Everyone benefits
A new coalition of early childhood organisations (Early Childhood Australia, Uniting Care, KU, Goodtstart, the Benevolent Society and others), researchers and parents is warning all political parties to get their early childhood policies in order for the forthcoming election campaign.
They say investing in early learning directly links to increasing Australia’s future prosperity. The Early Start: Everyone Benefits campaign has released the State of Early Learning in Australia Report 2016 which contains new data showing low investment and participation rates in early learning.
“Australia is lagging behind other developed countries in terms of the number of children participating in quality early learning,” Early Childhood Australia CEO Samantha Page said.
The report shows that nationally three year olds participate at a rate of 66% compared to the OECD average of 74%.
“We are now at a critical juncture, where Australia‘s education results are declining, and we must act to ensure more children attend quality early learning, for long enough to amplify their development,” Ms Page said.
For more information visit www.everyonebenefits.org.au
SDN offer doesn’t stack up
The NSW/ACT IEU continues to negotiate with Sydney Day Nursery (SDN) over its proposed enterprise agreement. What’s being offered by SDN compares unfavourably with the Enterprise Agreement (EA) negotiated with Goodstart recently. The Goodstart agreement includes a 4.5% pay increase in 2016 and 2017 and a further 4.2% in 2018 to address the pay discrepancy between early childhood teachers and their counterparts in primary schools. The Goodstart EA formally acknowledges that early childhood teachers are underpaid. Other aspects of the Goodstart agreement include $37.35 per week for mentoring another employee, $21.25 per week for teachers appointed as educational leaders and $29.25 a day to mentor practicum placement students.
On the other hand, the SDN offer includes the removal of all incremental steps and will only guarantee a pay increase of 2.5% per year. SDN tries to justify this by saying head office staff only receive one pay increase per year so teachers should not receive a pay increase plus an incremental step increase each year. They refuse to acknowledge teachers are underpaid. There is no allowance for mentoring another employee, taking on the role of educational leader or supervising a student.
There are other ways the SDN proposal offers less than Goodstart. Only one more negotiation meeting is scheduled, and SDN has indicated that if agreement is not reached at this meeting they intend to put their proposal out to the vote.
Bedrock survey
Thank you to all those who participated in the NSW/ACT IEU’s survey on Bedrock readership. The results show early childhood readers have a wide breadth of interests, with survey participants indicating an interests in virtually all topic areas suggested by the survey, including professional development, political advocacy, sustainability, technology and industrial issues.
About half of all respondents preferred to see the publication in print, with the other half opting for receiving both online and print versions. Most readers, or 89%, said they shared and discussed Bedrock with their colleagues and other associates. We are always interests in hearing more feedback from members. Email bedrock@ieu.asn.au with ideas and suggestions.
Uncertainty for Queensland as NDIS implemented
Members across the Queensland early childhood education sector remain concerned about the lack of clarity surrounding the planned implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Implementation of the (NDIS) commenced on a trial basis in north Queensland earlier this year and the complete statewide rollout is expected by 2019.
IEUA-QNT Senior Industrial Officer John Spriggs said key among members concerns was the future of a number of state government programs that currently support inclusion of children with disability; particularly Early Childhood Development Programs (ECDPs) and the Disability Inclusion Support for Queensland Kindergartens (DISQK) Program.
“Of serious concern for members is the State Government’s announcement that EDCPs are unlikely to continue past 2020 once the NDIS is in place and that the future of the DISQK Program will be determined by the level of support provided by the NDIS,” Spriggs said.
Early Childhood Education Branch Representative Jenny Finlay said the ECDPs were a vital program that allowed skills to be developed in the small setting and practiced intensively with lots of support.
“This then allows those skills to be transferred to the larger setting,” Finlay said.
“Skilled staff are already being transferred from ECPD’s and finding other jobs. Nothing can replace this expertise,” she said.
“For members, many questions are yet to be answered as to how NDIS implementation will affect disability funding in kindergartens: will this be separate to the NDIS (which is capped for the early childhood education sector).
‘Issues surrounding the impact of the NDIS implementation on employees is also still unclear with staff wellbeing and retention rates a major concern.”