Childcare must return to Local Gvt

Date: 21 November 2008

With the collapse of a second for profit child care provider, CFK Childcare Services, the Australian Services Union (ASU), has renewed its calls on the Federal Government to support a major return to local government for child care services.

ASU National Secretary Paul Slape said Australia's local government union also wanted greater oversight and transparency in the child care sector.

"With today's announcement of the collapse of another commercially operated child care provider, we now see the care of a further 4000 children and the employment future of 500 childcare employees up in the air just weeks out from Christmas.

"The child care sector is in crisis, with the flow on effect being tens of thousands of parents having to scramble for limited places or face the possibility of having to give up work to provide care for their children. We can only imagine the economic impact of this collapse."

Mr Slape said the ASU had written to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard calling on the Federal Government to support local government takeover of affected centres and to create a regulatory body to pull the sector out of crisis and to monitor demographic needs of young families for the future.

"It is clear to every Australian that commercially driven enterprises may put at risk an essential and vital service like child care. We need a return to quality, not profit in the child care sector," he said.

"The collapse of CFK Childcare puts beyond a doubt the need for the Federal Government to involve itself in a long term solution to the child care crisis, we must put in place a system of child care which is no longer precarious."

The ASU believes an integral part to solving the current crisis is a major return of child care services to local government.

"Local government already provides quality and stable child care alongside maternal and child health services. It simply makes sense that it is the long term home for child care services," Mr Slape said.

The ASU is working with local governments and their peak bodies to establish a consortium of councils/shires interested in taking over centres affected by the collapse of ABC Learning and CFK Child Care Services.

For further information

Contact:	Paul Slape , National Secretary
Union:	Australian Services Union - the childcare union
Contact Mobile:	0418 996 360
Email:	pslape@asu.asn.au
WWW:	http://www.asu.asn.au/

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