Funding boost for local childcare

Published on Wednesday, 6 July 2022 at 9:13:34 AM

Collie Preston MLA Jodie Hanns, Dardanup Shire President Mick Bennett and Community Services Minister Simone McGurk visit Goodstart Early Learning in Eaton.

Caption: Collie-Preston MLA Jodie Hanns, Dardanup Shire President Mick Bennett and Community Services Minister Simone McGurk visit Goodstart Early Learning Centre, Eaton.

Working families with small children in the Shire of Dardanup will benefit from improved access to childcare following the Shire being named this month among 14 local governments to benefit from a State Government grant.

The $25,000 grant received by the Shire, will go to the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Eaton enabling them to recruit two new childcare staff and help facilitate further studies for the 34 current workers.

During a visit to the Eaton childcare centre last week, Community Services Minister Simone McGurk said the State Government had also reduced the course fees for Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care qualifications with the aim of boosting the supply of early childhood educators across WA.

“Early childhood education and care services are important not only for children’s socialisation and education, but also to support parents – especially women – to return to work,” Ms McGurk said.

“We know that regional towns can face greater challenges in finding workers and the choice of early childhood education and care services on offer can be limited, and I’m pleased to see so many local governments applying for and receiving grants that will help bring workers to regional towns.”

In thanking the State Government for the grant, Dardanup Shire President Mick Bennett said any initiatives which would provide the Bunbury Geographe region with access to more workers and address an ongoing skills shortage stifling potential business growth were warmly welcomed.

Late last year, the Shire of Dardanup entered into a Designated Area Migration Agreement (on behalf of 12 participating local governments) with the Federal Government to help fill critical labour shortages.

The Shire of Dardanup administers the process for accessing the South West DAMA with detailed information available on the below dedicated page of our website.

South West DAMA

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