KEY POINTS:
Parents struggling to find after-school care for children are being turned away from private nanny agencies, as a shortage of carers after the 3pm bell worsens.
Top nannies now command up to $22 an hour, up from $10 a decade ago, and can pick and choose their jobs.
Many school-based schemes have waiting lists of several years, despite a rise in the number of publicly supported programmes.
Experts believe the demand for after-school care in Auckland is yet to peak.
The Government is preparing a five-year action plan for the sector and admitted access to care was limited in some areas.
Lisa Kennedy, a recruitment consultant at domestic and hospitality specialist DSP, said the agency got calls from parents wanting after-school nannies every other day but had to turn them away.
"A lot of the agencies can't take on the after-school jobs because we've just got no one to fill them."
The Nanny Centre Bureau director Lorraine Appleton said finding after-school carers in particular was a problem because most qualified nannies chose full-time work.
Asking rates had risen to up to $22 an hour because of the shortage and the professionalisation of the job, she said.
Out of School Care Network's John Kennedy said after-school care shortages were felt across the region. School holidays could also be a problem.
Mother-of-two Kaye Colebourn waited for an opening at Care 4 Kidz programme at Kaurilands School in Titirangi for more than two years for her children Campbell, 9, and Cate, 5.
A nurse, Ms Colebourn eventually moved to working two 10-hour days during the week, plus a weekend shift, to cope.
"It's a real problem - other nurses and mothers are always talking about it."
The children's grandparents drove from Pukekohe to Titirangi three afternoons a week, while their dad, Andy McIntosh, looked after them on weekends, she said.
Ms Colebourn said the family had previously tried a private carer but because of schedule clashes it was "not ideal".
Care 4 Kidz director Els Ariaens-Baudewijnn said the Kaurilands School programme had a waiting list of 45.
With only about four places opening up a year, the waiting list was effectively a decade long.
"You never know, if people are moving then maybe you are getting a gap but it's really hard," said Ms Ariaens-Baudewijnn. "Lots of children who were there when they were 5 are still there when they are leaving school."
Principal Dave Shadbolt said the programme catered for 60 children but the demand was bigger.
He said good programmes and carers were "as scarce as hens' teeth" and little relief was in sight in the short term.
"The whole childhood [care] sector and early childhood is hurting big time at the moment," he said. "There's just such a shortage of staff - it's a well known fact."
Tina Green, operations manager of out-of-school care national support body, the Oscar Foundation, said despite the number of funded programmes rising, demand still outstripped supply.
She said Auckland after-school care programmes receiving a Ministry of Social Development grant grew from 217 in 2004 to 368 last year.
"There are big waiting lists at a lot of these programmes."
Ms Green said the upsurge was expected to continue and although it would peak, "we are not there yet".
Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope told the Oscar conference this month a five-year action plan for out-of-school services was being developed.
He said access to after-school care was limited in some areas and parents found the Oscar subsidy system difficult to use.
On the rise
Auckland after-school care programmes receiving a Ministry of Social Development grant:
* 2004 - 217 programmes
* 2005 - 335 programmes
* 2006 - 368 programmes
Source: Oscar Foundation
