The report, which looked at a number of areas of Junee Shire Council's Delivery Program and Operational Plan, stated "despite an enormous promotional effort, the growth in educators is not being realised and attrition from the sector continues".

The council's director of community and business, Grant Johnson, said educator numbers have progressively declined. "It's seems to be a shift in the sector. The federal government changed the childcare system not just with money to families but also the governance and admin side of things," he said.

"Educators are now required to manage children more thoroughly with time sheets and processing and all of those aspects, and we know that for several of our educators, at that point in time, it was the straw that broke the camel's back."

However, Mr Johnson said the issue was not isolated to Junee. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that other regional centres are also seeing this downward trend," he said.

The family day care service operates through both the council and privately-operated facilities, which Mr Johnson said was the preferred choice over other childcare services.

"Family day care is without doubt a preferred choice for many families due to the home-based care and low ratios in a family day care service versus day care centres," he said. "As an educator the job can be very rewarding for someone who loves kids. It's a win-win opportunity to love what you do and earn a living from it."

South West Regional Family Day Care supervisor Amanda Russell said the business was beneficial to the whole community.

"A lot of parents open their own service when they have young children at home to bring in money when caring for their own," she said.

"When operating your own business you have that autonomy and flexibility, but aside for that, our services allow parents to work and bring that money back into the community."