Tamworth Regional Council has started the process to stop running its last remaining after-school care service, just seven months after the Mayor pointed parents to that same centre when another one closed.
The council and the union representing its workers are telling very different stories about what happens next. The council says no final decision has been made. The union says the service is already gone.
At its ordinary meeting on Tuesday, 10 November, the council endorsed the General Manager to begin a workplace change and transition process on the proposed closure of the South Year Round Care service, which runs Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) from Tamworth West Public School.
“This is a betrayal of working mums and dads and their kids in Tamworth,” said Acting Northern Industrial Officer with the United Services Union (USU) Luke Hutchinson.
“Councillors voted 6:3 to axe the service.
“The service will close on January 29, 2027.”
Neither the 6-3 vote or the apparent closing date are in official records, and as they were discussed in a closed part of the council meeting, it is detail the union should not have.
The council says the General Manager will give due consideration to all matters raised through consultation and engagement with affected employees and other stakeholders before any final decision is made.
Only if the General Manager then decides to end operations and surrender the service licence will the council work with Tamworth West Public School and the NSW Department of Education to help appoint a new provider from early 2027.
The two sides also disagree on whether anyone has been consulted.
The council says conversations with staff have been ongoing throughout the review and will continue through the next stages of consultation, in line with Award and industrial requirements.
The union says there has been no consultation at all.
“There’s been zero consultation with the school community and Tamworth Regional Council has just voted to axe an essential service for 70 working parents who juggle childcare responsibilities with full time work,” Mr Hutchinson said.
“Council has spoken to neither the eight workers who look after children at the afterschool care service, nor the mums and dads who use it.”
Mr Hutchinson said word of a closure appeared to have reached people outside the council before workers had been told anything.
“One of our members was recently contacted by a representative of the Department of Education and asked, ‘When are you closing?'” he said.
“If government agencies and third parties are already discussing the closure of the service, workers and the community are entitled to ask whether decisions have effectively already been made behind closed doors.”
The South service became the council’s only remaining OSHC service in April, when councillors voted on Tuesday, 28 April to stop running East Year Round Care at Tamworth Public School at the end of its licence.
At the time, the Mayor was quoted pointing to staffing shortages and assuring parents they would still have somewhere to go.
“There is a centre in South Tamworth that can be utilised,” said Tamworth Mayor Russell Webb.
That centre is the one now facing closure.
The Tamworth Public School after hours service has since been taken up by Melbourne-based private provider Thrive OSHC.
“The council only voted to close another of their afterschool care services across town a few months ago,” Mr Hutchinson said.
“The idea a council, whose entire purpose is to support the community, would axe such a vital piece of community infrastructure is just baffling.”
The council said it understands the news may be concerning for families, and remains committed to supporting them through the process with regular updates.
For the union, the timing makes it worse.
“This decision has come weeks before Christmas, and our members who work there are devastated, they go into the holidays full of uncertainty about what 2027 holds for them,” Mr Hutchinson said.
The proposal comes as Tamworth families face other pressures on childcare options. Little Kindy Tamworth was suddenly suspended for six months by the NSW Early Learning Commission in September over safety concerns, and this week Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson warned one local preschool could lose up to $300,000 under changes to preschool funding from 2027.
“The USU is exploring all options including taking this matter to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission,” Mr Hutchinson said.
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