doors in February of this year.
The parents are concerned that the kinder is understaffed and as a result are cancelling sessions with minimal notice.
“I am a parent of a 4-year-old enrolled student, and we are receiving text messages the night before kindergarten is scheduled, from as late as 7pm onwards to advise us of half days or cancellations,” one parent told the Sentinel-Times.
“It gives us barely any time to organise care for our children and many parents have used all their carers and sick leave having to take time off due to kinder sessions being cancelled.”
Other parents have confirmed that they are in extreme deficit of hours owing to the 4-year-old group, as they have only attended two full days of kinder with the rest either cancelled or had only half days offered in term two alone.
They claim the issue is causing a negative impact within the community, with parents seen to be ‘unreliable’ in the workplace due to the unpredictable cancellations.
“95 per cent of the parents calling work to cancel or change their days are women, and when we’re trying to move towards equality in the workforce – this is just a step backwards, and it’s out of our control. Not to mention the behavioural shift within the children, as they require the stimulation that kindergarten is supposed to offer,” they said.
Parents of the 4-year-old preschool students are concerned that their children are already at a great disadvantage to their peers in other kindergartens, which will impact their school transition to prep in 2024.
The Y Newhaven Kinder 3 and 4-year-old program is designed to run over two full days 8:30am until 4pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the cancellations are a result of several factors including workforce challenges and no casual relief staff.
These issues were brought to the attention of Bass MP Jordan Crugnale, who said several parents have contacted her from a number of YMCA Ballarat Centres in Bass Coast.
“The teachers, educators and support staff are extremely passionate, dedicated and professional and doing their absolute best to provide quality play-based learning, activities and a supportive environment to the children,” Ms Crugnale said.
Jordan said this was first raised with her back in April and in turn she requested this be investigated by the Department of Education via the Minister’s office.
“I was informed that the service has experienced staff shortages primarily due to teacher illness. We of course don’t want anyone to go to work sick,” she said.
“Then and now, the early years manager being YMCA Ballarat, are working on strategies that will reduce the incidence of service closures and the Department has offered, and will continue to offer, support to the YMCA Ballarat on workforce attraction,” said Jordan.
Ms Crugnale met with Vicki Dobson executive manager, Children’s Services from the Y Ballarat and said they covered a lot of ground, and it was an opportunity also to provide some of the ideas being put forth by parent/carers and also relay their concerns directly.
Supports that have been provided to date include incentives to attract staff and the provision of the department’s partnered recruitment agencies, which provides additional recruitment support for specific services and vacancies.
Ms Crugnale added that the department has discussed other opportunities for the YMCA Ballarat to address its workforce challenges, such as increasing its casual relief staff pool and broadening advertising for new staff.
“We need to think creatively as well in terms of attracting community members keen to learn more about the early years sector as it is so rewarding and a wonderful career pathway,” said Jordan.
“We are offering scholarships, incentives, traineeships, and career advancement programs to support the workforce and help children get the best start in life.”
Vicki Dobson executive manager of Children’s Services explained that the Y is a not-for-profit provider of early education across regional and metropolitan Victoria, and like all providers in the early years sector, they are being impacted by the unprecedented workforce shortages.
The workforce shortages are impacting in two ways; a shortage of staff to recruit into permanent and casual relief roles, and the high level of sickness being experienced that impacts on the service’s ability to operate within the ratio requirements.
The Y has a number of items in place to try and manoeuvre through the impact of the workforce shortages, which include the use of agency staff, casual relief teachers (CRTs), recruitment agencies and relocation incentives – the shortage of supply of temps/CRTs is also part of the workforce shortages experienced across the sector.
“We are also fortunate to be able to request staff from different services to cover relief if they are available due to the cluster of services in the region,” said Vicki.
“We appreciate and are sympathetic to the impact that any adjustments to sessions have on our families, particularly at short notice and are working hard to bolster casual and relief options to support services.”
In an attempt to reduce the total number of closures, the Y has trialled a number of different approaches, including shortened sessions that match staff availability or having smaller numbers attend the session that align with the regulatory ratio requirements.
“We will be taking on parent feedback about these measures in the new term and continuing to make adjustments,” said Vicki.
Any session adjustments are notified to the Department of Education, and the Y work closely with them to ensure they are meeting their funding obligations.
“We encourage any qualified Early years staff to apply for our casual pool via our current vacancies page at ykinders.org.au.”
