Childcare providers in the grips of a "workforce crisis" made worse by the Omicron wave of COVID-19 are calling on the Queensland government to provide free rapid antigen tests and essential worker status.
Figures from the Queensland Department of Education show there were 112 closures at childcare centres and outside school hours care sites – due to COVID-19 – as cases spiked in December and January.
Across Australia, more than one in 10 centres required a government waiver to legally operate because they did not have enough workers.
President of the Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland, Majella Fitzsimmons, said the figures did not reflect widespread disruptions such as room closures and mergers happening because staff were sick with COVID or in quarantine as close contacts.
"One hundred per cent across Queensland [have been impacted], so I don't know many cities that haven't had to close a service, or a room at least, due to staffing issues," she said.
Ms Fitzsimmons said the "major shortage" of early childhood educators was an "ongoing crisis".
"So being able to find an educator to replace someone who's away quarantining because of close contacts has been super hard," she said.
"Services are having to say: 'Look, I don't have enough staff in my service today to even be within ratio.'
Childcare advocates 'shocked' at lack of government support
Ms Fitzsimmons said she was "very shocked" and "really disappointed" the Queensland government's back-to-school plan did not include support for childcare centres.
"We know that there's no rapid antigen tests coming out for early childhood workers from the state government," she said.
"We know that they're going to teachers at schools rather than early childhood services.
"What we need is the state government to fund and supply early childhood services with some rapid antigen tests."
Ms Fitzsimmons also said early childhood educators should be on the critically essential worker list, which already includes school and kindergarten teachers.
"We know New South Wales and Victoria are both doing this in their services," she said.
"They've made early childhood educators the critically essential workers so that if a close contact at home has tested positive, the educators can do a rapid antigen test every day before they enter the premises.
At a press conference this morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government was “happy” to talk to the childcare sector about providing rapid antigen tests.
“If there is a desperate need, I'm quite sure that we can put additional RATs out there,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said authorities would consider the sector's request for childcare staff to be added to the critically essential worker list.
"It is a fine balance when we're talking about critically essential workers, we're talking about people who will be allowed to go back to work if they've been close contacts, but we're happy to discuss this with the sector," Dr Gerrard said.
'Everyone's stuck' without a strong childcare sector
Ipswich mother Catherine Bennett said she juggled working from home while looking after her three-year-old twins because of childcare staff shortages.
"Coming back from Christmas and into the New Year, our daycare said that they were having staff shortages caused by staff either being close contacts or unfortunately getting COVID," she said.
"Our daycare basically asked if we could, if at all possible, keep our kids at home on days that they were supposed to attend or even take an extra week of leave."
Ms Bennett said she was fortunate to be able to work from home but having her twins there was a challenge.
"I have a very supportive employer, but it was a bit of a tough ask and it's certainly not something that I think you can do long-term," she said.
"It's not a long-term solution to the problem of understaffing in daycare centres," she said.
Ms Bennett said the educators at her centre were "worth their weight in gold" and that she wanted action to better protect children and workers during the pandemic.
"Whether it's plans for ventilation, better masks, RAT tests, air purifiers … anything that will also help our kids helps the staff as well and I'm fully behind that," Ms Bennett said.
"The current wave might be peaking, but the Queensland government is already saying that they're preparing for a surge through winter, so it would be great to use this time now to actually plan for what that's going to look like.
"Australia kind of stops if we don't have a strong childcare sector.
"It's a snowball impact if there's not enough staff, if we can't send our kids somewhere safe, with the right ratios, then everyone's stuck, no one's having a good time."
Staffing shortages 'only going to get worse' as workers 'leaving in droves'
Ms Fitzsimmons said the vaccination mandate for childcare workers had also put a dent in staff numbers.
"We think between 5 and 8 per cent of all early childhood workers across Queensland have said, 'no, I'm walking away because of vaccinations'."
Ms Fitzsimmons said some of those workers might have also left because of other issues in the centre and that the Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland supports the health advice on mandates.
United Workers Union executive director of early education Helen Gibbons said there were about 1,300 educator jobs being advertised in Queensland alone.
"This is not going away in the short-term, it's not going away in the medium-term.
"Unless there is a real plan for early educators where they get paid properly, this is only going to get worse.
"They have had to deal with a stressful and difficult working environment, continuing to be overlooked by government at every level and being asked to do so much and again continuing on $23-24 an hour."
Ms Gibbons also questioned the rules around positive COVID cases in centres.
"In many states and territories across this country, you can spend many hours working with a baby who turns out to be infected but that's not recognised as close contact because close contact only happens at home," she said.
"It's a ridiculous situation that needs to change."
She said the federal government needed a long-term workforce plan for the childcare sector.
"By any measure, it is expensive, it is patchy in its quality. Early educators are leaving in droves," Ms Gibbons said.
"If the federal government can't fix it, maybe it's time for the state government to step in."
