Committed To Their Community
Newcastle Herald
Saturday November 29, 2008
IN JANUARY next year Vicki Freeman will have been at the Elermore Vale Early Learning Centre for 22 years.
"We have just had our 21st birthday," Freeman said.Given her history, Freeman is understandably a strong supporter of community-based child care.The centre has several staff with a long history of service there, which may seem unusual in an industry that is criticised by some child advocacy organisations for its very high turnover in staff.Lyn Wallace, who cooks for the centre, has worked there for 15 years, and the present director, Peta Soldo, for 12.Soldo said she had never worked in the private sector.Community-based centres charged comparable fees to those in the private sector, but the money went back into the running of the facility.Soldo believes people like the community centres because of the way their fees are used, whereas in the private sector profits "line pockets".She was bitter about the amount of taxpayers' dollars that had been made available to prop up the ABC chain, when no similar amounts were allocated to the community-based system."It is a bitter pill to swallow," she said.The Elermore Vale centre is licensed to care for 39 children.Soldo said the centre had fought battles in the past to preserve its status and was likely to do so again if Newcastle councillors voted to increase rents.The daily fee could go as high as $75 if rents were increased to a possible $9000 a year.Soldo said staff wages were the biggest cost for community-sector child care to cover.She said she would like to see more government assistance to ensure child-care costs came down.In her experience, some female clients found it made more sense to stop work and take their child out of care because of the cost.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald