CHILD care in Australia is not unlike a toy that requires a child to fit the right shape into the right hole. And perhaps a child could do better in sorting out the current state of the industry.
As the Federal Government moves to implement new worker-to-child ratios in child-care centres, we learn that under stricter regulations introduced by Education Minister Andrew Barr last year there has been an explosion in the number of exemptions for child-care centres.
In other words, the centres just can't get the number of qualified workers required to meet the new rules.
From the child-care centre perspective, we learn that there is a crisis looming in attracting and keeping child-care workers. In simple terms, their pay is hopelessly low. And with the need to hire more, the centres will struggle to improve their conditions, unless, of course, they raise their fees (hurting loyal families) or run at a loss.
In the meantime, the Government raises rebates to assist families struggling to pay escalating fees. But the root problem of lack of qualified staff will remain.
Child care is subject to possibly one of the tightest staff ratios in any industry. One qualified worker to five children is the current requirement, with moves afoot to reduce this to one in three.
No one wants to to see the quality of care compromised the welfare of our young children is vital. But we need to be realistic.
Eventually child-care workers, who mostly do it for the love of it, move on to better-paid work. So we are back where we started: low pay, low retention rates in the industry and child-care centre closures.
Perhaps the right shape for the right hole is putting the money into those at the coalface: those who teach, play with and nurture our young ones.
COLLEGE THAT CARESTHE CANBERRA College is to be congratulated for its remarkable work through its CCCares program. It has faced the reality of teen pregnancy square on, recognising the need to support and value young people who choose to have children at an early age. Far from judging, it teaches respect, life skills and opportunity.
Its recent success in the inaugural Schools First Impact Awards, and the possibilities now open to it to lead the rest of the nation into providing similar programs, is a testimony to the progressiveness of the ACT's education system.