Kids on Castletown is set to open in mid-December. Photo: Nikki Bailey.
A new childcare centre is opening in Castletown at the end of this year and is set to bring relief to some families with young children in Esperance.
“Kids on Castletown Childcare Centre” will accommodate 80 children, boosting Esperance’s childcare capacity by nearly 50 per cent.
Owner Caroline Parry said she was excited to bring a much-needed service to town.
She said the centre would offer fulltime and parttime childcare from 6.30am – 6pm.
Enrolments are already open and Ms Parry said they were filling up quickly.
“As of right now there are around 100 kids,” Ms Parry said.
“We will be able to accommodate all of the families that are currently on the waitlist but it’s getting pretty full.”
The childcare shortage has proven a pressing issue in Esperance with waitlists at early learning centres fluctuating between 100 and 150 children in the past year.
Esperance continues to be labelled a “childcare desert” after a study by Victoria University found more than three children competed for every childcare spot.
Childcare shortages in the region stemmed mainly from staffing and housing challenges, the Goldfields-Esperance Development Commission reported after discussions with industry workers in 2023.
Ms Parry said around 20-25 educators would be employed at Kids in Castletown and they were working through accommodation options to support staff who were relocating.
“I expect it to be a challenge but we already operate in Geraldton, Albany, Kalgoorlie and Leonora so we are pretty familiar with opening regionally and having to help staff with housing,” she said.
“We are looking at building a house for staff but because of build time we will probably rent housing for staff and longer term we will look to build something for them.”
Ms Parry said all staff would go through a strict employment process before working.
“We run all of our staff through working with children checks obviously and we go through a process of doing reference checks for past employment,” she said.
“We will employ a number of staff coming into Esperance from centres in Perth and let them run through probation in Perth before they move to Esperance.
“We also have quite a heavy management structure team — there’s an area manager appointed, and we have a quality and compliance officer who’s independent of management.
“They will move between the centres, watching what’s happening on the floor and reporting back so that it gives us that extra check.
“Our two children will also go into the centre in the short term that we are down there and that’s what makes us a bit different to some of the other chains in that I have to be comfortable for my own children to go into the centres.”
Ms Parry said Kids on Castletown was expected to open in Mid-December.
