14 DecEnd of year pulse check
It has been a very busy year for the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector. From recovering from the pandemic lockdowns to the recent Victorian flooding, with the additional new free kinder reforms, 2022 has demonstrated, yet again, how resilient our sector is.
Throughout 2022 ELAA’s Advocacy Team has been conducting end-of-term pulse check surveys to collect data and monitor how our membership is tracking with all the different obstacles the year has brought. Thank you to all our members who have submitted responses to the pulse checks. It has been a great tool for our team in supporting our knowledge basis for Advocacy work.
The Term four pulse check has been formatted to include some questions directed to our standalone services and some for our multi-service and EYM membership. This has allowed us to gain a greater understanding of our members’ experiences with tailored data to inform our 2023 advocacy strategy.
We are continuing to see a high level of vacancies for Certificate III and Diploma qualified staff. Workforce shortage is a well-known issue for the ECEC sector and the survey revealed that vacancies have risen since July. ELAA has been working on evidence-based solutions for this issue during 2022 and will continue to prioritise Certificate III and Diploma attraction and retention in 2023.
Our pulse check reflects a trend of decreased enrolments in 2023. Although not all enrolments are finalised in December, we will be interested in comparing this result with our first pulse check in 2023.
When asked what the main concerns of our membership were the latest pulse check revealed that the roll-out of 30-hour pre-prep and staffing shortages were flagged as the biggest concern of our respondents.
Over 76% of respondents that opted-in for free Kinder in 2023, said that the amount was either the same as or more than what they currently charge for Kinder. There were several comments that expressed concern that this would not be sustainable in the long term with the current service model.
We received lots of positive feedback for ELAA’s advocacy work in 2022. Especially in our close work with the Victorian Department of Education and Training and our ability to connect EYMs in reference groups. We hope to continue this and expand internal networking opportunities for all our members in 2023. This will be championed at the commencement of our Best Start, Best Life consultations – CLICK HERE to read more.
Thank you for the feedback regarding where we can improve, we were happy to see that these areas are already in development and will be addressed in the new year.
Thank you again for your responses to the 2022 pulse check surveys. We encourage you to continue responding to these in 2023. We hope you enjoy your holidays.
