Page 5790 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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on the extensive pedagogical and regulatory sectoral reforms. The increase in early childhood education and care service costs due to labour cost increases will mainly be shared by governments and parents, rather than by workers or providers. Under existing subsidy arrangements, access to long day-care services is expected to be lower than without the reforms as a result of higher costs faced by parents.
In the Productivity Commission’s opinion, the national time lines have not anticipated the lag time required to up-skill and increase qualifications of workers. They also have not taken into account the pressure on the VET sector to offer training places. This is something the ACT government should respond to and explain whether that is or is not the case for the ACT.
Early childhood development services are not currently providing the same start in life for children with additional needs and many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children that is commonly available to other children in our communities. The workforce requirements to provide appropriate services for these children must be prioritised so that the gap in outcomes between them and other children is minimised. The development of integrated early childhood development centres provides new opportunities for improved service delivery but may require additional leadership and cross-disciplinary professional development for staff for them to be effective.
The ACT Greens recognise the importance of helping families meet their needs and expectations in relation to their choices about work and access to quality, affordable and accessible childcare services. Childcare is an important family issue and it is vital in the ACT that we have a well-developed policy on providing access to care for children through the day and during school vacations. This is not only essential for the parents or carers of these children but the grandparents and other friends who are responsible for providing alternative care. The ACT Greens have as one of our important aims to enhance the availability of a mix of high quality childcare services for ACT families through initiatives to support social inclusion and culturally appropriate care, as well as improving conditions, remuneration, training and career opportunities for childcare workers.
Childcare is expensive and takes a significant portion of families’ budgets. We all recognise that childcare in the ACT is expensive and we should do what we can to address this, but equally no-one wants this to be at the expense of our children’s educational opportunities and experiences. A large proportion, around 80 per cent, of our childcare providers are community based with many of them operating on a not-for-profit basis.
Attracting and retaining a strong childcare workforce for this sector is naturally a priority and means wages are often paid above the award level. The domino effect of that is that the other childcare providers need to do the same in order to attract and retain staff. All parents want the best quality childcare for their children at a reasonable cost. Inevitably this means that we have to recognise that if a proper wage is paid to attract and retain the high level of childcare skills that we want in the workforce it does mean an increase in the cost, but we also need to balance that with the lifelong benefits to those children who receive that care.
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