STAFF at out of school hours care provider WEMOOSH are "devastated", after learning on the last day of term it hadn't won the tender for the service it has provided for 31 years.
WEMOOSH co-director Elizabeth Treadwell said she was told on Wednesday the government had awarded the tender for the service, at Mayfield West Demonstration School, to YMCA NSW.
"We're all very upset and emotional," she said.
"We couldn't even put the time and energy into saying farewell, because it was just hours before we were finishing forever."
Related: Questions hang over future of WEMOOSH at Mayfield West
The Newcastle Herald reported in November that WEMOOSH had been locked in discussions with the government for a year about renewing its licence, which expired at the end of 2018, and was operating under a month-by-month holding over clause.
Ms Treadwell said it was only after she called School Infrastructure NSW in August that she was told the service would go to tender.
The Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education said in Parliament on September 12 this was "at the discretion of the school executive", but the government said in November it was "because the current provider's licence has expired".
A Department of Education spokesperson said the school "explained the situation as fully as possible" in a Wednesday letter to families.
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"The school also arranged a holiday meeting with the new provider, and aims to update families about future arrangements and timelines during the holiday break," the spokesperson said.
"The incumbent provider has indicated they may not sign a service approval transfer, which would expedite the transfer by negating the need for the new provider to apply for service approval.
"Therefore the new provider has a service approval application in hand, and the department is aiming to have this expedited so the new service can start on day one next term."
The letter included a note from YMCA NSW, saying it would email families on January 9 about enrolment and hold a meeting on January 14.
Mayfield West is the biggest of WEMOOSH's three centres and helps support its Mayfield East and Islington branches.
The company is about to shut for four weeks, before offering vacation care at Mayfield East before term one starts.
Ms Treadwell said there is only limited capacity to take the 80 Mayfield West children at the two other centres.
"This jeopardises the stability of the whole business," she said. "I can't give staff an answer about whether they will be redeployed or made redundant because there's been no time for us to make this really important decision."
She said she understood if they sought other employment, but she may return to "no staff, no notice and no time to recruit".
