Upfront

Equal pay case underway

The IEUA’s simultaneous Equal Remuneration Order (ERO) and Work Value cases are now before the Fair Work Commission (FWC).

The ERO case was heard before the Commission this time last year, and at that stage the FWC said that the evidence and their “preliminary perusal” of the material IEUA had lodged indicated the Modern Award minimum rates of pay had not been properly set.

The FWC has the power to vary those rates for ‘work value’ reasons and invited the Union to consider a new additional application. The IEUA widened its submission to demonstrate that the existing Modern Award minimum rates of pay for teachers were not properly determined, bear no relationship to the value of the work performed by teachers in all settings and should be varied.

IEUA is also arguing that early childhood teachers’ pay is too low because it is a female dominated workforce. Outcomes from both cases will be known later this year.

Census findings

The findings from the 2018 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) have been released.

The AEDC measures the development of children in Australia in their first year of full time school and provides important information to the early childhood sector to support early childhood planning and education.

Overall, the majority of children were found to be developmentally on track for each of the five domains measured – physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills; and communication skills and general knowledge.

More girls were developmentally on track, which was consistent with previous data.

A key finding of the 2018 census was a significant decrease in the percentage of children who were classified as ‘vulnerable’ across one or more domains.

One in five children were found to be developmentally vulnerable in one or more domains and this increases to two in five Indigenous children.

The census also found positive trends in language and cognitive skills, with an increase of children ‘on track’ from 77.1% (2009) to 84.4% (2018).

An increase of children ‘on track’ from 90.8% (2009) to 91.8% (2018) was found in the domain of communication and general knowledge.

The census data provides the early childhood education sector with snapshots of the vulnerabilities prevalent within their geographical areas.

This gives those working in the sector the opportunity to reflect on what is working well as well as what needs to be improved to better support local children and their families.

For more information on the 2018 AEDC data, visit https://www.aedc.gov.au/

Accreditation woes

The IEUA NSW/ACT Branch is appealing to NESA, the teacher accreditation authority, to come up with a plan to assist teachers that work in out of scope services including mobile preschools and early intervention services, to be able to access and/or maintain teacher accreditation.

The Union has been contacted by a number of members in such services who consider their exclusion from accreditation to reflect a lack of recognition regarding their qualifications and experience.

More than meets the eye

The IEUA NSW/ACT Branch annual Early Childhood conference More than meets the Eye, the Changing Nature of the Early Childhood Profession and the Impact on our Early Childhood Teachers, is on Saturday, 7 September. The conference is a popular feature of the early childhood calendar and will feature keynote speakers and workshops.

The conference will be live streamed so it is accessible to members from all over the country.

See www.ieu.asn.au

National Quality Framework Review

There are still a few days (until Thursday 30 June) for IEUA members to have their say on the National Quality Framework (NQF) through a survey on key issues currently under review.

Key issues under review include:

• scope of services regulated under the NQF
• application efficiency and effectiveness
• maintaining current information about service delivery
• physical environment
• sustainability of the NQF
• regulatory approach qualification requirements
• protecting children and staff in an emergency
• education and care in OSHC
• education and care in FDC
• value of quality rating for families
• appropriateness of sanctions
• protected disclosures, and
• prohibitions notices.

The National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care was developed by the Australian government with the intention of creating a national quality strategy for the early years.

The NQF provides the national strategy and approach to the regulation of quality education and care services across Australia.

To complete the survey, which closes on 30 June 2019, visit: https://www.nqfreview.com.au/

To read more about the issues under review, visit https://www.nqfreview.com.au/44707/documents/102305/download