06 MayELAA CEO Update 6 May 2021
Good news for EYMs … government announces new grants
I received welcome news from the Victorian Department of Education and Training late last week with the confirmation that a new, one-off, grant is to be made available to Victorian Early Years Manager run services. At a total value of $3M, the grants will assist EYM services running or commencing a funded Three-Year-Old program and are a direct result of ELAA’s advocacy to government on behalf of EYMs. CLICK HERE for more information on this exciting news.
The VECTEA 2020 vote closes Monday, 10 May
A reminder to all signatory services to the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement (VECTEA). As previously advised via ELAA’s Special eNews, the VECTEA vote will close on Monday, 10 May 2021 (23:59 hours AEST). Please encourage any eligible staff in your service to cast their vote before the deadline. CLICK HERE for more details.
Pre-federal budget announcement on Child Care
Ahead of the May 11 Federal Budget, the Australian government has flagged some significant reforms to the Child Care Subsidy system.
By now, most Early Childhood Education and Care providers would have heard the announcement, over the weekend, by the Australian government of a $1.7 billion increase to the federal child care budget through the increase of subsidy rates and the removal of the subsidy cap.
ELAA welcomes any funding initiatives intended to make quality child care more accessible and create more opportunity and incentive for women to participate in the workforce.
The changes will certainly help families with two or more children aged fiver and under (through increased subsidy rates) and those with a combined income of more than $189,390 (through the removal of the subsidy cap). See more details in the Minister’s announcement.
While the announcement is a step in the right direction, the changes may not reach far enough to assist our most vulnerable families. A recent analysis of the announcement by two Mitchell Institute policy analysts in an article in The Conversation suggests that the changes won’t greatly assist many low and middle income families, especially around 41% of families with one child aged five or under – these families will continue to spend over 7% of their disposable income on child care. ELAA remains conscious of the need for a system that makes access to quality childcare equitable for all Australian families.
The article in The Conversation also outlines a potential scenario where a rapidly expanding child care sector fuelled by more affordable child care may lead to diminished quality of service or tempt families to withdraw their children from formal kindergarten programs in favour of better subsidised child care only services. Clearly, we don’t wish to see more affordable childcare to come at the cost of quality or reduced kindergarten enrolments.
In the coming days I will be writing to the Hon. Alan Tudge, Minister for Education and Youth, to acknowledge the government’s efforts to make child care more affordable but to also reiterate those messages around the need to maintain quality standards, promote and support kindergarten programs, and the continued need to make Child Care more accessible to lower income families.
ELAA membership renewals
We are getting to that time of the year when we ask members to re-invest in their ELAA membership. The renewal period for the 2021-22 membership year will commence on 17 May 2021. Members will have until 31 July 2021 to renew their membership for the next membership year before the membership lapses.
Your ELAA membership is like having a whole other team of early childhood education and care service management experts and advocates just a phone call or mouse click away. You also get:
- high quality service management tools, tips and templates made just for early years services
- opportunities to Influence the future of our sector by working directly with ELAA through our Member Reference Groups
- exclusive member rates on specialised and targeted consultancy services tailored to your needs
- great deals on services and products from our preferred partners Bunnings, OfficeWorks, Australian Super, Bank First, Enrol Now (digital enrolment systems), and McArthur (recruitment)
- free recruitment advertising on our McArthur Job Board
- great member rates on live sessions and self-paced modules from our Learning Brought to Life professional development program
- exclusive member e-updates that include more detailed and targeted advice on vital topics such as industrial relations updates, wage decisions, COVID-19 management resources and more.
More information on the renewal process will be sent to members soon.
Professional Development
There are some great sessions coming up during May in our Learning Brought to Life Professional Development series including free webinars designed for service Committees of Management covering Employee Management and service governance. And stay tuned for more details on our upcoming live online session on 21 May with Lauren Heery and Maria Fong from the Centre for Community Child Health on what it means to be data literate when managing and early years service. CLICK HERE to find out more.
Welcome to Wendy Mason – our new Business Development Director
I am very pleased to announce the appointment of our new Business Development Director, Wendy Mason. Wendy has worked as a practitioner, project manager and as a senior manager/CEO in a diverse range of health and not-for-profit services in both metropolitan and rural settings including: community health, women’s health, aged care, disability, mental health, not-for-profit agencies, hospital networks, general practice and local government. She is well versed in partnership development, stakeholder engagement, strategic and area-based planning, business development and conceptual modelling. Wendy’s interest is supporting services to build evidence and translate research into actions that result in capable organisations and healthier and more resilient communities. Wendy has been published in a number of journals and has co-edited a book on Climate Change Adaptation for Health and Social Services. Her most recent role was Manager Prevention and Health Promotion at Diabetes Victoria.
Wendy will assume responsibility for new business cases, contract management, membership growth, partnerships, communications and marketing. She will also lead the way on developing and implementing a Business Development Strategy that will define our future pathways for growth.
Take care
David Worland
Chief Executive Officer
