NEARLY 500 non-binding offers have been received for the Federal Government-supported ABC Learning Centres, but Liberal Senator for New South Wales Marise Payne said the Rudd Government was taking a ``massive leap of faith'' to expect licences for the centres to be processed in ``less than half the normal amount of time''.
ABC Glenmore Park South and ABC Kemps Creek were placed on the list of more than 200 centres which would receive Federal Government funding, where necessary, until March31. They were previously under the control of ABC Learning Centres receiver, McGrathNicol.
These centres are now part of the ABC2 Group and are under the control of court-appointed receivers Stephen Parbery and Daniel Bryant of PPB.
Mr Parbery said on Thursday they were reviewing the non-binding offers to determine a short-list of parties who would be formally invited to participate in the next phase of the sale process.
Formal binding offers are required to be made by February25.
The receivers will write to parents and guardians, employees and centre directors to update them on progress.
But Ms Payne said families needed certainty their child's centre would not be closed temporarily ``due to a failure to process licences''.
``Licences must be processed before the March31 funding deadline, which means state authorities will have less than half the time they usually take to process these licences,'' Ms Payne said. ``To add to this concern is that there are so many centres applying at the same time.
``The minister [Julia Gillard] is presumably relying on the State Government to process the licences in a far shorter timeline than normal and with a much higher workload due to the number of new licences being required.''
Licenses are provided by the State Government.
A spokeswoman for NSW Community Services Minister Linda Burney said the usual timeframe for the licensing of a children's service by the Department of Community Services was eight to 12 weeks from the time a completed application was received.
NSW Community Services Minister Linda Burney told the Star on Friday: ``I know that the Department of Community Services is taking this matter very seriously and is working extremely hard to ensure that there will be no disruption to the services.
``They are giving priority to licensing changes for ABC services to achieve this outcome.''
The Department has put in place an ``expedited assessment process to deal with the exceptional circumstances of the ABC situation''.
The receiver's media release on Thursday stated the criteria on which non-binding offers would be assessed
included the ability to meet appropriate accreditation and licensing requirements.
The Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in a media release that ``interested buyers have been alerted to the requirements they will need to meet in order to secure a licence''.
``ABC2 Group Centres will continue to operate as normal through until March 31 where necessary,'' she said.
``PPB, with assistance from the Government, is aiming to resolve the future of all centres under their control by
March 31.''
PPB would be considering whether there were some circumstances where the best option was to transfer children to nearby centres, Ms Gillard said.
Ms Burney told the Star the Department would do all it could to ensure any services changing hands as a result of the expressions of interest process run by the receivers were able to be relicensed by the March 31 deadline.
She said the Department was working closely with the Commonwealth Child-Care Taskforce which was ``leading and co-ordinating the national response to the ABC situation''.
``The Department has also been in regular contact with the services' receivers on all relevant licensing matters.''
The spokeswoman said the fact ABC services were existing services with approved buildings and established
activities could help make relicensing faster.
Many of the ABC services had many staff already checked and approved by DOCS, she said. ``In many cases they are being taken over by operators that are already approved by DOCS to operate other services. This also makes it simpler to approve new licences
quickly.''
The spokeswoman said that as part of the expedited assessment process, the Department had nominated a team of DoCS head office staff to coordinate the licences, and that DoCS and the Commission for Children and Young People had agreed to give priority to screening checks for new licensees for ABC services.
She also said DoCS had developed a special simple guide to licensing for the receivers to provide to interested buyers of ABC services to help them provide the required material as simply and quickly as possible once they knew they would be taking over an ABC service.
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