About the Project

Bass Coast Shire Council is a rapidly growing peri-urban Council, with expected increase in the number of households from 29,938 to 34,848 by 2036. This includes a 19% growth in families with dependants and 5% in the 0-4 age group, which will place a large demand on existing early years services. We know access to quality early years education is a critical foundation for children’s emotional and social development.

The Victorian Government’s Best Start Best Life reforms set an ambitious plan for rollout of pre-prep, with its success depending on the delivery of kindergarten infrastructure and uplift in workforce capacity. We call for prioritised and sustained investment in early years infrastructure to meet current and projected demands to create spaces for our young people to learn, play and to develop a connection to Bass Coast.

Access to quality local education opportunities and access to affordable key worker housing is pivotal to our offering of adequately staffed facilities. The Bass Coast communities experience rental and mortgage stress at higher rates than the regional Victorian average, hindering pre-prep providers ability to attract and retain quality early years staff.

Currently, to complete on campus study for an Early Childhood qualification, students must travel 40-100km away from their local community. With the Chisholm TAFE - Bass Coast Campus remaining significantly under-utilised this provides an opportunity for the Victorian Government to use this space to prioritise education supports for early years workforce in Bass Coast and to plan for our rapid population growth.

The availability of long day care is also vital for Bass Coast families with many of our existing long day care services currently at capacity. Centres with long wait lists force families to miss out or travel significant distances impacting caregivers’ opportunity to participate in the workforce.

We call for the Victorian Government to provide requisite funding and work in partnership with Council to deliver and support integrated early childhood facilities that provide health and family support services co-located with education or community infrastructure settings based on universal access principals. The Victorian Government must support the provision of additional long day care places, including the delivery of an Early Learning Centre where it is most needed in Bass Coast so that every child has access to vital early years education.