Big Childcare has withdrawn funding for Outside of School Hours Care at South Bathurst Public

Peter and Beatrice Grace are two such parents, who were notified regarding the withdrawal just one week out from school holidays.

They have now been left scrambling to try to find alternative arrangements for their six-year-old daughter Evelyn before the beginning of term two.

Both parents are employed full-time, and work unconventional hours, so sourcing childcare before and after school is proving to be a difficult task.

"We're in a position where we actually don't know what to do," Mrs Grace said.

According to Mrs Grace, the notification that Big Childcare was removing the OOSHC service came via a late night email.

"I got an email at about 7pm at night. It was a very generic email and it just said, 'Due to financial reasons, we can't offer this service any longer'," she said.

"Then we found out that school had only found out that day as well, just a few hours before we did."

Due to Big Childcare stating that the closure was due to financial reasons, it left Mrs Grace questioning why there was no consultation with parents prior to the decision.

"I would rather pay more," she said.

"If it comes down to a financial thing, consult with us, with the community, which is us the parents, saying 'we're going to put the prices up and this is how we're going to do it'.

"I would have preferred that, rather than this shock email."

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This has left the family with a lot of difficult decisions to make, including whether or not to change Evelyn's school.

"It did cross my mind to move schools but I don't want to move schools because it is such a fantastic school," Mrs Grace said.

"I don't want to leave that school community because of something like this."

Though Mr and Mrs Grace were extremely disappointed by the actions of Big Childcare, they could not fault the response of the staff at South Bathurst Public, including principal Greg Cross.

"Greg Cross has been right on it with trying to solve this problem as fast as he can, but we're really happy that he has grabbed the bull by the horns as far as trying to make something happen," Mr Grace said.

"We can't speak highly enough of that."

Despite the support from South Bathurst, Mrs Grace said she is now just hoping for a miracle.

Another parent who has been left hoping for the best, with less than one week until school resumes, is Kaitlin Jensen.

Ms Jensen, who is a single parent, has been left feeling "really stressed" following the decision, and said she doesn't know what she is going to do.

"I have no idea," she said.

"And with it being school holidays, and now all the schools are closed so it's really difficult to find another option because everything is shut."

In her search for alternative arrangements, Ms Jensen has had to consider moving schools, but due to zoning restrictions, she is unable to do so.

She has also investigated a bus route to transport her son to another school to access OOSHC, but unfortunately funding for a service of this nature has also been withdrawn from Big Childcare.

"They also advised that they would be stopping any bus service from our school to other services, so we have no option to use their service at all," she said.

Though the total number of parents and children affected is unknown, it is confirmed that South Bathurst is not the only school affected, as another school in the state's west has also had its OOSHC withdrawn.

Big Childcare operates services across Australia, with 80 in Victoria, 35 in New South Wales, and several in Queensland and Western Australia.

Big Childcare was contacted for comment, but was unable to provide a statement.

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