Media Releases

11 Dec 2009 - Christmas Comes Early for WA Child Care Sector

The Hon Kate Ellis MP

Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth

11 December, 2009

Media release

Christmas comes early for WA child care sector

The Minister for Early Childhood Education and Child Care Kate Ellis will today deliver a Christmas gift to Western Australian families  action to improve the standard of care for the State's 50,000 youngsters in child care.

Ms Ellis will join parents, staff and children for Christmas celebrations at the Marmion Avenue Community Childcare Centre and talk with them about this week's historic changes.

"The changes mean a higher quality of care for each of these children, more comprehensive information for their parents and a better working environment for their carers," Ms Ellis said.

The National Quality Framework agreed to by COAG this week includes requirements for:

- lower staff-to-child ratios to ensure workers can spend more time with each child
- higher qualification requirements for all early childhood education workers to ensure staff can guide the development of children with play-based learning
- a transparent rating system that allows parents to easily compare the quality on offer at different child care services
- streamlined regulatory arrangements that mean less paperwork for services and more time to spend providing high quality care
- a new jointly-governed national body between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories to oversee the new standards.

The National Quality Framework will be phased in over ten years from 1 July 2010 and will ensure consistency in early childhood education and child care services across Australia.

About 43 000 Western Australian children were in long day care in the March quarter of this year, while about 6 500 were in family day care during this period.

"We know that the first five years of a child's life shapes their future - in terms of their health, learning and social development - and we want to make sure that future is bright.

"We also know that quality early childhood services can help overcome a disadvantaged background and set children on the road to a happy and productive future," Ms Ellis said.

"We want all children to have a quality early childhood experience and we want parents to be well informed and confident that they are making the right choices for their child."

"We want to tackle those centres that fall short of the high standard of care Australian parents expect for their children and recognise those that are centres of excellence."

A recent report of the National Childcare Accreditation Council found that amongst WA long day care services:

- 34% were unsatisfactory in ensuring that potentially dangerous products, plants and objects are inaccessible to children (national average 26%)
- 30% were unsatisfactory in ensuring staff implement effective and current food safety and hygiene practices (national average 19%)
- 31% were unsatisfactory in positive nappy, toileting and bathing experiences for children (national average 23%)
- 29% were unsatisfactory in ensuring staff support each child's need for rest, sleep and comfort (national average 24%)
- 24% were unsatisfactory in ensuring that buildings and equipment are safe (national average 19%)
- 24% were unsatisfactory in acting to control the spread of infectious diseases and maintains records of immunisations (national average 15%).

The Australian Government is providing about $61 million over four years to the States and Territories to support the new framework.

"We're helping Western Australian families access affordable child care by boosting the Child Care Rebate from 30 to 50% of parents' out-of-pocket expenses. An ABS report has found that move has increased affordability for parents by more than 20%," Ms Ellis said.

In the March quarter of this year, Western Australian families received $26 million in Child Care Benefits and $20.7 million in Child Care Rebates.

In total, the Federal Government is investing $16 billion in child care over the next four years  a billion more each year than under the Howard Government.

For more information visit http://www.deewr.gov.au/earlychildhood

Media Contact:

media@deewr.gov.au

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