About 500 Canberra families have been turned away from childcare programs this winter, due to a shortage of workers in the sector.
CEO of Communities At Work Lee Maiden said her organisation, which is the largest childcare provider in Canberra, received more than 6,000 applications, but only about 5,500 children were offered places. She said there was a critical staff shortage in the sector, but school holiday demand compounded with outbreaks of COVID-19 and the flu had meant the number of places had to be capped."If we use every staff member and educator we have to fill these positions, it just takes one or two of them to be sick and we can't replace them.
"It is quite a challenge to make sure we have adequate resourcing for all these school holiday programs."Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Graham Catt said parents taking time off during school holidays, combined with the high rates of illness, had had a major impact on small businesses in particular."That's exacerbating the problems in terms of that absenteeism we're seeing every day.