Page 2415 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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The Inquiry will identify how the current system can be improved to make it more responsive to the needs of parents.
We want to ensure that Australia has a system that provides a safe, nurturing environment for children, but which also meets the working needs of families.
Our child care system should be responsive to the needs of today’s families and today’s economy, not the five-day 9am-5pm working week of last century.
Over 480 submissions to this inquiry have been received, but I did not see one from either Ms Berry or the ACT government. Perhaps I have missed them; if I have, I stand corrected. There was an initial closing date of 4 February, and a draft report was published in July of this year. In respect of preschool education the draft states:
Participation in a preschool program in the year before starting formal schooling provides benefits in terms of child development and a successful transition to school.
I cannot see in that statement any suggestion that the federal government would not support or does not understand the benefits of preschool education. One of the draft recommendations proposes:
The Australian Government should continue to provide per child payments to the states and territories for universal access to a preschool program of 15 hours per week for 40 weeks per year.
The Productivity Commission will continue to take submissions, including on the draft report, up to 5 September. Perhaps it might be appropriate for Ms Berry or the ACT government to put their views into that process; 480 other organisations have, and it is time the ACT government did, Ms Burch. The commission is due to report its findings in October.
Two submissions to the inquiry from ACT-based organisations I wish to refer to come from Children’s Educators ACT and YMCA Canberra. The YMCA have some messages for the ACT government. Their submission includes a number of recommendations to the ACT government, including:
The ACT government work across departments to develop some coordinated planning regulations and parameters around where Early Childhood Education Centres services may be established and the size and type of service which may best suit that community.
Their submission goes on:
The current pattern for pre-school attendance across the ACT does not encourage increased workforce participation. To accommodate 15 hours of preschool most preschools across the ACT have a fortnightly pattern where children attend 2 days one week and 3 days the next. While the YMCA supports the government’s initiative to increase preschool hours for children it also believes that this fortnightly system actively discourages increased workforce participation.
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