Submission to the Early Childhood Education and Capacity Study

For more than 40 years SNAICC has advocated for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to Jobs and Skills Australia’s Early Childhood Education and Care Capacity Study (the ECEC Capacity Study).

The early years are a critical period in a child’s development, creating the foundations for lifelong learning and wellbeing. Participation in quality early learning environments positively impacts a child’s life outcomes and supports them to realise their full potential. Culture is a critical part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s development, identity and self-esteem and strengthens their overall health and wellbeing. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families to experience cultural safety, early years services must be grounded in cultural frameworks that reflect the protocols and practices of local families and communities.

Successive policy failures have resulted in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experiencing disproportionate disadvantage in relation to development and education outcomes in the early years. The ECEC Capacity Study provides an opportunity to address this through the strengthening of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector workforce.

Recommendations

SNAICC provides the following recommendations. The ECEC Capacity study should:

1. recognise and seek to find solutions to the broader policy, system and operational factors that impact current and future workforce needs, with a particular focus on the needs of ACCO early years workforce.
2. explicitly examine how funding arrangements for ACCO early years services impact their ability to meet their current and future workforce
3. include an explicit focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce both within ACCOs and across mainstream services.
4. include and ensure mechanisms are in place for accurate, consistent, and ongoing data collection of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce, led by ACCOs, in accordance with Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles.
5. recognise and explore the need for an alternative funding model for ACCO integrated early years services that allows for appropriate staffing ratios and competitive remuneration for staff.
6. recognise and explore the importance of cultural knowledge in the ECEC workforce, and ensure it is recognised as a critical skillset and remunerated accordingly.
7. acknowledge and explore the critical role of backbone support services for ACCO early years services to assist with workforce challenges and highlight the importance of these services being sustainably funded on an ongoing basis.
8. acknowledge and explore the critical role of ACCO led registered training organisations (RTOs) in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers to gain ECEC qualifications and highlight the importance of these organisations being sustainably funded on an ongoing basis.
9. consider the current qualification requirements across all levels under the National Quality Framework and the impact of these requirements on service delivery.