When you join your local ACA State Body, you also become a member of the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) nationally.

This means that in addition to the practical guidance and support you receive from your ACA State Body, you also reap the benefits of ACA's important national work. 

How does ACA National support ACA members?

We support our state bodies and their members via the following ongoing activities:

• Policy & representation on behalf of nation-wide early learning sector 
• Regular engagement with national sector stakeholders
• Development and support of national research relevant to the early learning sector
• Ongoing national communications to members and external stakeholders (via ACA website, social media platforms, regular emails to members)
• Ongoing media engagement 
• Management and co-ordination of resources for Early Childhood Educators’ Day

ACA's primary objectives in the 2020 COVID-19 climate

The most significant challenges for ACA last year were:

• Impact of COVID-19 on the sector and ensuring its survival
• Consulting with our national member base about the impact from week to week for live updates
• Advocating on behalf of the sector to relevant government stakeholders
• Educating our members about the ECEC Relief Package and the ECEC Recovery Package
• Ongoing policy submissions

Political advocacy in 2020

As a non-partisan organisation, ACA aims to maintain positive relationships with all political parties, with the clear goal of ensuring that every child in Australia children is given the same opportunities and has the best start in life, whilst supporting a healthy, viable early learning sector. 

ACA is now a highly-recognised, well-trusted representive body and source of information for Australia's early learning sector.

Throughout 2020, we engaged regularly with the Federal Government & relevant sector stakeholders about: 

• the devastating impact of COVID-19 on early learning services
• Child Care Subsidy (CCS) funding arrangements
• the implementation of NQF
• industrial relations issues

As the year progressed, ensuring the survival of the early learning sector throughout the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic was ACA's fundamental priority.

ACA President Paul Mondo and Vice President Nesha Hutchinson held regular discussions with Dan Tehan, (then) Minister for Education, Skills and Employment, along with key Departmental staff to make sure they understood the devastating impact of many families withdrawing and/or un-enrolling their children, and the desperate need for immediate financial support to the sector.

During this time the importance of our sector was very much recognised, not only in terms of the positive benefits to children, particularly in supporting vulnerable children and essential workers through the peak of the crisis, but also as the bedrock of Australia’s economy.

ACA engaged with the Federal and State Governments through face-face-meetings, regular policy submissions and also Departmental reference groups. ACA is extremely proud of its advocacy efforts during 2020, which were instrumental in providing the government with meaningful information that allowed for the development of a rapid policy response including the ECEC Relief Package and the Child Care Recovery Package in Victoria.

We are extremely grateful to Minister Tehan, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister for listening to our sector and recognising the importance of ensuring the continued operation and vaibility of our sector.

Media Engagement in 2020

ACA media releases and media interviews generate media coverage to help build community awareness of the issues affecting the sector. 

As a sector, we can all be proud of the efforts we have all made to stand by our families and our teams of staff, to keep the lights on and the doors open during one of the most difficult years for the early learning sector in living history.

ACA policy recommendations for 2021 & beyond

ACA continues to engage with the Federal Government with a focus on:

• the affordability of early learning for all Australian families and their young children.
• the extension of Universal Access funding & equity of dissemination across all service types in all states.
• the supply of early learning services - new developments must align with demonstrable need, therefore addressing over/undersupply issues.
• ongoing investment in the early learning workforce to address critical shortage of qualified candidates.

Your member engagement is critical!

We simply can't do any of this advocacy work without your valuable input - the feedback from our members is an enormously powerful tool that allows us to report on the immediate state of the early learning sector to the government, the media and key stakeholders. 

ACA is extremely grateful to all of our members for sharing their feedback on a range of subject matter areas via our surveys throughout 2020:

• Impact of COVID-19 pandemic – Child Care Subsidy & ECEC Relief Package
• Under/oversupply & occupancy levels – Urban Economics survey and report
• How the DDA & the Disability Standards apply to the ECEC sector
• Vocational training

This important data was used in our submissions and advocacy efforts, to help paint an accurate picture of how early learning service providers were being directly impacted by environmental factors such as COVID-19 and the regulatory framework.

Your ACA Membership keeps you informed

ACA National continues to keep all members across NSW, VIC, TAS, SA, WA and QLD informed of relevant news at the national level via our:

• ACA Monthly eBulletin featuring the President's Report (via email)
• ACA Member Alerts - updates on important issues as they come to hand (via email)
• ACA social media channels - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• ACA website including the ACA blogpage for service providers

Thank you for your ongoing support

ACA greatly appreciates the ongoing support of each and every one of our members across the country, all of whom allow the continuation of our important work representing the early learning sector.

In addition to the all of the national activities outlined above, your ACA membership also provides you with an enormous suite of benefits including access to regular practical support and advice on running your service, complying with regulation, discounts on key sector supplier products and services, updates on sector news and access to valuable training opportunities and conferences.

We thank you for your continued membership. ACA is proud to continue to advocating on your behalf and keeping you informed in 2021.

If you’re not an ACA member and would like to join up or find out more, contact your ACA State Body at your earliest convenience, to talk to you about your membership options.