01 DecELAA CEO update 1 December 2021
Dear members and friends
As the end of the year draws closer we know that it’s always a busier than usual time for Early Childhood Education and Care services as they finalise transition to school arrangements, new enrolments, end-of-year celebrations and say goodbye to leaving staff and induct new staff. As expected, this results in a greater demand for support from our Member Solutions Team and I would urge services requiring support with matters such as calculating staff entitlements to have their requests to us by the advertised deadlines. Also, before contacting our enquiry line, please ensure you avail yourself of our supporting resources such as our IR Bulletin and upcoming Webinar: Mandatory Vaccinations – Understanding your Next Steps. The IR Bulletin in particular will answer many of your questions including managing 2022 staff contracts, and the upcoming capability assessment.
ELAA reached a couple of key milestones this week with our Board signing off on our new ELAA advocacy strategy. I encourage you to take a look at a quick snapshot of the strategy by CLICKING HERE . We were also proud to release (in conjunction with Community Early Learning Australia (CELA) and Community Child Care Association (CCC)) our joint workforce report, Investing in our future: growing the education and care workforce, which has recently been reported on in sector publications. The report draws on member data across around 3300 sites, and reveals high levels of workforce attrition during the first six months of the year and difficulty filling vacancies. ELAA will continue to advocate for further support to attract, develop and retain our workforce at a state and a federal level.
Thanks to everyone who made our recent AGM such a success. The stellar guest speakers provided fantastic insights into the early days of ELAA (then KPV), including the many challenges facing our sector that continue to this day. I’m also delighted that the seven board members up for election were re-elected unopposed.
Take care and stay safe.
David Worland
CEO ELAA
