Warrnambool council seeks solution to early years shortages

The city council has put the issue in the spotlight as it rolls out its advocacy projects in the hope of luring state and federal government funding and support.

The lack of staff to run childcare centres and kindergartens is a "huge issue" in Warrnambool, council says.

Warrnambool council provides childcare for 362 children but the waiting list is now in excess of 400 people.

The lack of childcare places has also led to an increase in demand for kinder services.

The council received 543 kinder registrations in 2024 - an increase of 61 children on last year which was a 12.6 per cent jump in demand.

To cope with the demand, the council said a lot of the council's kinders and childcare centres would need to be rebuilt or significantly expanded and renovated to cope with the increase to 15 hours of kinder care.

The council owns and operates 12 early years childhood services.

In July, the state government announced $150,000 to begin planning works for an upgrade of Central Kindergarten.

But what the council also wants is better training and better support for the workforce.

There are at least two new privately operated childcare centres in the planning stages for Warrnambool but work is yet to begin on construction.

The council has warned the new centres could compound the problem rather than help.

"While some new services are in the planning or proposal stage, additional childcare centres starting at a time of chronic staff shortages may compound the issues being experienced at existing child-care centres," it warns in its advocacy brochure.

It says workers may be pulled from the current staffing pool across the city and decrease capacity by putting more strain on services which are subject to staff-child ratios and caps.

"Services have capacity to take more but are unable to do so because of workforce shortages," it says.

Cr Ben Blain told the council meeting on Monday, September 4 that housing availability for key workers was impacting the city's early years workforce.

He said the workforce shortages were being impacted by the ability to bring staff into the city.

Cr Richard Ziegeler said the council was advocating to make more housing more affordable for Warrnambool.

"The early years workforce and infrastructure has been under a lot of stress, particularly with the numbers," he said.

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