The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is a not-for-profit, member-funded organisation advocating for the future of Australia's children.
We work on behalf of long day care owners and operators to ensure families and their children have an opportunity to access affordable, high quality early learning services throughout Australia.
The following update has been provided by the Department of Education, Skills & Employement (DESE).
The Australian Government has announced a suite of reforms over five years for the Australian Apprenticeships Incentive System for employers and Australian Apprentices to support the pipeline of skilled workers needed to support Australia’s economic recovery.
In addition, the Australian Government has extended the successful Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) and Completing Apprenticeship Commencement (CAC) wage subsidies for apprentices and trainees, at a cost of $365.3 million over five years. Enrolments for the BAC wage subsidy, which provides employers with 12 months of wage subsidy support, were due to close on 30 March 2022. They will now remain open until 30 June 2022.
Any business that receives the BAC wage subsidy will also then be eligible for extended support through the CAC wage subsidy in the second and third year of a BAC-supported apprenticeship until 30 June 2027.
The following update has been provided by our friends at Childcare Centre Desktop for services in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria.
With new legislation recently passed in NSW for organisations including early childcare education and care services to implement the Child Safe Standards, and services in Victoria required to implement the (new) Victorian Child Safe Standards from July 2022, approved providers may be feeling quite overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin to ensure compliance.
Breathe - remember your priority as early childhood education and care providers is to provide a child-safe environment and promote children’s health, safety and wellbeing. Many systems are already in place under the NQF to keep children safe and help your service be compliant with the standards (existing and new standards).
The article below is a message from our friend Mark Evans, Owner/Director of Child Care Centre Desktop.
Here we are! Twenty months of uncertainty and now entering an equally uncertain period of a so called 'new normal'.
As it stands, we really do not know how this transition is going to work out. We don't know if we'll be locked down again due to a local outbreak, and we don't know for how long. But we do know it's part of the 'new normal'.
We're still a little in the dark in respect of managing those who are vaccinated as opposed to those who are not. And, from a legal standpoint we have no confidence in how to deal with the situations around individuals who make the choice not to be vaccinated. But we do know it's part of this 'new normal'.
In respect of the business of childcare, how do we get back what we once had? How long is it going to take? Who's going to help us? And where do we begin?
Why ACA has partnered with the Michael Hughes Foundation
ACA’s vision is a future where every child in Australia has access to high quality, affordable and sustainable early learning programs.
In line with this vision, the provision of a safe environment which fosters the good health of the children, their families and the staff at each early learning service is paramount.
Whilst first aid qualifications and ongoing staff training are mandatory requirements for early learning services under the relevant legislation in the Education & Care Services National Regulations, the National Quality Framework and the Work Health & Safety Act, these requirements do not include mandatory equipment for the emergency response to cardiac arrest. Over 30,000 cardiac arrests happen out of hospitals each year. The data demonstrates that cardiac arrest does not discriminate - it can happen at any age in life for varying reasons.