Perth Voice Interactive

CHILDCARE operators could be invited to put in bids to build and run an out-of-school-hours facility on Gibbney Reserve in the latest bid to find a solution to a chronic shortage of places in Maylands.

Councillor Nat Latter has put forward a motion for Bayswater council to support a lease on the reserve for a purpose-built childcare facility, following unsuccessful attempts to wrest an existing pavilion from Football West.

The issue has been kicked along by the Maylands Peninsula Primary School and its P&C for almost five years, as the school’s growth has far outstripped the number of childcare places available in the suburb.

Cr Latter says it has become a gender equity issue, as the majority of parents affected by the shortage are mothers whose hopes of returning to the workforce are being dashed.

“I can’t speak for everyone, but I think we already know that women experience disproportionate disadvantage in the workplace because of career disruption, and this just adds to it,” Cr Latter said.

“Even for parents who have secured a place, but aren’t able to get every day they need, it’s like the sands are constantly shifting.”

Council staff have identified two sites on the reserve close to the primary school which currently have no infrastructure on them; directly behind the pavilion and next to the reserve’s practice nets.

Maylands mother-of-four Star Gianetti is one of the parents affected by the childcare shortage; in a deputation to this week’s council agenda briefing, she outlined the extraordinary efforts she’s been forced into to find a solution.

“I am looking at work opportunities… but before I can look for an actual job, I need to secure childcare and afterschool care for my children, so I am able to make it compatible with the work I then seek,” the mother-of-four wrote.

Work

“This has proven to be very difficult.”

After speaking to principal Paul Andrijich, she offered to buy a demountable building and run an after-school facility on the school’s grounds herself.

“The education department have outlined that this is not possible for a variety of ownership and leasing reasons,” she said, adding Mr Andrijich had also indicated he was already squeezed for space because student numbers had grown from 470 to 730 over the last decade or so.

“I attempted to find a property nearby with the right characteristics for a centre to meet the required indoor and outdoor play areas per child,” Ms Gianetti said.

“There are no commercial childcare facility-approved locations available in the suburb.

“The instrumental school on Peninsula Road are also at capacity and are not allowing leasing of their buildings for external parties any more.

“The only building they can offer is heritage listed, full of white ants and any works done on it would be undertaken under the ownership of the education department anyway – another dead end.

“I have rung and written to the council about the use of the creche and sporting facilities at The Rise, but I have not been contacted back as yet.

“I have been unable to lock this down in any way, it is significantly more challenging than I thought it would be or than it should be.

“No wonder no one does it.”

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the national average for using out of school facilities is 37 per cent of all school-based students – and it’s even higher for inner-city areas.

Maylands Peninsula sits at just 6 per cent.

“On current numbers and basing it on a conservative estimate of 30 per cent of the school population needing out of school care for their children, we would require 219 active places in total,” she said.

“We have 50 available right now and the waitlists are long.”

Cr Latter couldn’t put a timeline on when a facility might open if her motion is successful at this week’s full council meeting, saying it might require an amendment to the proposed sites’ zoning because it doesn’t currently support childcare.

But she’s hopeful the purpose-built facility will get support from her colleagues, as it gets around one of the main objections of handing a sporting facility to a childcare operator.

by STEVE GRANT