20 AprELAA CEO Update 20 April 2021
Dear members and friends
Welcome to the first eNews for Term 2.
VECTEA
I am pleased to announce that the eagerly anticipated Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement (VECTEA) access and voting process will be re-commencing this week, following the recent Fair Work Commission hearing to confirm the list of respondent employers.
An updated VECTEA helps our sector to:
- support the effective implementation of Government policy that is increasingly recognising the value of high quality ECEC
- cater to the needs of all approved providers irrespective of their size and the number of sites they operate
- make it possible to attract, develop, and retain high-quality staff into the sector
- make ECEC affordable for families and viable for approved providers.
Access period
The access period will commence on Wednesday 21 April 2021 and conclude on Sunday 2 May 2021. This is a period during which your employee has the opportunity to read through the proposed Agreement before they are asked to vote on whether they approve the VECTEA 2020. Please note this is not the voting period. ELAA has recently sent communications to members explaining what employers need to do including supplying their staff with explanatory materials. Please make sure you read this information and supply your staff with the relevant documents by Wednesday 21 April. CLICK HERE for more details.
Voting period
The VECTEA 2020 vote will open on Monday, 3 May 2021 (00:01 hours AEST) and close on Monday, 10 May 2021 (23:59 hours AEST).
A reminder about retrospective payment obligations
A reminder that the 2020 VECTEA sets out translation salaries and subsequent wage increases for employees over the life of the Agreement. Translation to the new salary and career structure will be made retrospectively effective from the first pay period on or after 1 October 2020. The Agreement will come into effect seven days after approval by the Fair Work Commission.
Upon commencement of the Agreement, employees will receive back pay to their translation salary, calculated from the first pay period on or after 1 October 2020. Following approval of the VECTEA, the Department of Education and Training (DET) will provide services with a lump sum payment based on each service’s number of enrolments for the October to December 2020 back pay obligations. Please refer to our 15 December 2020 update, published here, regarding this arrangement.
Under the new Agreement, there will be a 1 April 2021 pay increase for teachers at level 2-1 and above. The first pay increase for educators (and teachers at level 1-1 and 1-2) under the new Agreement will be October 2021. All early childhood services were provided with a 2.5 per cent increase in the per capita funding rate from 1 January 2021. DET has made significant accommodations to increase the per capita funding rate for services covered by the VECTEA 2020 by a further 4.25 per cent, which will take effect after the Agreement is approved. The increased per capita rate for Agreement services is for wage increases for employees for the 2021 calendar year and will be backdated to 1 January 2021.
I encourage you to consider creating a provision account to accommodate these wage increases under the new VECTEA. ELAA will continue to support services during this transition period with implementation resources, including calculators, to assist with these changes.
ELAA online forum – Child Information Sharing Reform and 3-year-old funded kindergarten roll-out
A quick reminder about ELAA’s next live online forum at 11a.m, 27 April. Join Lisa Gandolfo, Executive Director – Victorian, for an update on what Victorian ECEC services need to know and do regarding the latest Child Information Sharing reforms and where to go for more information. Following Lisa’s presentation Bronwyn FitzGerald, Executive Director, Kindergarten Reform Implementation, from the Victorian Department of Education and Training, will provide a timely update on 3-year-old funded kindergarten roll-out. I encourage Committees of Management, Early Years Managers, approved providers, and educational leaders – don’t to register for this important information forum. CLICK HERE to register.
Learning Brought to Life Professional Development
As you would no doubt know by now ELAA has launched an excellent, affordable and easily accessible online professional development platform for the early childhood education and care sector called ‘Learning Brought to Life’. Coming soon (21 April) are some excellent live online sessions with Anne Belcher called ‘Making Meaningful Music with Our Early Learners’ plus a variety of Free training sessions for Committees of Management covering governance, employee management, financial management, and AGMs and handover. There’s also a great selection of ‘self-paced’ modules to choose from including social and emotional learning with Think Equal; Employee Management and Development, and Employee Management in a Crisis. CLICK HERE to find out more.
National Quality Framework (NQF) review
As you are no doubt aware, ACECQA is consulting on the review of the National Quality Framework. The review is wide ranging covering diverse elements which will impact the way services are required to operate, such as how to manage workforce shortages, the safety of children including during transportation and safe sleep practices, and incorporating National Child Safe Standards. Other questions relate to the service design and governance. Many of the issues go to the heart of quality outcomes and the vision of continuous quality improvement embodied by the framework. ELAA will be making a submission to the review and invites you to share your views. CLICK HERE to find out more.
