At last night's meeting, Council determined that it would exit as the administrator of Shoalhaven Family Day Care (SFDC) and support educators to transition to another provider.
The decision follows a review of the service in 2024, which identified a current annual operating deficit of $96,000 in the 2023-24 financial year, which is an increase of more than $30,000 during the last four years.
"Council will facilitate discussions with other service providers and support existing Shoalhaven Family Day Care educators to make the transition," Mayor Patricia White said.
"The review of the service identified two not-for-profit service providers, with similar values to ours, expressed that they would be willing and able to accommodate the educators in our region, if they choose to accept that offer," Cr White said.
"We recognise the importance of childcare in the Shoalhaven and are taking steps to enable a smooth transition to minimise any disruption to the educators and their families.
"These are challenging times. We have to make difficult decisions to help improve Council's finances and ensure we're continuing to provide essential services to the community," she said.
Council has been operating the SFDC service since 1980 and currently provides a coordination service for 23 active educators, who are self-employed and operate as small business owners.
Under the resolution, Council will now work with the SFDC educators to prepare them to transition to a new provider. The organisation will also immediately commence the necessary communications with affected staff, in line with the Local Government Award requirements.
Families will not be charged their upcoming annual enrolment fee and educators will be reimbursed for the cost of changing any existing signage.
Council will continue to support educators and staff to work through the transition process.
