Amy Hume
A COMMUNITY house in Seymour is at risk of closure if funding for the Take a Break occasional childcare program is not reinstated after December this year.
Seymour and District Community House has provided the service for more than 10 years but may not have the funds to remain open due to recent government funding cuts.
The program allows parents and guardians personal time while their children socialise and interact with other children in an early learning environment.
I June, the State Government announced its withdrawal of funding for the program from December this year.
The funding cuts to the program will affect 220 childcare centres and neighbourhood houses across Victoria, including Wallan Neighbourhood House and Kilmore Community Centre.
The great Take a Break debate continues to baffle parents across the district with neither State nor Federal governments taking responsibility for axing the funding.
Take a Break was funded entirely by the previous Labor State Government for the last 12 months after the Federal Government withdrew its funding from the previously joint-funded venture.
Member for Yan Yean Danielle Green and Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews visited the community house on Wednesday.
Mr Andrews said the State Government’s decision to pull its funding would place more pressure on existing services.
“Mr Baillieu’s stubborn refusal to support Take a Break could mean hundreds of families in Seymour and surrounding suburbs will miss out on childcare now and into the future,” Mr Andrews said.
“Places that offer childcare services, such as Seymour and District Community House, don’t run at a profit as they are community organisations, so funding cuts could mean the cancellation of the popular occasional childcare program.”
Seymour and District Community House co-ordinator Rose O’Sullivan in excess of 50 children pass through the centre weekly, but already, one session has closed due to the financial constraints.
“We are the only Take a Break centre in the town and there is no other Take a Break centre within 40 kilometres,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
She said the withdrawal of funding means the service could close, sessions will be dropped and loss of employment.
Seymour parent, Gail Wallace, was disappointed to see the program possibly nearing an end.
“I first used the program when I was on maternity leave with my first child. It was good for me and for him to have that service to get used to the separation,” she said.
“It made the transition of returning to work a little bit easier too.”
Ms Wallace is a qualified childcare worker and at one stage was taking the Monday sessions of Take a Break at the community house.
She said the program was “a vital service for Seymour.”
She said parents across the district are largely not fazed by “who’s at fault” but simply want to see government funding for the program reinstated.
State Governments in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia fund their respective programs.
Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Wendy Lovell has continually argued that the program was previously jointly funded by the State and Federal Government.
“I understand that people are angry about the Federal Government’s decision to rip its majority funding from Take a Break in May last year,” she said.
“I have committed to continue the State Government’s funding for Take a Break if the Federal Government lives up to its responsibility and reinstates it’s funding.”
She said it’s the Federal Government that is responsible for funding childcare.
“It’s also why the Federal Coalition has committed to put the money back into occasional care if it wins government.
“The Gillard Government is the only government passing the buck on the Take a Break program.”
The lobby group Save Take a Break presented a petition with more than 3400 signatures to government in June but is yet to sway either government to immediately reinstate its funding to the program.
