On 10 March 2019 just before the NSW state election on 23 March 2019, the NSW Coalition announced their plans where:
- out-of-school-hours-care "... will be made available to all parents with children at public primary schools by 2021"; and
- "public primary schools in Sydney, Newcastle, Illawarra and the Central Coast as well as major regional centres, will be required to open their playgrounds, halls or classrooms for before and after school care and school holiday care from 7am to 6pm to make life easier for families. Before and after school care services are available to primary school-aged children".
That said, at the Budget Estimates Committee Hearing on 4 September 2019 at the NSW Parliament, the NSW Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning (the Hon Sarah Mitchell MLC) and the Secretary (ie Director-General) for the NSW Department of Education (Mr Mark Scott) said as follows:
- "... it is not [for] every parent in every public primary school"; and
- it will be available "... where there is demand for those services".
The extract of the transcript is available via here and the full transcript of that Budget Estimate Committee Hearing is available via here.
The Australian Childcare Alliance NSW was the only peak body present at that Budget Estimates Committee Hearing and has written to the NSW Government offering to assist them on how to best develop the appropriate implementation of their election promise.
PUBLISHED: 24 SEPTEMBER 2019