For families across regional Australia, the problem isn't about finding the right childcare. It's finding any childcare at all.
Throughout regional, rural and remote communities, the childcare gap isn't a problem on the horizon. It's already here. The waitlists, the workforce shortages and the families quietly making do with nothing. The Future Care Project exists to change that. The childcare gap in regional communities. We build the evidence. We map the gap. We design locally driven solutions. We give councils and decision-makers exactly what they need to act.
Regional communities have carried this long enough. We're here to change that.
THE PROBLEM
If You're Reading This, You Already Know the Problem.
For families across regional, rural and remote Australia, finding childcare isn't just difficult, it's almost impossible. For educators trying to fill that gap, the system isn't working either. The funding is inadequate, the compliance burden is heavy, and the support structures built for metropolitan providers don't translate to the bush. For local governments, the consequences land squarely on your doorstep. You're the ones watching families leave and businesses go understaffed, while the policy levers sit with tiers of government further from the ground.Families, educators and councils are all on the same side of this problem. And together, we have the power to change it.
Introducing The Future Care Project
I founded The Future Care Project because after 2 years of research we discovered the data being used to plan childcare in regional, rural and remote Australia is wrong. Not slightly off, structurally incorrect.
National datasets count the services that exist, not the families who can't access them. They measure utilisation, not unmet need. The result is a picture of regional childcare that bears little resemblance to what families and employers are actually living. Currently every funding decision which you have seen overlook your communities needs, every policy reform, every "national childcare plan" is being built on top of that flawed picture.
This gap, it has a cost. It's the reason regional communities keep being told their needs are being met when they aren't. It's the reason employers can't fill jobs, families can't return to work and towns lose the people they can least afford to lose.
That's why we're building an independent evidence base. A live data and service mapping tool drawning directly from the people and needs of your community. Capturing what the national data is missing. Designed to be used by the people making decisions, so that we cannot longer be ignored.
If you're a council, an employer, a policymaker or an organisation working on workforce, liveability or community development in regional Australia, we also want to hear from you. The evidence base is being built now and we are actively working with partners who want to use it to inform their planning, advocacy and investment.
Reach out to find out how the data we're collecting can support your community.
Designed for Regional Realities
Your data tells us what regional families and educators really face, whether that be seasonal work patterns, geographic isolation, or hours that don't match any standard service model. We use that to support the design of care solutions built for your community's needs.
Focus on Sustainability
We don't create one-off initiatives and move on. Your data feeds into business model redesign for local services, workforce pathways for educators, and flexible care models that communities can sustain themselves. The goal is permanent change, not dependency.
Backing Fit-for-purpose Policy changes
We take your experience to the people who can change the rules. We operate at the intersection of community insight and policy reform. The evidence you help us build gets in front of councils, state and federal decision-makers and helps to drive the kind of policy changes that make fit-for-purpose care the norm in regional Australia, not the exception.
Behind The Future Care Project
Hi, I'm Ange,
Mum of three, Business owner, Future Care Project founder.
Lover of strong coffee and stronger policy reform.
Now based in Goondiwindi, I haven’t always called regional Australia home but it’s where I’ve found both purpose and community. After years of living in cities all over the world and working across a host of different professional sectors, it was an unexpected move to the bush that opened my eyes to just how much regional families are forced to go without, especially when it comes to essential services like childcare.
Advocacy has always been part of who I am, however I never imagined it would lead me here. But when you live in a community where families are continually forced to choose between care and career, between remaining in the workforce or staying at home, between relocating for services or staying close to family, you eventually reach a point where you either accept the system as it is or decide to fight for something better.
The Future Care Project is my way of choosing the latter. It’s a stand against the idea that where you live should determine the quality of care your children receive or the opportunities you have as a parent or business owner to contribute and thrive.
Because when we invest in children and empower parents we create the conditions for regional communities to thrive, now and into the future.
Less Talk. More Action.
I'm business owner and a mum, raising a family in a rural community on the Queensland-New South Wales border, 350 kilometres west of Brisbane. Out here, like in most rural communities, piecing together childcare, work and family isn't just a logistical challenge. It's a daily negotiation with a system that was never designed for communities like ours. I’ve felt the gaps. I’ve seen others drowning in them.
It’s this experience that pushed me into the national conversation. I've contributed to Early Childhood Education and Care reform discussions at a national level, from direct engagement with federal senators to appearing in front of the Senate Inquiry into Childcare Safety and Quality. I believe deeply in the power of advocacy to shift the conditions that hold our communities back and I am determined to bring the voice of regional Australia to the table.
But advocacy alone isn't enough. Policy changes at the top mean nothing if the solutions don't exist on the ground to back them up. So alongside our advocacy, I'm building locally driven, practical solutions together with some of Australia's most forgotten communities, creating replicable blueprints, case studies and funding evidence that can be shared across communities which can used by anyone serious about shifting the dial on regional childcare for good.
I won't pretend this is easy. But I have never been more certain that it is possible and that our regional communities and our children deserve nothing less.
From Crisis to Working Solution
Most councils have seen the reports. They've sat through the presentations. They've watched consultants dive in, gather data and leave behind a document. This is different.
The Future Care Pathway is a structured, four-stage program that takes your region from childcare crisis to working solution. Every stage produces what the next one needs. Every deliverable is designed to unlock the next decision.
Stage 1
Understand
Establishing the evidence base
We survey families and employers, audit existing services, and map where the gaps actually are. The result is an accurate, community-sourced picture of what exists and what is missing in your region.
Stage 2
Engage
Community and stakeholder consultation
We bring the evidence back to your community through facilitated sessions and co-design workshops. Every stakeholder with a role in the solution is part of the conversation before any model is designed.
Stage 3
Coordinate
Planning and accountability
We work with your community and key stakeholders to finalise the care model, confirm reglatory pathways, and assign clear accountability across every organisation and timeframe involved.
Stage 4
Implement
Delivery and measurement
We work alongside your community to train and register local educators, strengthen existing providers and establish services on the ground. Outcomes are measured and documented throughout.
Our Supporters
