Turn farm houses and town halls into rural childcare centres

The proposal is one of the practical solutions put forward at the GrainGrowers-led regional childcare forum in Canberra.

Workforce issues compounded by a lack of childcare has consistently ranked in the top three issues for GrainGrowers' members, so the industry group has created a coalition of regional voices to solve the shortage.

GrainGrowers chief executive Shona Gawel said the lack of rural childcare was a complex issue with no silver bullet, but the partnership with Family Day Care Australia could have an immediate impact.

"There are community venues, town halls and houses on farmers that are not being utilised at the moment," Ms Gawel said.

"The idea is to connect early education providers and the people in our cropping communities, and match them up with a venue."

FDCA chief executive Andrew Paterson said often qualified childcare providers are ready to start a new family day care business, but have trouble finding suitable facilities.

"There are great examples of this idea working around the country - in remote WA there was an old preschool that shut down because it wasn't viable, so it was turned into a family day care that supports 15 local families," Mr Paterson said.

Potential childcare venues would need to be brought up to state safety standards, but Mr Paterson said the trial program would empower communities to put forward solutions that worked for their unique circumstances.

"It's using a different lens to look for solutions, and coming together as a community to identify opportunities and then working with family day care services," he said.

The regional childcare forum, which brought together experts from across the sector, also suggested overhauling how childcare is funded in the regions, recommending the federal government give the money directly to local councils to allocate based on their local context and needs.

GrainGrowers National Policy group member Tracy Lefroy said childcare services had to be universal, but not necessarily uniform.

"The solution to current issues requires flexible, nimble, and responsive solutions," Ms Lefory said.

"Where local challenges exist, we need to note that while the questions may be the same across rural Australia, the answers may be different in each unique location."

GrainGrowers National Policy group member Denise McLellan said childcare was a vital but often overlooked ingredient in agricultural industries and businesses.

"Currently, many smart, talented, professional women in rural areas cannot contribute to the workforce because they can't access childcare," Ms McLellan said.

"I'm quite proud of GrainGrowers for taking the leadership on this because it's too easy for the industry to say, 'it's too hard' or 'it's not my problem to fix', and it's something that's been overlooked for a long time."

GrainGrowers will create an official rural childcare strategy over the next month and use it to lobby the government in the upcoming budget.