Page 228 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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her and with her office that the children and families who attend Gumnut will be found alternative accommodation in the near future.
I am very pleased to be able to speak to this amendment. Quality early education and care is vital to the future of ACT’s children. Some of my own grandchildren have been or are in receipt of childcare services, and I know how important it is for my son and daughter and my stepdaughter to get high quality and reliable childcare services for their children.
When issues of childcare arise, it is important to understand the local sector that is providing these services for our children. It is my understanding that there are 248 licensed childcare services in the ACT. Of these, 243 provide centre-based care and include long day care, independent preschools, playschools and school aged children. A further five licensed services are family day care schemes. The opening of licensed childcare services continues, and 11 new services opened last year.
In addition, there are 70 government and non-government preschools providing early childhood education and care in the ACT. In the ACT, 80 per cent of licensed childcare services are community based. Community services are the backbone of the childcare sector, and their commitment to children and families is extremely important to families and the community as a whole.
I have got quite a bit of experience in this sector. When I first arrived in the ACT I worked in the childcare sector where I was in charge of the babies area of a community-based service. Subsequently, for a number of years my office was located in the same building as the Tuggeranong office of the then Childcare Services, now Community Services, therefore I have firsthand experience of this sector.
The 248 licensed childcare services provide 15,588 licensed childcare places across the ACT, and this includes family day care. Some 666 places became available in 2009, and an additional 463 new places are becoming available for 2010. It is estimated that approximately 2,200 staff are employed in the childcare sector in the ACT. So you can see that it is a very important sector in terms of employment. Mrs Dunne’s sideways swipe—a not-so-subtle swipe—at the conditions of these employees and her scaremongering about the effect on fees is far from helpful, as Ms Hunter also alluded to.
Childcare is a large service sector. It provides many services across the ACT and many options for parents. The fees charged by licensed childcare centres, as Ms Burch has said a number of times, are set by providers of childcare services, not by the ACT government.
It is also pleasing to see that there has been a 30 per cent increase in the degree and diploma qualifications of staff working in ACT long day care during the past 12 months and an increase of 57 per cent in overall enrolments in CIT in children’s services and programs. Before coming to this Assembly, I was the chair of an organisation formerly called TRACHS, which is training for health and community services. It has now been amalgamated and no longer exists under that name, but I saw first hand the results of this important work—that is, the considerable take-up of
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