01 AugAdvocacy update from ELAA’s Acting CEO
ELAA has been busy advocating for members in a variety of forums during Term Three.
Best Start Best Life Advisory Group
I’ve been pleased to attend the Best Start, Best Life (BSBL) Taskforce Advisory Group and to hear feedback from across the sector on the scale up to 30 hours of Pre-prep, the opportunities, and the challenges. We look forward to inviting the BSBL team to share this feedback with our members shortly.
Discussions with the Victorian Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-prep
Last week, the ELAA Chairperson, Sue West, and I met with Minister Stitt, Victorian Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep. It was fantastic to see alignment in advocacy in a number of areas, including our mutual support and advocacy for changes to federal legislation to enable kindergartens to access Child Care Subsidy.
There was deep recognition of the importance of maintaining and investing in the workforce to support the scale up of three and four-year old kindergarten and to achieve the outcomes for children we all desire. We were heartened to hear this and the Minister’s encouragement to commence the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement 2024 (VECTEA) negotiations with haste. ELAA has started our thinking on the next VECTEA and look forward to introducing our approach to members toward the end of this term.
We spoke to the Minister about the Kindergarten Inclusion Support (KIS) pilots, and our desire to work with the Department of Education to ensure the pilots are inclusive of and responsive to member needs and insights. This was warmly received and encouraged.
Early childhood sector financial challenges
We have also been working across the sector to understand financial issues, including and beyond changes to wages following the Fair Work wage increases. This includes advocating to the Victorian Department of Education on the need to increase kindergarten funding to match the high rate of inflation. We will keep you informed as we progress our advocacy on these issues and more.
Megan O’Connell
Acting CEO, ELAA
