A Rutherglen mother will meet Indi MP Cathy McGowan on Friday to discuss the barriers faced by residents in outlying North East towns to access childcare.
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Sophie Price, mother of 11-month-old Elsie Andrews, said the options were lacking for parents.
“I’ve gone back to university and I’ve been going through all these sort of avenues looking for ways she can be cared for,” she said.
“In Chiltern, there’s only two family day care and no after school care, which is a huge concern for working mums.
“Often, you only get that flexibility for family day care with big centres, so many people are going to Wodonga or Wangaratta for that.
“At the moment my best option is for friends and family to look after her.”
Ms Price had already planned the event when she stumbled across a post on Facebook from a Chiltern mum calling for parents to join her push to get an after-school care program in the town.
“If there was enough demand then maybe we could approach the appropriate people and see if it would be a possibility to get the program up and running again,” it read.
Ms Price said her concerns were echoed by other parents, including 15 who added their support to that post.
“I was speaking to a new family at the Rutherglen service station, who have a three-year-old daughter, and they couldn’t get her into kindergarten at Rutherglen because there were no spots,” she said.
“One lady is coming from Barnawartha – she’s involved in the Barnawartha Primary School and will be inviting someone from Indigo North Health to so see if they can run any services,” she said.
“I think Friday is about getting our concerns out and then working out with Cathy who we need to be speaking to and how she can facilitate that conversation.”
Ms McGowan said Ms Price’s concerns tied into the federal government’s changes to childcare.
“Coming out of Wodonga there’s mobile children services program that operates and it’s funding is currently all being cut,” she told The Border Mail.
“It does preschool, care, and workers go out to the places rather than a centre-based approach.
“The government has changed its funding model so it won’t be able to do it anymore.
“I’m going to be interested to hear what the parents want and how to get government, whoever wins the election, to listen to that.”
The meeting with Ms McGowan will begin at Chiltern’s Hub 62 Cafe on Main Street at 10.30pm.
For more information about the meeting, call Ms Price on 0400 651 848.
