Parents to get a $500 voucher for each primary schoolchild

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Parents to get a $500 voucher for each primary schoolchild

By Jordan Baker

The NSW government will give families a $500 voucher for every primary schoolchild in an effort to ease the childcare burden and give parents more options as they return to work.

The $155 million program will also be a much-needed stimulus for the out-of-school hours care industry, which once struggled to cope with demand but is now fighting to remain viable after two years of low enrolments due to COVID-19 uncertainty and parents working from home.

Parents are to be given a $500 voucher for each primary school child to help cover the costs of childcare.

Parents are to be given a $500 voucher for each primary school child to help cover the costs of childcare.Credit: Eddie Jim

As students in the Catholic system return to classrooms on Monday, and public school students head back on Tuesday, Premier Dominic Perrottet said parents could apply for the vouchers through Service NSW from February 28.

The vouchers – similar to the Dine and Discover program – will cover the parent gap fee, which is the portion paid by families after the Commonwealth-funded child care subsidy is applied. The daily cost of after-school care ranges from $20 to $40, and for middle-income parents the gap fee is about half.

“Before and After School Care (BASC) services are more important than ever as families return to work following the holidays,” said Mr Perrottet.

“It’s been a challenging past couple of years for parents of school-aged children. Many have had to juggle the demands of supervising their kids’ education at home while working remotely, or even forgoing paid work.

“These vouchers for before and after school care will help alleviate some of the financial pressures on NSW families and provide greater flexibility and more options for those who need to work.”

Before the pandemic, waiting lists for out-of-hours care services were so long in some areas that Coalition insiders said the Berejiklian government’s 2019 election promise to provide enough places for children at schools in Sydney and major regional centres “turned the dial” for many female voters.

However, since March 2020 the sector has suffered a significant drop in enrolments due to lockdowns, anxiety about COVID-19 and working from home directives, with many parents not needing extended care because they do not commute and can supervise their children while working. The scheme potentially removes a barrier for parents to return to the office.

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Craig Napier, the chief executive of Junior Adventures Group and head of the Outside School Hours Council of Australia (OSHCA), said attendance fell to 12 per cent last October, when classes resumed after the Delta lockdown. Enrolments in before-school care have been particularly hard hit.

Attendance at vacation care during January was 40 per cent below 2021; attendance in 2021 had been 40 per cent below 2020. The vouchers will not apply to vacation care.

The lifting of work-from-home directives has now been put on hold due to the Omicron outbreak, leaving parents and providers uncertain about when and how often children will require care when workers return to the office.

“We think there’s daylight coming, and along comes Omicron, and we just get hit again,” Mr Napier said. “We took a decision as an industry to continue to run our services to provide services to parents. You’ve got one or two children in a service, there are two staff there, the equation is pretty obvious.

“We very much welcome the initiative [the NSW government has] put in place. They really do understand the dire viability our sector faces. We’re on the brink of viability.” The biggest BASC service providers are companies operating for profit.

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Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the vouchers would cover about 60 sessions of before and after-school care. “These vouchers are all about providing affordable access to care for families, particularly after a tough two years that have disrupted access to school and BASC,” she said.

Providers can begin registering for the program from February 7. Victor Dominello, the Minister for Customer Service, said families could store and redeem their vouchers through the Service NSW app.

“Eligible families will receive their vouchers in their app just like the Dine & Discover program with providers able to quickly scan the QR code on the spot or use the unique voucher code to redeem,” he said.

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