The future of children's services across the country is currently being shaped. After receiving submissions from various child care industry stakeholders, including the ASU, the Productivity Commission has released its Draft Report on Childcare and Early Childhood Learning and is calling for responses to their recommendations. Help the ASU with our submission by providing your feedback via our survey.
The Union is currently developing our response to the Productivity Commission's Draft Recommendations and, as part of the process and we are seeking input from our members and supporters. We have summarised what we consider are the key points and we'd like to hear your views on them:
>> Complete the ASU survey on the child care sector recommendations
Many of our members will be affected by the changes proposed by the Productivity Commission's Draft Report on Childcare and Early Childhood Learning. This Draft Report was released for comment on 22 July 2014 and you can find it and more about the inquiry here: pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/childcare. The Draft Report contains a mixed bag of recommendations – some may be welcome and others will not be. Perhaps it could be characterised as 'the good, the bad and the ugly'!
Some key summary points from the Draft Report
The following are some key points we can draw from the Draft Report:
- Simplification of funding arrangements and options provided for children with additional needs
- Call for increased federal funding
- Pre-school – supporting universal access
- Measures to increase workforce participation
- Removal of assistance from some providers
- Weakening of National Quality Framework (NQF) standards
- Pay, conditions and training
For more details on each of these key points, please download our additional background document.
Who will be affected by the Productivity Commission's Draft Report?
We have members who work in early childhood and education care (ECEC) and we also have a large number of members who access ECEC services for children in their care. If you or members of your family fit into either of these categories then the Productivity Commission's draft recommendations will affect you.
The proposed changes also aim to have an impact on the way many organisations operate, and indeed, whether they should operate at all.
Whilst we are seeking responses to all the Draft Recommendations contained in the Commission's Draft Report, there are some which are particularly critical for obtaining feedback. Our survey summarises the key areas but you can also provide general feedback:
>> Complete the ASU survey on the child care sector recommendations
For those keen to do some reading, the Draft Report can be obtained from the Productivity Commission's website but before you press the print button, be aware that it is 918 pages long! You might just want to view it online and the draft recommendations can be found on pages 45 to 62: Draft Report on Childcare and Early Childhood Learning.
Your feedback via our survey will be a great source of information that we can draw on to help shape our submission to the Productivity Commission. Your experience, views and knowledge will help give our submission strength and relevance. Your involvement in the process is essential.
Please complete the survey by the end of Tuesday 26 August 2014.
Further information
Read the ASU's news item outlining our involvement in the current reviews of the child care sector: "Future of child care sector under review", 28 March 2014
Key summary points relating to the Productivity Commission Draft Report on Childcare and Early Childhood Learning, August 2014