Parents fear the hard search for daycare as Samaritans' plans imminent closure

Five-year-old Pia Flores attended the Samaritans Darby Street childcare centre with her sister, Elke. Her parents say the community around the daycare helped their daughters make friends and integrate into the community. Picture by Simon McCarthy

Newcastle parents are facing the prospect of deciding who will leave work to provide full-time care or struggling through a gruelling wait to find a new daycare centre for their children as the Newcastle Anglican Diocese plans to close its two daycare centres in Darby Street and Woodbery at the end of the year.

Spaces are so limited that parents are applying to waitlists well before their children are even born to secure affordable daycare and early education services in the region, all while the state faces an undersupply of accessible and affordable care services, particularly in disadvantaged areas.