Growing list of workers in Warrnambool who can't access childcare

Ms Britnell said workers attended a childcare forum in Warrnambool on Tuesday.

"There was a paramedic, there were several registered nurses, a firefighter," she said.

"These are people who are going to have to stay home to look after children when a fire is occurring, or when we need ambulances attending patients."

Ms Britnell said it was time to recognise this was the community's problem, not an individual's problem.

"I would love a paramedic who wants to work to be there when I need an ambulance or my mum needs an ambulance," she said.

Ms Britnell said she raised her concerns about the lack of available childcare in state parliament in April but the response she got was that it was a federal issue.

Ms Britnell said there were rules and regulations for family day care and in-venue care which were hampering a possible solution.

"Some of these regulations are in the way," she said. "The government needs to work with a flexible model."

She said the federal and state governments needed to work together to come up with a flexible solution to fit individual situations.

Opposition spokesperson for early childhood education Angie Bell visited Warrnambool and Portland on Tuesday and said a lack of childcare places combined with cost of living pressures was taking a "huge toll" on families with parents unable to work reduced to tears.

Ms Bell and Member for Wannon Dan Tehan attended Tuesday's forum and will propose regulatory changes to government including altered ratios in family day care and space ratios in centre-based settings to create more places which he said would have an "immediate impact."

"What we've got to do is come up with solutions," Mr Tehan said.

"We need quick solutions. Some of the providers had some great ideas with regards to small changes that could be made to the regulations which may only be for 12 or 24 months just while you deal with the shortages at the moment and then you could assess that."

Mr Tehan said there were 340 people on the waiting list in Warrnambool and "large numbers in Portland, Hamilton and Camperdown as well".

"We've got to look at policies which expand the number of places. What we heard from the parents is if they don't get access in the next six or 12 months they're going to, in some instances, be forced to head back to Melbourne where they can get access."