Today I attended a meeting with the Prime Minister, Representatives of the Child Care industry and two other child care Unions there were around 12 to 15 representatives including unions , plus Minister Ellis, with the Prime Minister Chairing the meeting, and Ministerial Advisers.
All parties present were given a chance by the Prime Minister to broadly outline their concerns with issues I outlined and supported for the ASU including –
All parties present were given a chance by the Prime Minister to broadly outline their concerns with issues I outlined and supported for the ASU including –
· Recognition of the work the Government has undertaken around the N.Q.F
· Support the enquires ASU participated in last year , including the productivity commission.
· Increased recognition need for qualifications gained by child care workers – questioning the Child Care workers rates based on position held and not enough recognition for Diploma Qualified and others .
· Licensing of child care centers, close to one another and planning – how this creates higher concentration of child care places in some areas and other areas miss out (we have seen the private sector open centres close to a local govt centre and attract users away from local govt centres.
· The closer alignment of Public Child Care centre wages ( local govt) with the private sector .
· More clarity in the eyes of users around the reasons for child care in the community eyes, including 1) use of child care ; 2) costs and benefits; 3) quality of child care ;
· Increased Govt funding (this point is realised by all – both public and private providers, employers ).
· Support for direct centre funding, which would I think give greater stability to centres and planning not to mention retention and consolidation of Local Government Child Care centres that could look to more forward planning.
· A clear picture of scales for users so all can see how much child care support they receive ( eg scale of 100% to 10% etc)
· Increased support for disadvantaged areas
(photo - a recent photo of the Australian Prime Minister with Greg McLean)
