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A thank you message from Margaret Young, ECA National President
Thank you to all our members, subscribers and everyone who supported the Hands Up for Quality Campaign!
We have all done so well . . .
- more than 1,200 'Hands Up for quality' e-cards were sent to Premiers and Chief Ministers and copied to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Kate Ellis, many of them sharing personal experiences
- more than 50 organisations quickly signed up to a
statement of support delivered to the Prime Minster and Heads of Government pre-COAG on Friday 4 December, as well as a lot of individual lobbying from your own organisations
- ECA directly lobbied ministers and senior political advisors nationally and at state level, arguing for commitment to high quality evidence based goals with regard to ratios and qualifications and staged implementation to make progress achievable for services and states that have further to go.
The outcome from the COAG meeting on Monday 7 December sets the scene for real quality improvement in Early Childhood Education and Care services around Australia.
For centre based services COAG agreed to:
- ratios of 1:4 for children aged from birth to 24 months by 1 January 2012, 1:5 for children aged from 25 months to 35 months and 1:11 for children aged from 36 months to school aged by 1 January 2016
- all staff either having qualifications (Diploma or Certificate III) or actively working towards qualifications by 1 January 2014, with most services required to have an early childhood teacher whenever a service is being provided.
While the ratios will take time, and are still not where the evidence says they should be for the very youngest children and the three- to five-year-olds, COAG's agreement to 'review the standards and effectiveness of implementation in 2014 with a view to further strengthening quality, especially in relation to children aged 0–24 months' is an important recognition that we have further to go.
COAG agreed to a new rating system which will include the seven quality areas and a five point rating scale ranging from Excellent to Unsatisfactory, with ratings in all areas to be prominently displayed. A new national body will implement and manage the national system so that services will have only one organisation to deal with for regulation and quality rating.
For those who have not yet seen it, the full COAG Communique is available at http://www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2009-12-07/docs/20091207_communique.pdf.
We know that much remains to be done, and that there are many and varied challenges still to be met.
But for now, thank you so much and very well done!
Margaret Young
ECA National President
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