Beechworth Community Early Years Learning Centre (BCEYLC)

BCEYLC exists to serve the early years needs of Beechworth and district communities; their children, families and staff. The Centre’s philosophy is to provide quality care and education, equity of access, and inclusion to enable parents to work.

With 120 children on the waitlist for childcare in Beechworth, the Beechworth Community Early Years Learning Centre (BCEYLC) has consistently sought ways to maximise use of the purpose-designed childcare centre. 

 
The history - working toward a merger

Known locally as the Beechworth childcare centre, the building was purpose-designed to meet early years regulations and was divided in half; BCEYLC (formally Beechworth Community Childcare Centre) and Beechworth Kinder have occupied half the building each since 1998.

After many years of talks about merging services, the childcare centre obtained a kinder license in 2021, and rebranded to the Beechworth Community Early Years Learning Centre (BCEYLC) in 2022, in anticipation of merging both services under the one name and site. The two organisations also developed a new constitution. However, the Beechworth Kinder decided not to pursue the merger for several reasons.

Through 2023 and 2024, BCEYLC continued to seek opportunities to work with Beechworth Kinder on how best to maximise use of the building, and meet the needs of the community, to no avail.

The numbers

BCEYLC provides childcare and kinder services to 57 children per day, a total of 88 families per week, in their half of the building. Many of these families may only have one or two days of care and are seeking more days so they can return to work.

Due to limited space at the centre, there are only 12 care spots for babies under two, and 12 spots for toddlers aged two to three, in Beechworth. There were 180 babies born in Indigo Shire in 2023. 

There are 120 children on the childcare wait list. Many families are driving out of town to access childcare services, or unable to work because they can’t get childcare in other towns. 

What’s the difference between kinder at BCEYLC and sessional kinder?

The Victorian Government currently subsidises 15 hours of free kinder per week for all 3 and 4 year olds across the state, and is offered by different models across three services providers in Beechworth.

Sessional kinder: 

Sessional kinder programs run shorter sessions, on specified days and times. These sessions are made up of 3 to 5-hour blocks over 2 or 3 days per week. 

Sessional kinder is provided by two services in Beechworth.

Due to the needs of working local families and the shorter sessions, many children who are enrolled in Beechworth Kinder currently utilise BCEYLC services before and after their Kinder sessions (this current arrangement is under review as it is impacting children on the waitlist who require a full day of care.)

BCEYLC kinder:

BCEYLC offers a Victorian Government certified kinder program with Bachelor Degree qualified educators.

The kinder program runs each day, specifically tailored to the 3 and 4 year old cohorts, and is designed for and reflects the needs of each child.

BCEYLC has 32 children enrolled over the week in our kinder program. 

As the BCEYLC facility is at maximum capacity, the service has a tailored program that can be integrated with our long daycare offering. All children in the kinder/preschool room receive a kinder education program taught by qualified early years learning teachers. This means even if your child is not enrolled in the BCEYLC kinder program, and attends the Preschool room as a long day care child, they will still receive the additional educational offering of the kinder program.

Community and economic impact

Parents, mainly women, can’t return to work if they don’t have childcare. This has mental health and economic impacts for parents and families.

It also has economic development impacts for the town and the Shire. People want to move to the area but lack of childcare can mean they are unable to work.

Indigo Shire Council’s EOI process

Since January 2024 Council has invited BCEYLC and Beechworth Kinder to talk about how the building could be best used to meet the community need for childcare.

Last month, Council decided to open an EOI process for future occupancy of the building as both leases expire in December 2025. BCEYLC intends to submit an application to the EOI process. 

If successful, the additional space could enable an additional 30 childcare and kinder spots per day, possibly reducing the wait list by half, and upholding our mission to provide quality care and education, equity of access, and inclusion to enable parents to work.

We are grateful to our staff and management at time, and encourage all involved in this process to be kind and respectful. Please direct any questions about the EOI process to indigoshire.vic.gov.au .