Bendigo's early education organisations have their say on federal government strategy

On Tuesday, Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters hosted a roundtable with community groups and organisations to help inform the development of the federal government's national early years strategy.

Representatives from the City of Greater Bendigo, Bendigo Health, Bendigo Toy Library, Sunshine Bendigo, Loddon Mallee Multicultural Services and others were invited.

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Bendigo Community Health Services Family Day Care co-ordinator Tamarra Tie said the organisation had struggled to retain staff and their wellbeing was at risk.

"The burnout that's happening, especially post-COVID, is extreme," she said.

Jenny's Early Learning Centres managing director Darren Reid said he hoped the early years strategy would make it easier for families, especially those most vulnerable, to access support.

"It can be challenging for any person to navigate such a difficult system, such as the childcare subsidy system," he said.

"When we add vulnerabilities and stresses in people's lives, to be able to simplify that and to be able to get the care and the support to families and children that are vulnerable, we should be able to do that in the quickest and most efficient way possible."

Ms Tie said federal funding in the early education sector was often made hard to access by the government's red tape.

"The amount of ticks we need to go through and the amount of essays we need to write, it's out of our scope of what we're looking at when we're trying to support and educate children.

"We are struggling to keep up, but our intentions are there, so hopefully we can get this red tape gone and we can make it happen.

"We've just got to get the educators, we've got to get the staff, we've got to get the family support workers, the child protection workers ... we need to get that support behind us."

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Ms Tie also raised concerns of "COVID babies", with research from the Australian Journal of General Practice finding mothers who gave birth during the pandemic being exposed to higher levels of stress and isolation during natal periods.

"We say, 'you've got a COVID baby because you're struggling with anxiety, wellbeing, connection, security'," she said.

"And when we mention that to them, families are hearing it from professionals and going, 'oh, okay, what's going on for me is normal.'"

Ms Chesters said the issues in the sector ranged from not enough educators for centres to open, to staff not being paid enough.

She said it was critical the government made it easier for staff to access support.

"A really important one that came through [at the roundtable] is that you have just so much paperwork to do if you want to help a child that might be in a vulnerable situation," Ms Chesters said.

"You're expecting the educator or the nurse who's also responsible for the education or the care of that child to also then do all this paperwork to get the child that the support that they need.

"Really taking that on board is what we can do to make it easier and simpler."

Ms Chesters said she would make a submission to the early years strategy on behalf of the region.

Individual organisations can make their own submission at engage.dss.gov.au/early-years-strategy until April 30.

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