MARGARET River is facing a childcare crisis which is forcing many working parents to make tough decisions on whether they can remain in the workforce.
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All early child education and care facilities in Margaret River and Cowaramup said they had long waiting lists, with the most critical shortfall in available care for babies.
Local industry professionals said there was also a major gap in provision of before-school and weekend care.
Operators said they had faced anger and abuse from frustrated parents stone-walled in their attempts to find quality, affordable, local care for their children.
"Some of them get really quite frazzled and some are quite nasty, as though it's our fault," Children's Centre of Margaret River director Christine Gumpold said.
"By law, we can only have a certain number of children in the centre and towards the end of the year there's usually quite a big group in the three- to five-year-old room.
"That eases off a bit when a lot of those
children go off to school."
Cowtown Kids director Jodie Buck said she usually advised upset parents to try approved/registered family day care or in-home care from providers such as YMCA. However it now appeared even those options were over-subscribed locally. Nanny and baby-sitting services were other alternatives, however these were unregulated and non-subsidised.
Most centres reported a bubble in waiting lists for midweek day care, with many parents preferring bookings which were unlikely to overlap with long weekends.
Waiting lists were significantly shorter on Mondays and Fridays.
Stretched for alternatives, some families have taken advantage of vacancies in under-subscribed Busselton childcare centres.
Busselton providers, such as Bluebird Child Care, now offered a door-to-door bus service for children to make the 90-minute round trip to and from Busselton.
Bluebird owner Jane Lawrence said she had first contacted Margaret River and Cowaramup centres to gauge whether there was a need for her services.
"They all expressed to me that they couldn't keep up with supplying childcare to the area, especially in regard to babies," Ms Lawrence said.
"We have the facilities to cater for babies, we have the seats to transport them and we always have two people in the van.
"People are sometimes concerned about the travel time but it's only 40 minutes from Busselton to Margaret River."
Margaret River's Community Childcare Centre said it was planning an expansion which would double its capacity, with an extra 28 places a day including for babies.
"We are seeking to expand to meet demand while also remaining true to our not-for-profit values of providing a service at the most family friendly price we can," centre co-ordinator Lynda Green said.
Ms Green said many parents were worried about losing their jobs if unable to secure a place before their parental leave expired.
"It is quite desperate at the moment but (any change) depends very much on the ages of children next year," she said.
"If they are that bit older and can move to the next age group then there may be spaces in other centres and in ours when we expand.
"If the area has lots more babies then I do not see the situation as improving a lot."
Ms Green encouraged parents to lobby the federal government to improve support for families, child care centres and their workers.
"We value our current staff highly, but it is difficult to retain them and to attract more good quality and dedicated staff to the industry," she said.
"Award rates do not match the workload and level of responsibility required of educators."
South West Institute of Technology (SWIT) lecturer in children's services and education support Jackie Murray said there was strong local demand for qualified child care workers, and that the TAFE provider had local courses available to deliver qualified, job-ready workers to the sector.
"The planned expansion at the Margaret River Community Childcare Centre will certainly help but there is a need for more children's services and qualified staff in the area," Ms Murray said.
"Early childhood services are subject to a high degree of regulation and quality compliance, which ensures a high quality of care and education for the children.
"Families want good quality care for their children, which we are fortunate to have in our area and therefore there is a high demand."
However, Cowtown Kids director Jodie Buck said the situation was set to worsen, with SWIT flagging course fee increases which she said would make study less attractive to prospective staff.
Ms Murray confirmed the cost increase for 2015.
"There is an increase in the cost of the early childhood education and care qualifications next year," she said.
"There is also a VET (vocational education and training) fee help scheme in place for students wanting to enrol in the diploma course."
But the director of Margaret River's Early Learning Centre, Kirstie Rohl, questioned whether a crisis existed.
She said centres such as hers operated at full capacity to remain viable.
"We have vacancies throughout the year for
families but the childcare "crisis" in my opinion is based on the fact that
sometimes people phone up looking for a vacancy expecting there to be an empty
position immediately for their child on a particular day," Ms Rohl said.
"What people may not understand is that for our business to be viable we must be booked at capacity, which is currently 30 children per day."
Ms Rohl said her centre took on large numbers of new enrolments at the start of each year as older children left and waiting lists were prioritised by whether parents were working, studying or training, as required by government.
"We are aware of a shortage of school holiday care especially for children in the early years and we are starting a new program for these children at the Margaret River Primary School in January 2015 ," she said.
Ms Murray said the local TAFE provider offered flexible study arrangements which allowed people to work and study at the same time.
"We also offer a Certificate III in Family Day Care which gives local people the opportunity to set up their own child are business in their home," she said.
"There are many opportunities for work in the children's services field and we welcome people interested in this career path to come to SWIT and discuss the options for study."
