Page 102 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 25 February 2014
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The emergency care places are often accessed by families seeking other forms of support and who are engaged in early intervention and prevention services. These families can then focus on finding the necessary supports to assist them while their children are cared for in a safe and supportive environment.
Minister Burch also spoke about our commitment to raising the bar in education and care when we signed up to the national quality framework in 2009. ACT families are realising the many benefits of this commitment.
Families will be noticing that their child’s service is engaged in a process of continuous quality improvement. It is likely they are preparing for an upcoming quality assessment to be conducted by the children’s policy and regulation unit. This assessment will provide very valuable insight into how the service is performing and what more they can do to improve. The ACT government is actively supporting education and care services in this effort. We know our education and care sector is committed and well intentioned, so we will support them in every possible way.
The ACT government has supported the sector through partnering with the Children’s Educators ACT Forum to develop the ACT education and care workforce strategy in 2012. The strategy outlined a shared commitment to implement initiatives up to December 2014 to achieve four key objectives: attract new educators; retain existing educators; develop workforce skills; and increase the professional profile of the sector in the community. A number of the initiatives are being implemented, including the awareness campaign which raises the professional profile of the sector and an early childhood scholarships program to develop workforce skills.
The ACT government recognises the importance of valuing and upskilling the existing workforce. In March 2012 Minister Burch launched the early childhood scholarship program. The program is to assist the early childhood workforce to meet the requirements of the national quality framework. The first round of places provided 85 scholarships over two years. A second round is about to open for applications, with 29 spaces available for uptake in 2014. These scholarships are very important for the sector because they recognise that, for quality early childhood educators to be able to provide quality care, they need the support of governments like the ACT government to give them opportunities to improve.
This government also recognises the importance of good wages in attracting and retaining a quality early education workforce, because, to be honest, the pay in the sector is pathetic. Mr Hanson was correct when he said, regarding the conversation that he had, that attracting staff to the sector is really hard. It is very hard because the pay sucks. That is why, unlike the federal government, the ACT government supports the big steps campaign led by early childhood educators through their union, United Voice.
I say “unlike the federal government” because I was shocked to learn today that the federal government is lobbying the Fair Work Commission to reject equal pay for early childhood educators. I have to ask the federal government and those opposite: where do you think good quality early childhood educators are going to come from? This is not Gina Rinehart land, where it is acceptable to pay people a couple of dollars a day. If we want the best start for our children—
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