PHOTO; Bourke and District Children’s Services President Tanya Jackson, Bourke Shire Council Mayor Barry Hollman and General Manager Leonie Brown, Member for Parkes Mark Coulton and Bourke and District Children’s Services General Manager Prue Ritchie pictured underneath the collapsed roof at the Bourke Childcare Centre. (Supplied)
The fresh federal budget means something different for everyone, but for local child care centres, it could be for better or for worse.
Amongst the biggest announcement to come from the new budget were funding for child care, including Child Care Subsidy rates to increase up to 90 per cent for eligible families earning less than $530,000 annually.
For families the funding should ease the burden of child care fees, but for services in the Western Plains, a shortage of both childcare staff and centres mean that expansion to care for more children is near impossible…