After having her first baby, Summer May Finlay said it did not take long to realise she was living in a childcare desert.
"I was part of two mothers' groups on Facebook and all of us were looking for childcare," Dr May said.
"You'd constantly see the comments, 'Does anyone know if there are any openings? I've got to go back to work. I have had my child on daycare lists since before they were born. I'm going back to work in a couple of weeks and I don't have childcare.'"
Just like the other parents, the Yorta Yorta woman and University of Wollongong academic was also struggling to find a place for her child.
"I called one centre, and it had a waitlist of 800. I spoke to another centre and they said it was a waitlist in the four digits but they wouldn't give me any more details than that," she said.
"You actually don't need to give me any more details than that."
Eventually she was able to find a place, but when she had her second child she encountered similar troubles and was beginning to see the impact the challenge was having on her career.
"I am growing my career as an academic, and if I am not able to take on those more senior leadership roles because I can't fit it into my time," Dr Finlay said.
"I actually can't grow my career in a way that I would otherwise be able to."
High childcare demand
Kim Bertino, the chief executive of one of the Illawarra's largest not-for-profit childcare providers Big Fat Smiles, said there was high demand for early education and care places in the region.
"There are on average three children per childcare place available at the moment," she said.
In response to demand, at one of its centres at Bulli, the service was able to fit a demountable on to the land and increase its numbers from 52 to 72.
With a waiting list of 400, Ms Bertino said "those places were filled within a week".
Inquiry submission
Through the Facebook groups, Dr Finlay met another parent, Belinda Jackson, who works in social planning, and together they decided to conduct a local survey.
"In my day job it's really important to establish an evidence base. Stories can take you so far, but a really solid evidence base really helps validate that there is an issue," Ms Jackson said.
They put out the call to families and received around 70 responses.
The study showed more than 30 per cent of respondents had lost more than $50,000 per year due to a lack of accessible childcare.
The responses were used as part of submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care and suggested that "at a conservative estimate that's a total loss of $1.3 million of income per annum for our respondents".
They also found more than 65 per cent of families were on six or more childcare waitlists for more than 18 months.
Other challenges included inconvenient locations at 43 per cent, insufficient days at 48 per cent, lack of care for all children at 69 per cent, and unsuitable opening times at 54 per cent.
"The process of doing the survey just demonstrated beyond the anecdotes that there is a serious problem," Ms Jackson said.
"If you can't secure care you can't go back to work.
"If you can't go back to work then what are the other financial decisions that you have to make? Such as, 'Can I afford food for the week? Can I afford petrol? And am I going be able to pay my mortgage? My rent?'"
Integration and business incentives
Based on their findings they made a series of recommendations to the commission:
- attach temporary childcare facilities to large-scale infrastructure projects like hospital rebuilds and universities;
- provide business incentives, such as salary sacrifice mechanisms, to offer childcare services to employees; and
- implement financial incentives to encourage investment in childcare centres, especially in areas where housing development is more profitable.
"If there were government incentives to build childcare attached to businesses, that would be ideal. It is really important that businesses step up to a gap at the moment," Dr Finlay said.
The women have also had a series of meetings with local Labor MPs.
Childcare provider chief executive Kim Bertino said she had seen recent improvements in the sector, including federal government investment in scholarships, fee-free VET qualifications, and support for professional development.
She also said the not-for-profit was a signatory to multi-employer bargaining agreement to improve wages.
But she said with an under-representation of larger for-profit providers in non-metropolitan areas, the not-for-profit services needed support to expand.
"Not-for-profit organisations are vital in providing childcare services in rural and remote communities like the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, but without access to capital funding it's challenging to open new services," she said.
The commission released its interim report in November, including recommendations for simpler childcare subsidies and free early education for some families.
It has received 601 submissions and comments and is due to hand its final report to the federal government on July 1.
The government is expected to release the findings later this year.