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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1321 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

The inquiry I have announced into the issues of demand and staffing in child care in the ACT will be undertaken by Community and Health Works. Community and Health Works are an independent not-for-profit organisation. Board members are drawn from the community services and health industry and include union and industry representatives. The project will be undertaken in consultation with the child-care profession, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union and other industry stakeholders.

The aim of the project is to inform the national work force improvement project by providing a case study of ACT child-care services that investigates the extent to which supply of qualified staff meets the requirements of the industry. The inquiry will also look at possible implications for work force planning in child care.

My department anticipates that the inquiry will take approximately six months to complete, and at the end of the project we will have good quantitative data on a range of issues I would like to outline briefly to members today.

First, we hope to receive a summary of training available, with numbers and types of qualifications issued and graduates employed. We are seeking an analysis of separation statistics and current numbers of qualified staff and those whose training does not meet the qualification requirements. We are also seeking an analysis of barriers to recruitment and retention of staff, including the very important issue of rates of pay. Finally, there will be an examination of the implications for child-care services.

The issue of recruitment and retention of qualified staff is a national issue and was raised by the Commonwealth Child Care Advisory Council in its report to the ministers for families and community services in September last year. In addition, the issue was brought to the attention of community services ministers at their meeting on 1 March this year.

A national work force improvement project dealing with the recruitment and retention of qualified staff in child care is being worked on by the Children's Services Subcommittee of the Community Services Ministers Advisory Council. This is particularly important, because we must focus on systemic issues at a national level that affect the ability of the child-care sector to respond with appropriate levels of staffing and support for workers. We need to look at what we can do in the ACT, and that is the clear direction of this inquiry, but it is equally important to focus on how we can better contribute at a national level.

In the ACT we are very fortunate to have a dedicated and well-regulated child-care sector providing families with a variety of child-care options. Important contributors to the success of these services are the qualities the staff themselves bring to the services and the experiences they share with children.

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