Page 4850 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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Children’s Policy and Regulation Unit. The focus on quality improvement and reduction of regulatory burden for services will only enhance the experiences of children and families.
The regulations establish the national quality standard. The standard has seven quality areas. These are: educational program and practice; children’s health and safety; physical environment; staffing arrangements; relationships with children; collaborative partnerships with families and communities; and leadership and service management. These areas are the basis for assessment and rating under the new system. One of the main objectives of the assessment and ratings process is for parents to be able to access information about the quality of their education and care service.
From January 2012 children in the birth to two age range will experience an improved level of individual attention, with a move from a one to five to a one to four educator to child ratio. The ACT already meets the one to five ratio in the two to three-year age group and the one to 11 ratio in the three to five age group in long day care centres. A majority of ACT government and independent preschools already meet the one educator to 11 children ratio or are moving to do so well before the requirements come into force in January 2016.
From January 2014 ACT children will be experiencing improved outcomes with a requirement for services to employ educators with a minimum certificate III level qualification. Our children will experience improved educational programs and practice with a requirement to employ an early childhood teacher from 1 January 2014. There will be a minimum requirement for education and care services to provide educational leadership for all of their educators.
The ACT and Australian governments acknowledge that workforce requirements present challenges for both the government and the sector. However, I believe these reforms are too important for our children, so instead of shying away from these challenges we are taking steps to assist the education and care sector to address these workforce issues. The Australian government is facilitating a national early years workforce strategy. The ACT has been involved in developing this strategy and will play an active role in its implementation.
I have hosted two roundtable events with the sector in April and September this year to discuss the implementation challenges associated with the new framework. I also chair the ACT Children’s Services Forum, which is a mechanism to progress issues raised by the sector and provides an opportunity for government and the sector to work together.
In April of this year I announced a new scholarship program to support educators currently in the sector and to encourage new people into the profession. This scholarship will start next year. The government also recognises the importance of valuing and upskilling the existing workforce. The scholarship will be available for educators in the long day care, independent preschools and family day care sectors to gain qualifications in a certificate III in children’s services.
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