The Hedland Collective (HC) is excited to announce some great news for parents and carers looking for child care in Hedland in 2020!   In total, up to 80 new long day care places will become available thanks to a successful collaboration between the Town of Port Hedland (the Town) and the HC.

This collaboration will deliver two priority projects identified in the Hedland Early Years Education and Care Strategy (the Strategy).

Firstly, the HC has secured $740,000 from BHP to fund the refurbishment of the South Hedland Play and Learn (at the old TAFE site) which is expected to be completed in late January 2020.  The new facility will create 50 new child care places and the HC is currently working with the Town to secure a suitable child care provider to manage the facility so that the places can be offered to the public as soon as possible in 2020.

Secondly, the Town has committed $274,000 to repurpose the Port Hedland Library. This will add a further 30 child care places to the mix in 2020.  The work is due for completion before the end of the year and the new places will be managed by One Tree’s Len Taplin Children’s Service.

We are off to a great start but there is a lot more work to be done to meet the demand for child care places and the critical shortage of child care workers in the town.  To that end, the HC is currently in discussion with experts in the child care sector on the delivery of some of the more innovative approaches identified in the Strategy to attract and retain qualified child care workers.  We expect to be able to provide an update in early 2020 so watch this space.

A summary of the Strategy is available on the HC Website at www.hedlandcollective.com 

As always if you have any questions or would like to know more about our work, don’t hesitate to get in contact.