Hands Up for Quality Countdown to 7 December
We have just four weeks remaining until the critical COAG decision on the reform agenda for early childhood education and care.
Each week I will be sending you an update about the Hands Up for Quality campaign with news, information and ways for you to get involved and show your support. I urge you to join us in this most important task!
Margaret Young
ECA National President
What you can do:
More than ever we need your support to make sure our politicians vote YES for high quality, long term reforms in early childhood education and care that are achievable and affordable for services.
- Send an ecard
Send an ecard to the Prime Minister, or to your Premier/Chief Minister to urge them to put their hands up for quality at COAG. Add in your own story – our leaders need to hear this!
- Tell a friend about the campaign
We especially encourage you to spread the word to parents of young children and get them involved. This way, we can increase the number of people who are informed and supportive of quality in early childhood education. Forward this special issue of ECA WebWatch to your colleagues, friends, and families.
- Write a letter
Write to the editor of your local paper and tell them why you think quality in early childhood education and care is so important.
Campaign update
It's been a very busy first few weeks of the campaign. On Thursday 29 October, we launched the Hands Up for Quality campaign at the Parliament House Early Childhood Centre in Canberra. We presented Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth, Kate Ellis, with the ECA report on quality care in Australia.
KU Children's services join the campaign
KU Children's Services Chief Executive Sheridan Dudley added her voice to the campaign saying, 'We urge the broader community to support this push for quality in early childhood education and care. Together we must show the Government how important these reforms are'. Another high profile supporter who is putting their hand up for quality is the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health.
Keep the pressure on the Government!
On 7 November The Weekend Australian reported that the Federal Government has backed away from their own recommendation to employ one carer for every three babies and toddlers. Instead the Government wants one carer for every four infants younger than two by the end of 2010. We must keep the pressure on the Government so that we don't stop moving towards a ratio of 1:3 for babies.
This week's message:
COAG must set long term high quality goals now – not just settle for the compromise being promoted by Minister Kate Ellis and COAG partners.
- We know that standards set now will become the norm in the future. Service operators will plan to implement them and new buildings will be designed around them. We should be planning higher quality for our children and our nation!
- The evidence about the importance of the very first years of life, the importance of high quality early childhood education and care and the long term return on early investment make a compelling argument for quality improvement. In the face of this, we should be working towards quality, not accepting a compromise.
We need to work towards it – we can do it if we want to!
What about Family Day Care?
At this time ECA is focusing on quality improvement in centre based programs – mainly because this is where the research is strongest and where much of our past work has been. However, ECA strongly supports nationally consistent standards and quality improvement in Family Day Care (FDC) as well, with careful planning and support for implementation of any changes.
We believe that the principles of well trained staff/carers and ratios/group sizes that allow high quality relationships and experiences for babies/young children apply in all service types. You can see what we say about FDC on page 9 of our response to the Regulation Impact Statement. We encourage you to have your say about quality improvement in all service types, and we look forward to working further with our FDC colleagues on this issue.
Hands Up for Quality in the media
Childcare reforms will increase parents' costs by up to $50 a week
The Australian, 7 November
Mothers the losers with childcare costs
Daily Telegraph, 5 November
Reach for the stars: more staff to watch children
Sydney Morning Herald, 1 November
Opposition wants clarity on childcare
Sydney Morning Herald, 29 October
Keep up to date with the campaign!
Don't forget to visit the campaign website at http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/handsupforquality.html to keep up to date with campaign developments, news, breakthroughs and more.
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