ABC possibly entering voluntarey administration

[Mother Goose]

*Please do not make this thread into a bashing on the ABC Centres*

I know a lot of parents on BB have their children in ABC Centres... so do we. Yesterday there was stuff in The Age about the company possibly going into volantary administration or receivership and a letter came home from the centre stating the same... normally letters we get make a feeble attempt to reassure us the centre will stay open and there is no danger of it closing... this one didn't.
This morning there is another article in The Age about the company's woes... I'm starting to get very worried about it all. I can't help but worry about the centre being closed and not having someone to care for DD. We're not in a position for me to not be working at the moment and (unless we moved right now) I'm not convinced we could get DD into another centre straight away. The only other centre near us who could take her right away was less than ideal (to be kind) when we tried her there earlier in the year.

What are other ABC parents/workers feelings on what is happening? Have you guys heard anything more?

MG

[*Ali*]

I did hear this on the news too, I am sure that I also heard something about they government being asked to step in to assure the places stay open.
I really hope they do manage to find a way to ensure the centres stay open, there are just way to many children in care at ABC centres for them to close them all down.
Good luck, and I will keep my fingers crossed that something is worked out.

[Nai]

It would be a national disaster if that many centres closed so I firmly believe that the goivernment will prop the company up with the administrators until the centres can be sold off. Hopefully the government won't allow the centres to be sold as a whole and they will sell them off individually as it is clearly not in the best interests of the children and the industry to have so many centres controlled by the one company. Hopefully many of them will return to being independant centres as they were in the past before ABC bought them out.

[Pandora]

I saw a news report about this last week.
It was along the lines of they are hoping the govt will step in, not to save the company, but to find alternative adminstation for the centres, private, not for profit or council, so they can stay open.
Its not like they arent being used - with a nation wide shortage of childcare places theyd be crazy to close them.

DS' centre is not an ABC one but there are 15 in Wyndham (point cook, tarneit, hoppers crossing werribee etc..) thats a LOT of centres and childcare place gone if they simply colsed them all.

[bon]

Nearly every child care centre here is an ABC one - there are only 2 that I can think of that are not. If they closed it would be a disaster for parents, so the government is going to have to do something. I can't help feeling like this should never have been allowed to happen - one company buying out and controlling the majority of child care centres in Australia and turning child care into a 'for profit' enterprise. And now of course the whole thing has come crashing down, leaving children and parents the losers.

[Rouge]

I'm not bashing the centres, but I hope the govt learns from this and NEVER lets one company dominate the market as much as ABC has. There will have to be a big bail out, they should have seen this coming. I know I did. I hope jobs and families do not suffer too much.

[Tobily]

It would be a national disaster if that many centres closed so I firmly believe that the goivernment will prop the company up with the administrators until the centres can be sold off. Hopefully the government won't allow the centres to be sold as a whole and they will sell them off individually as it is clearly not in the best interests of the children and the industry to have so many centres controlled by the one company. Hopefully many of them will return to being independant centres as they were in the past before ABC bought them out.

I agree. There are just far too many of them now for the government to allow it to happen. I live in the middle of Brisbane and there are only two centres in my immediate area alone that they do not own. It would be a national panic.

Absolutely agree on your point about them being sold off independently too Nai. Hopefully this is a lesson to all concerned about allowing an essential service to be completely monopolised by private interests and floated on the sharemarket

[Chocaholic]

The government has already started developing an action plan, from what I have heard, to ensure that no centres close down. They will not allow the ABC centres to close, simply because of the economic impact it would have on Australia if a parent had to leave work, either short or long term, to provide care for the child until they were able to place them in another centre.

[Peach]

One simple solution is to turn them all into not for profit community based centres... How wonderful would that be!!!!