Our recent Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Survey Pulse Check confirms what we have been hearing anecdotally through member calls and emails, that our workforce is in crisis, and that there are a number of factors exacerbating this. 

To further inform our advocacy, a number of our members have provided detailed information about their individual workforce challenges in order to further shine a light on what needs to be done, and how that changes depending on factors such as service type and location.  

Here we provide a brief summary of three of those case studies. Further details will be provided in an upcoming edition of Broadside. 

We are incredibly excited about what recent announcements could mean for the future of our sector and for Australia’s children. However, if we don't start addressing the workforce challenges our sector is facing immediately, we run the risk of failing to meet the policy objectives of the historic early childhood education and care reforms.

“In order to secure the success of these new reforms, it’s vital that retention and recruitment strategies are implemented,” says Michele Carnegie, CELA CEO. “There are many and varied reasons that our workforce is in crisis, and while remuneration is one factor, there needs to be a broad range of strategies applied to start fixing the underlying causes now.” 

Read on to find out what our recent workforce survey revealed about the key issues being faced by our members and the urgent solutions we are advocating.

This week the NSW Government announced a series of landmark initiatives for our sector, including a year of universal pre-kindergarten for all children by 2030.  

Yesterday we spoke to Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell to find out how the initiatives came about, what they mean for the community sector, and what plans are in place to help solve the workforce crisis.  

Dominic Perrottet, Sarah Mitchell and Matt Kean have announced an investment in the 2022/23 NSW Budget of more than more than $5.8 billion over 10 years, to introduce universal pre-Kindergarten for all children in NSW by 2030.

Dominic Perrottet, Sarah Mitchell and Matt Kean have announced an investment of more than $1.4 billion over four years for the 2022-23 NSW Budget to ensure affordable preschool for all families. Plus, Dominic Perrottet, Sarah Mitchell, Matt Kean, Brad Hazzard, Victor Dominello, Natasha Mclaren-Jones have announced $376.5 million investment over four years in child development and family support as part of the 2022-23 NSW Budget.

Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the curriculum is an important goal for many early years and OSHC services. Still, it can be challenging to know where to start.  

Elizabeth Akee and Rachel Foulstone of PCYC Barkly Hwy OSHC in Mount Isa Queensland share how they created a 12-month plan to embed local Indigenous perspectives into their program with input from cultural advisor Aunty Ros Von Senden.

Last week, Dr Anne Aly was appointed Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth. 

Find out why Dr Aly has been described as "one of the jewels in prime minister Anthony Albanese's cabinet" and answer our workforce survey to inform our advocacy to the new Government.