[Dr Rachel Uren, Postdoctoral Fellow, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute]
I think it was quite challenging when we started day care with Daniel. The transition back to work and into childcare would have been so much easier if you could be physically close.
Basically I've been working 80% since I came back to work 18 months ago and that's just so we can make it work. Fitting in the commute and the juggle with work is tricky.
[Professor Doug Hilton, Director, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute]
For the last 40 years, more than half of our PhD students and half of our postdoctoral researchers have been women. And yet despite that fantastic input of women into the sector, we have problems with them transitioning into leadership roles as laboratory heads and as professors. And what we'd like to do is to make a difference there because I think if we're going to tackle big problems like breakthroughs in cancer research, we need the best possible talent in our leadership positions
[Dr Tracy Putoczki, Laboratory Head, Walter and Eliza Hall institue]
We put our names down at childcare - at least 10 of them in the Parkville precinct. We’d gotten onto one the week before I was due to return back to work, and we didn't get full time so I only had three days a week. So two days a week my husband and I juggle by starting really early or finishing really late so that we can take care of him at home. He is now 18 months and we're still doing.
[Professor Terry Speed, Honorary Research Fellow, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute]
It just makes it so much harder and it puts women off having a career in science if they're constantly driving to and fro, they have to drop off the kids, pick up the kids. It was also felt, not just a matter of treating the women we have here better giving them a more reasonable life, but actually attracting women into science by saying ‘Hey, we care about your working conditions’.
[Professor Doug Hilton, Director, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute]
Having a facility literally on our doorstep means that both men and women can juggle their carer responsibilities with their professional responsibilities much more easily. To be able to reduce the stress both on the child and the parent, I think, can create an individual who is much more balanced in the way they approach their work. And for us that translates into much more creative and much more productive. And I think anything we can do to reduce stress, make work-life balance easier, for us will lead to a much better workforce.
[Animal Technician, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute]
I think it's important because it brings parents back into the work community and it enables them to be flexible and available for their work, for their careers, as well as their children. Having it a few steps away just makes it a lot easier and comforting, I think, as well, as a parent.
[Rose Gilder, Dyson Bequest]
We could see that this was a very practical way to support female scientists being able to juggle that life/work balance and to continue their important careers with their brilliant brains, and have their family at the same time.
[John Dyson, Dyson Bequest]
People talked about the impact investing, and to me the biggest impact you can have on someone is trying to improve the quality of their lives. And I think that's what medical research is all about. Construction of a childcare facility will provide the opportunity to not just have a great career, but also, you know, with that transition between a career and having a family.
[Dr Matt Ritchie, Laboratory Head. Walter and Eliza Hall Institute]
I think it will get rid of a lot of uncertainty so when you're having your kid you put their name down at every single child care center you can find in a 10km radius and if you're lucky one will phone back. So for people working here to know there's a place for your child next door is a great relief.
[Sarah Vallance, Project Manager, MatDac Early Years Consulting]
Having an on-site workplace education and care facility is very, very exciting and we've now got a long day care component from three months to five years and we will have an integrated long day care kindergarten project. We are looking to then integrate some other services into that. So it might be school holiday programs with this school next door, and there are other local primary schools. So the opportunity to partner with those service providers (in terms of education and care) is certainly on the cards as well.
[Dion Keech, Perkins Architects]
The child care spaces start at one level above ground and there are child care spaces up to level 5. And those spaces are for the younger children at the lower levels ranging up to the older children at the higher levels. And so it's mostly in the outdoor landscape design where we respond to the age of those children.
[Dr Tracy Putoczki, Laboratory Head, Walter and Eliza Hall institue]
It'll be a huge relief. The time I spend driving him to facility he is at every morning and picking him up - by the time I could really be in the office or in the lab or spending with my family. They're just taking the pressure off of that aspect of life so that we can focus on what we do best.
The video ends with the Victorian School Building Authority logo and website URL (www.schoolbuildings.vic.gov.au).
Updated