Council & Business
6 August, 2024
Plan to support childcare workforce introduced
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has endorsed a new framework to grow and develop the local early childhood workforce in preparation for a $14 billion statewide overhaul.
The Central Goldfields Early Childhood Education Workforce Plan 2024-2029 was adopted at the council’s ordinary meeting last month.
The plan was funded by the Victorian Department of Education’s one-off Workforce Planning Support grant, intended to support local government’s implementation of the State Government’s Best Start, Best Life Reforms.
The $14 billion expansion of the program, announced in 2022, includes:
• The implementation of free kindergarten for three and four-year-old children.
• Transition of four-year-old kinder to statewide Pre-Prep, with a program launch slated for the Central Goldfields in 2027 and a 30-hour-a-week program fully integrated by 2031.
• Roll out of 15-hour-a-week three-year-old kindergarten program across the state by 2029.
• Establishment of 50 government-owned and operated early learning centres, with a centre arranged at Clunes Primary School by 2026 and centres confirmed to be built in Avoca and Maryborough.
The universal 30-hour-a-week Pre-Prep program was originally announced to be fully implemented by 2026, however, state budget documents state the rollout has been pushed back to 2036.
Delays have also hampered the construction of the 50 new early learning centres, with the last 20, which could include the Avoca and Maryborough facilities, now expected to be built by 2032.
The State Government has blamed these pushbacks on an insufficient amount of early childhood teachers to facilitate the rollout.
Council’s adopted strategy states “the kindergarten reforms and impending early learning centres will require an additional 30.9 equivalent full time (EFT) qualified staff to be employed across the shire by 2031”.
The framework also mentioned that the currently employed 62.6 EFT staff is unable to keep up with the demand across the seven kindergartens and two childcare centres in the region.
Council’s agenda at last month’s meeting reads that “local facilities are currently capping enrolments below licenced capacity due to sustained inability to fill positions with qualified educators”.
Also mentioned in the plan is that “waiting lists across [childcare] services are sitting at approximately 145 children” and “local childcare services have expressed their frustration at having to turn away families from care, many of whom are struggling to meet increased interest rates/rental costs”.
According to Central Goldfields Shire councillor Chris Meddows-Taylor, who introduced the motion to implement the strategy, council is well aware of the shortages affecting the current workforce.
“The Best Start, Best Life program mentioned in this strategy is a State Government program that we very much embrace and champion within the shire,” he said.
“The added challenges of three-year-olds in the kindergarten and the additional benefits of the early years in kindergarten has created a shortage we’re already experiencing with early years educators.
“We need to do something about that and this plan is an attempt to try and look forward and say what will our needs be given we already are facing shortages.”
Challenges in attracting and retaining qualified staff identified in the plan include lack of sufficient transport, remoteness of community and ironically lack of childcare —issues that have continuously plagued other local industries.
The framework aims to combat these issues by developing the following:
• An early years communication and marketing strategy to help build the local profile of the sector for upskilling and recruitment.
• An in-house recruitment model involving traineeship, placement and work experience opportunities.
• A Central Goldfields early childhood teachers network aimed to foster relationships and opportunities.
Cr Meddows Taylor said these procedures aim to create a roadmap to address these issues and create a brighter future for future generations.
“[We need to address] where [early childhood educators] are to be found, how can we best provide to meet those needs so that we prepare for the future and we need to do that otherwise our children will suffer,” he said.
“Workforce planning is exactly what we should be doing and as we’ve always recognised with Go Goldfields, it’s about partnership, we can’t do it all by ourselves.
“A partner approach is exactly what we need to do in planning for the future, planning for those shortages that we have and remediating those to meet the needs of our children to give our children the best start in life.”
The adoption of the plan included a recommendation to “write to the Victorian Minister for Children (Lizzie Blandthorn) to pursue a partnered approach that includes additional funds required to implement the plan”.