FUNDING cuts and falling enrolments have forced a Werribee childcare centre to close its doors.
Wyndham Community and Education Centre started playgroups at ‘The Cottage’ in Synnot Street in 1974 and has run occasional childcare at the venue for 25 years.
Chief executive Jenny Barrera said the decision to wind up the service was due to financial struggles since the state government cut the $1.8million Take-A-Break program in 2011.
She said WCEC could not renew a lease at the council-run Tarneit Community Learning Centre, where it was running a larger occasional childcare service.
“These two events have had a tremendous impact on the financial viability of the centre,” Ms Barrera said.
“Childcare at the Werribee venue is very small, the max we can take is 15 children, and we’ve been running at a loss.
“The reason to make a decision now was to give parents plenty of notice, so everyone will see the year out and it won’t continue in 2013.”
At least 75 children attend the service once a week, but group attendance has dropped to as few as four at a time.
Ms Barrera said the changing face of Werribee families, often made up of two working parents, meant many required full-time care instead of occasional childcare.
Werribee mum Louise Sweeney has been using the occasional childcare service for two years for her two children, aged 2 and 4. She said the closure of the service was heartbreaking.
“I was planning to send my son there again next year. It’s a small, intimate group that was really important for their development and I felt like they know my children well,” she said.
Ms Barrera said some staff at The Cottage could be shifted elsewhere.
Council chief executive Kerry Thompson said she was disappointed at the government’s decision to axe funding for occasional childcare.
She said council had provided a list of other providers in the Werribee area.
