03 OctTerm 3 member pulse check survey results
Thanks to all the ELAA members who completed our Pulse Check survey. Results are in and they show some great opportunities for development and give great insight as to how your services are running and some of the key issues faced by our members.
The majority of survey respondents represented three and four-year-old funded kindergarten and Long Day Care (LDC). It was great to see we also had a number of services representing occasional care, Out of School Hours Care and Family Day Care.
A few questions were asked to get an understanding on the key issues that are impacting your services and the highest point of concern indicated by almost 90% of respondents is staffing shortages where we found just over 30% of responses indicated immediate attention required.
Further highlighting this point, respondents indicated that over 10% of vacancies advertised at the start of Term 3, remain unfilled. Positions impacted by these vacancies are diploma qualified educators with 57% of responses indicating one or more vacancies, followed by certificate III qualified educators as identified by 49% of respondents.
The next highest ranked issues as indicated by the survey were:
- inclusion support/responding to children with additional needs
- pay and conditions of the workforce
- financial viability
- filling committee positions/retaining committee members
- responding to high levels of vulnerable children and families
- rent stability.
To further assist your services, we asked if there were any resources, training, or advocacy issues/topics you would like ELAA to focus on moving into Term 4. We had a great range of suggestions with a few trending ideas across resourcing including financial support and professional development. Some common recommendations made for training and support included managing challenging behaviours in children and how to mitigate burnout amongst staff.
Thanks to all the members who took the time to complete the survey and thank you for the kind responses from members regarding ELAA’s work so far. A quick reminder that Pulse Check Surveys are sent out at the end of every term to all ELAA members, and any input is greatly appreciated.
