Page 5787 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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However, as noted in the report, the ACT government only provides some funding in addressing these issues and must work in partnership with other jurisdictions to address the recommendations of the report. This must involve the ministerial council and, as such, greater time frames are required. July 2012 is a reasonable time frame, given that national quality standards in relation to qualifications do not come into effect until 2014.
I am very happy to table by the first sitting of the Assembly in 2012 a paper outlining the strategies to assist the childcare sector in the ACT to implement the national quality agenda. In fact, I table it right now. I present the following paper:
Supporting Quality Early Childhood Education and Care—the building blocks for a brighter future, dated April 2011.
I released a statement in April this year following consultation with the ACT childcare sector, including a ministerial roundtable which was attended by over 80 representatives. Let me quote from the section entitled “Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce”:
The … Government has announced a new initiative to support the qualified early childhood development workforce in the ACT.
The … Government has been working closely with the early childhood education and care sector to support the workforce in time of change.
The National Quality Framework will create new qualification requirements for early childhood educators to ensure educators have the skills to help children learn and develop.
The … Government will introduce a new scholarship program to assist the early childhood workforce to meet the requirements … The scholarship program—
of $785,000—
will sponsor existing staff to up-skill to a Certificate III qualification … and to encourage new people into the childcare industry. The initiative combines course fees, employer incentives and start-up costs for … student. The scholarship will be available for new people and for existing educators in long day care, independent preschools and family day care sector. The scholarship would also provide access to training for those family day care educators who are self-employed.
While the government will not be supporting (2)(b)(ii) of this motion, I would like to point out some of the points of our early education package which I have just tabled. Under “Supporting Accessible Quality Education and Care” it states:
The provision of quality, accessible and affordable childcare is important for workforce participation. The Government has a strong commitment to increase places and equip parents with greater choice of where they can send their children. Long day care places have increased by over 1,100 places in the past two years and there are now—
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