Member for Robertson Gordon Reid has welcomed a draft report on the future of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Australia.
The draft report, A path to universal early childhood education and care, considers how to build an affordable, accessible, high quality, universal early learning system and includes a range of draft recommendations to achieve this.
“This is a huge issue on the Central Coast, and we’re getting on with strengthening childcare to make it cheaper and more accessible,” Reid said.
“I have recently met with local childcare advocates Jess Coulson, Mandy Millan and Samantha Mann to discuss issues facing childcare in the region including availability of spots, staff burnout, long wait times and attracting more people into early childhood education.
“I encourage those on the Central Coast to provide feedback on the government’s draft report.”
Reid said while there was more to do to establish a universal early childhood education and care system, the Federal Government was already making progress on some of the findings in the draft report.
The government’s Cheaper Child Care changes have cut the cost of early childhood education and care by 13.2 per cent.
Over the past 17 months, the government has announced funding to open 55 new early childhood education services in rural and regional communities, along with support to keep 441 existing services open.
Additionally, the government’s Early Childhood Education Workforce Package is helping to retain the existing highly skilled early learning workforce, with a focus on regional and remote services and First Nations organisations.
The Productivity Commission will hold public hearings in early-2024 on the draft report’s findings, with a final report to be provided to the Government by June 30, 2024.
The community can provide comment on the draft report by mid-February 2024 by visiting: www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/childhood/make-submission