THE fight to keep Port Stephens Family Day Care affordable has been taken to the federal government.
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Representatives of both Port Stephens Council and Family Day Care met with federal member for Paterson Bob Baldwin on Friday to convince him to join their cause.
The government is cutting the program's $250,000 annual subsidy, which is used to cover administration costs.
Families pay a fee to use the service, run by Port Stephens Council, and the educators use this fee to cover their salary and running costs.
While the council has no plans to shut down the service, with the subsidy abolished the only option will be to increase costs, making the service too expensive for many low-income families.
Some Family Day Care programs are eligible to keep the subsidy because they fall into one of two categories.
The first is if the program provides a service to a rural or remote community and the second criteria is if it provides for a major city with a high level of disadvantage.
According to Family Day Care managing co-ordinator Tracey Sweetman, the Port Stephens program falls into both categories, making it a unique case and a reason to lobby to keep the subsidy.
The group has penned a letter to the Department of Education and will continue to lobby for support.
Currently the Port Stephens service has about 85 educators who provide 600 families with alternative day care.