Council remains confident that Broken Hill Family Day Care’s future is secure, with private providers already taking an interest in operating the service.
Local Family Day Care has been operated by Cobar Shire Council as part of its Far West Family Day Care service since 2020, however Cobar recently expressed an interest in withdrawing from the Broken Hill market.
Cobar contacted Broken Hill Council about potentially taking over the service, however Council declined as its operations lack the resources, experience, and regulatory and compliance knowledge required to operate day care services.
Mayor Tom Kennedy said the service should ideally be run by a dedicated childcare provider, and said Cobar had received a number of enquiries from private providers about operating the service.
“Cobar has had a lot of interest from providers looking to take over the service, which is a far better outcome than Council trying to run it,” he said.
“My understanding is that Cobar will spend the next few months going through the regulatory and approval processes that are required for the service to be handed over to a suitable private provider.
Mayor Kennedy said the local Family Day Care service was never in danger of immediate closure, and said it was unfortunate there had been some undue worry in the community.
“Some of the commentary and reporting around this issue has been a bit disappointing and misleading, I personally don’t see the value in needlessly scaring people,” he said.
“We’ll remain in contact with Cobar around the service changing hands and offer any assistance where we can, and in the meantime continue with our own long-term efforts to bolster childcare in the city.
“We want to see new dedicated childcare centres established and we want existing providers to be able to expand, and we’re continuing to fight to free up Crown Land to make this possible.
“We also want to see improved childcare education options made available in Broken Hill so childcare specialists can be trained and retained in Broken Hill, and we’ll continue to advocate for this at State and Federal levels.”
