A cut to federal funding is hurting family day care operators, with the Wagga Wagga service that began in 1975 to cease from July, affecting 28 home educators and four council jobs.
Wagga Wagga City Council general manager, Peter Thompson, said a combination of the loss of federal funding, rising costs and the impact of COVID-19 mean the service is now unsustainable.
Family day care typically involves accredited operators providing child care in their homes, where educators can care for up to seven children at one time and can operate for extended hours.
About 18 months ago, Junee Shire Council reviewed the South West Regional Family Day Care scheme which it administers over six local government areas.
Junee Council decided to continue operating, despite a red flag on a report in February this year about falling educator numbers.
General manager, James Davis, said the childcare model has struggled in recent years since educators in Sydney were found to be taking advantage of the system.
"So there was a review and that meant that other services who were perhaps operating properly, suffered at the hands of reduced funding," he said.
"It's been quite significant, I think it's been about a 50 per cent decrease in funding over the last few years."
Home educators vital to regions
Mr Davis said the South West Regional Family Day Care service has 20 educators and for some, it is their main income source of income.
He said it is often the only choice for parents in this part of the Riverina, because there are not enough private operators to meet the demand.
"In smaller communities there just isn't the commercial reality for private childcare centres to establish — there needs to be growth, which obviously Wagga has," he said.
Mr Davis said Junee Council is trying to attract more educators and wants to keep operating for now.
"We've got a couple of educators even in the Wagga boundary because they prefer to work under our service than theirs," he said.
"We have received some money from the Federal Government which is being redistributed through the educators, so they can maintain their level of income, because the parents, I think it's for the next six months, do not have to pay for child care."
