Aside from camps’ irreplaceable role in any quality curriculum, the sector provides employment for 15,000 workers and is worth more than $1.74 billion to the economy each year.
School excursions and camps comprise 70 per cent of the industry, but it is in steady decline mainly due to rising costs, excessive paperwork, and strict "teacher rules" regarding time-in-lieu payments and liability.
New enterprise agreements, particularly in Victoria, require teachers to be paid for, or receive time off for, after-hours camp supervision, making trips financially or logistically unsustainable for many schools.
Australian Camps Association CEO Peter McDougall is three years into the role, having previously been the long-time senior manager of AFL Victoria.
He initiated an ACA Census and Economic Contribution Report to provide a much-needed overview of the state of the industry, and to assist with strategies to build and retain participants.
What he’s found has been sobering.
Post-COVID, McDougall says, programs like the Victorian Government’s Positive Start, where $80 million was invested in re-engaging kids, particularly children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, have provided a leg-up and undoubtedly made a huge difference.
It provided opportunities for those kids to attend camp, and over 18 months involved upwards of 108,000 children.
But for schools and camp operators nationwide, a host of issues are resulting in camps being placed in the ‘too hard’ basket.
Tellingly, the length of camps post-COVID has shrunk, with the average duration now being two nights. In the past it was three to four days.
Granted that means operators can run two groups in the space of one business week, but it also increases the operational costs for a camp.
“They have to move really quickly to reset for the next group, so it puts a lot of pressure on regarding cleaners, cleaning equipment and chemicals and supplies, so there's added costs that come with that,” McDougall shares.
The ACA Census and Economic Contribution Report has highlighted the biggest issues impacting camp providers nationally, including rising insurance costs, less students attending camps, and less days being spent by each group on camp.
While the number of camps bookings are similar to years past, the number of children per booking is also dropping.
“Some families just can't afford to send their kids on camp, so cost of living is an issue, anxiety has started to grow, and parents aren’t keen to let their child go away overnight…”
The other biggie is whether schools are still embracing camps programs with the level of affection and loyalty that they used to.
In Victoria, rising costs and the logistical strain caused by the 2023 teacher time-in-lieu requirements have led many to cancel, shorten, or replace overnight stays with day trips.
These reforms, which quite fairly compensate teachers, have also created financial pressures for schools that, combined with teacher shortages, make running traditional camps difficult.
“The Education Department in Victoria needs to take greater leadership and provide greater support and guidance to schools on how to manage time and lieu the most effective way,” McDougall says.
Many principals and teachers, he shares, are throwing their hands in the air because it's “all too hard”.
“The government in Victoria does provide $30 million in funding to government schools each year as a way of helping schools cover the cost of time in lieu, but that's probably not enough and doesn’t include independent schools.
“It’s about, ‘okay, we understand what it is, so how do we manage it?’”
In SA, Premier Peter Malinauskas recently pledged free Year 7 camps for public schools prior to Saturday’s state election, which McDougall says is a great start.
The South Australian Education Department, and minister Blair Boyer, have been very easy to work with he says, and great supporters of camps, however other states can vary in their approach.
“There's lots of differences between the state governments and their approach to not just camps, but in the education space. I can meet with some education ministers face to face, others I can't get in the door,” McDougall says.
“It’s frustrating when you're trying to get access to all of them and promote and build awareness about the challenges that camps are facing.”
McDougall says the number one issue for camps at present is property insurance costs.
“We've been trying to develop a solution to that for the last 15 months or so,” he shares.
“Some camps are located in the heart of bushfire zones, which means that insurers aren't prepared to insure them at all.”
Some camps, he says, can get cover, but premiums are that high that they can't afford it.
“If we can solve that, that will go a long way to providing greater long-term sustainability to camps, as far as the financial modelling point of view. We're getting closer to hopefully having a solution, but there's no guarantees that [will] take place.”
Another key issue is employment. Recruitment and retention of staff is a challenge, and every camp is different because of their location and their ability to recruit staff.
“A lot of the jobs are casual or part-time, where people are looking for full-time work for obvious reasons. So that makes it difficult because camps are fluctuating with bookings and workloads. It's hard to have everybody on board as full-time.”
The report reveals there are 3.96 million camp participants each year, which far eclipses any sport in the country, yet while government funding flows freely to a plethora of sports, McDougall says, very little comparatively trickles through to recreation.
“What we need to do is elevate the profile and the funding portion to recreation more in line with sport, because the benefits are very similar between the two.
“Whether you're playing in a football team or working in a team on camp, it's still the same skills, attributes, leadership, decision-making, problem-solving attributes that assist the individual involved.”
Despite the many obstacles, McDougall remains bullishly optimistic that camps’ future is assured.
“There might be challenges, but it doesn't mean that we walk away from school camps,” he says.
“It just means that we have to put our heads together to find a solution to ensure that the kids continue to get the opportunity to go on camp, because the benefits are far too great to just throw it away over financial constraints, or because it's got too hard.
“We just have to keep plugging away by working together with the governments and other stakeholders to find a way to make sure that school camps don't drop off the radar.”
