When Gabi was a little girl, child care was the only place she felt safe.
Growing up in a “really rough” household, she would look forward to her time at child care.
“I remember so well going to child care … and it was the only time I really felt happy and safe,” she said.
“My educator looked after the children so well, she made sure they all got food, and I remember thinking, ‘That’s what I want to be like’.“
At 17, she is now doing a VET course in early childhood education and is undergoing placement at centres in Ballarat, in south-west Victoria.
Gabi says growing up, childcare was the only place she felt safe. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
“I sometimes see children are a bit sad, and I get to offer support and help them and make their day or week better,” she said.
“But I notice that lots of the educators struggle in the industry and have thoughts about leaving, or are leaving.“
Gabi said she had noticed many educators weren’t getting enough support and resources, and it was leading to burnout.
“If they can’t put their all into helping children, it’s not what we want to see,” she said.
Workers are ‘paid peanuts’
Professor of early childhood education at Deakin University Andrea Nolan said educators were “paid peanuts” and were not truly valued.
Andrea Nolan says quality early child care is vital. (Supplied: Andrea Nolan)
“We now have brain research that really can show that those first years really influence the architecture of the child’s brain,” Professor Nolan said.
“Really, it’s the most important work you can do because it has such a significant influence on those first few years.“
Professor Nolan said staff were “stretched” and had to deal with more complex family dynamics and trauma presentations.
“We’re seeing an upsurge on training around trauma-informed practices,” she said.
Ballarat City Council is considering shutting down its Family Day Care operations. (Supplied: City of Ballarat)
In Ballarat, the local council is considering removing its Family Day Care scheme entirely due to dwindling staff numbers.
“Over the past decade, there has been a significant and steady decline in the number of educators subcontracted to the City of Ballarat,” City of Ballarat director of community wellbeing Matt Wilson said.
“Falling from more than 60, 10 years ago, to just eight today. The scheme currently supports 82 families and 106 children.“
The council said it had tried to recruit new educators “without much success”.
Carly Middleton says it is hard for not-for-profit kindergartens to compete. (Supplied: Carly Middleton )
Not-for-profit early education provider The Y, part of the YMCA, has kindergartens and more than 20 daycare centres across Australia.
Kinder general manager at Y Ballarat, Carly Middleton, said attracting staff was difficult.
“Our retention rate is about six years, which is quite high in the early years sector, but attraction is difficult with competition between different agreements,” Ms Middleton said.
The Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement is for community and not-for-profit early childhood education and care in Victoria, while the Children’s Services Award is a national framework that focuses on long daycare centres.
“As a not-for-profit we’re just not able to be as highly competitive as what some of the privates are,”
Ms Middleton said.
The United Workers Union says workers are concerned about pay rates. (ABC News: Jack Stevenson)
Workers want pay rise guarantee
In 2024, a fully-funded federal government pay rise was introduced to tackle workforce shortages in early education.
The $3.6 billion funding commitment will run out in November this year, and the Albanese government did not extend the package in this year’s budget.
The ABC put questions to federal Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh but was redirected to a speech from May this year.
“The pay rise is working, and we’ll have more to say later this year on the next steps to support this workforce,” Ms Walsh said in the speech.
Goodstart says the Worker Retention Payment has been a success. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
Goodstart Early Learning is Australia’s largest not-for-profit provider of early childhood education and care, and said the Worker Retention Payment had been a success with vacancies across Goodstart at a five-year low.
“We are confident the government understands the importance of the ongoing funding … which has provided educators with a well-deserved boost to their pay and helped us to keep our people as they can afford to stay in their job,” a spokesperson said.
United Workers Union early childhood education and care director Carolyn Smith said the pay rise had seen workforce numbers increase, but a lack of commitment to another round of funding was concerning members.
“Our members have voted to have a walk-off in July if that funding isn’t guaranteed,”
Ms Smith said.
Ms Smith said early childcare was a highly feminised industry and workers were significantly undervalued.
Carolyn Smith says long daycare educators plan to walk off the job in July. (Supplied: United Workers Union)
She said overall the workforce was increasing because the early childhood education and care sector was bigger than it was 10 years ago.
But, she said, there remained a “really significant issue in regional areas”.
“Over the last five to 10 years, we’ve seen educators who are really passionate about their role saying, ‘Actually, I can’t afford to do this work anymore, I need more money to raise a family, pay my rent, or even think about having a mortgage’,” she said.
“It has been a tough year, it’s been an incredibly tough year for families, and it has been an incredibly tough year for educators who are just really passionate about supporting young children.
“It is really upsetting for them that in such a tough year, the government is not backing them in by guaranteeing their wages.”
