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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-17 Daily Xml
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NORTHERN AREA COMMUNITY AND YOUTH SERVICES

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister inform the house what the government is doing to support children and families affected by the fire at the Northern Area Community and Youth Services facility in the north of Adelaide?

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (15:05): I would like to thank the member for Taylor for this very important question. Like the member for Taylor, I was also concerned when I heard of the devastating arson attack at the Northern Area Child and Youth Services' childcare centre recently. Established in 1981, the centre has a focus on community capacity building, which it does through services such as crisis intervention, social development, adult education and early child development, very strong focuses of this government and of my work.

It has grown very proudly from two part-time staff members when it opened, to more than 40. Amongst its services the centre also provides a long day care service, which is utilised by more than 100 families in the northern suburbs, and a day care service for newborns to five year olds as well as after school care.

I am pleased to inform the house that everything is being done to support this service to continue operating while insurance issues are being sorted out. My department has worked very closely with the community and with the staff of the centre to find interim accommodation to allow the childcare service to continue to operate. I was also very pleased to learn that the regulatory authority, the relatively new Registration and Standards Board, has worked with the service to very promptly provide the interim service approvals to allow the centre to continue to operate from the temporary accommodation.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of this matter is the way in which the community has rallied around the service. Families have established Facebook pages to garner support, local businesses have donated supplies to keep the service running, and volunteers have assisted in clean-up and salvage efforts. No doubt many others will be making significant contributions as well.

The director of the centre, Clare Dilliway, has advised that on the morning after the fire an elderly woman—not a client of the service, just a community member—arrived with some fruit and biscuits, saying it was all she could offer but that she wanted to make a contribution. It is heartening to see that this community is rallying together.

I would like to acknowledge the work of Clare Dilliway, the early childhood services manager Sharone Mutch, and the Swallowcliffe Primary School principal Grant Small—

Mrs Vlahos interjecting:

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —he is a great principal—together with the generous assistance of the local community, which has worked tirelessly to ensure that the community continues to have access to this service. I wish them all the very best, and I ask the member for Taylor to give the community all our best wishes for the future.

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