OUR DEMANDS
“Children – too precious for profit”
We call on the Australian Government to make a commitment to
retaining and developing community owned, not-for-profit children’s
services as a key support for children, parents, families and
communities.
The National Association of Community Based Children’s
Services (NACBCS) believes that the best way to meet the needs
of children from birth to age 8 years is through strong, well
connected communities which have the infrastructure to provide
care, education and support to all children.
Community owned not-for-profit children’s services are
an essential part of that infrastructure. They must be retained
along side commercial services in the mixed economy of child
care in order to build communities that respond to all children
and families.
The Australian Government is allowing unchecked growth of publicly
listed corporate child care chains – they can never take
the place of locally owned, parent run services.
We call on the Australian Government to make a commitment to
retaining and developing community owned, not-for-profit children’s
services as a key support for children, parents, families and
communities.
OUR DEMANDS ARE:
Fund community child care
– Provide capital funding to
make sure there is at least one community owned and managed early
childhood service for every
800 children up to the age of 5 years
Increase Wages for Child Carers
– By increasing
Child Care Benefit (CCB) so that services can pay decent wages
to attract and retain skilled and qualified
staff, while charging fees that parents can afford
Stop Destructive Competition
– Bring back planning controls
by setting a cap on the number of CCB places for long day care
in each community to stop
uncontrolled growth in areas that already have enough services
– Retain
and strengthen the planning controls for Outside School Hours Care
(OSHC) to ensure that the number of not-for-profit
community owned OSHC services does not drop as commercial operators
move in
RATIONALE AND COSTINGS FOR OUR DEMANDS
“Quality child care now – community child care -
the only effective way”
Why fund community child care?
So that:
– parents have a genuine choice between not-for-profit
community owned child care and other providers
– every
community has a service to act as the focus of family support
and community building activities such as:
- Actively engaging
parents in decisions about the care of their children
- Mutual support
for parents reading to children
- Outreach programs for adult
literacy
- Building confidence in the
service system
What
funding would make the difference?
Provision of capital funding
to make sure there is at least one community owned and managed
early childhood service for every
800 children up to the age of 5 years
NB: A different ratio of services to children is needed in areas
of low population density
This will not happen in struggling communities without government
resourcing.
What will it cost taxpayers?
$1.05 billion
investment from government for capital funding for 700 new community
owned long day care centres
Why Increase Wages for Child Carers?
Child
care is one of the most important roles in society yet the awards
for child care workers set wages at ridiculously low
levels – less than supermarket checkout staff. Children’s
services are facing a crisis in attracting and retaining skilled
and qualified staff to provide quality care to children.
How can the Australian Government support
increased wages for child carers?
By increasing Child Care Benefit
so that services can pay decent
wages to attract and retain skilled and qualified staff, while
charging fees that parents can afford
What will it cost taxpayers?
Nothing – this
can be achieved at no cost by eliminating CCB for very high income
families and increasing it for low and
middle income families.
Why Stop Destructive Competition?
Some not-for-profit
sponsors of child care around the country are questioning why
they should stay in the business now that
corporate chains can deliver a service and generate a profit.
But many parents are passionate and articulate in their demand
for choice of publicly owned, not-for-profit child care.
Government must act to ensure that parents have a genuine choice
of community owned, not-for-profit child care.
How can government
stop destructive competition?
– Bring back planning controls
by setting a cap on the number of CCB places for long day care
in each community to stop
the uncontrolled growth in areas that already have sufficient
services
– Retain and strengthen the planning controls for Outside
School Hours Care (OSHC) to ensure that the number of not-for-profit
community owned OSHC services does not drop as commercial operators
move in
What will it cost taxpayers?
Nothing.
CURRENT
POLICIES – HOW DO THEY STACK UP?
How do the Coalition Government and ALP Opposition policies
support communities and children?
Coalition Government Policies
NACBCS welcomes:
- the increased level of interest in early childhood
currently shown by the Australian Government
- the recent
grant of $250,000 capital funding for a new community owned
child care service in rural Victoria
- the attempts to develop
a National Agenda for Early Childhood
NACBCS is critical of:
- inadequacy of CCB to enable services to cover costs
of adequate wages and conditions
- unchecked growth of publicly
listed corporate child care chains
- the free market approach
to development of new child care services
- government failure
to fund the building of new child care facilities
- no regular
funding for maintenance and upgrade of community owned child
care facilities
- the piecemeal nature of the current government
initiatives for children, such as lack of co-ordination with
state and local
government initiatives, separate advisory committees for
child care and parenting, pilot programs scattered throughout the country
ALP Opposition Policies
NACBCS welcomes:
- the commitment to government sharing with parents
the cost of increased wages for child care workers
- the commitment
to fund new community child care services
- universal approach to children’s policy, such as reading
to all babies
NACBCS is critical of:
- the failure to recognise community owned child care
services as the logical focus point for reading programs and
other initiatives
OUR VISION -
A NATIONAL POLICY FOR AUSTRALIA– 2004 and beyond
“Caring for children - not for profit”
Australia is a sophisticated nation built on a strong democratic
base. Parents in local communities across Australia have been
one of the key groups involved in developing Australia’s
early childhood services.
If Government provides leadership and support these volunteers
who have managed Australia’s children’s services
for the past decades will continue to actively participate to
deliver quality services and to help build strong and cohesive
communities.
The community managed sector will continue to work alongside
the commercial operators who provide quality services to young
children. With the community sector strengthened to foster community
building while providing quality care, the early childhood sector
can deliver an excellent range of services that will enhance
our children’s development in the critical early years
and enable parents to work, have respite and be supported with
their child rearing responsibilities.
The following is a blue print for the national policy NACBCS
will support for Australia in the year 2004 and beyond.
NACBCS VISION
The Australian Government will have the goal of:
- Delivering a universally available and affordable
high quality range of children’s services which foster
children’s
development, support families and build community
The Australian Government will:
- Invest in a range of services for the first five
years of childhood in recognition of their importance for optimal
development
of all children
- Develop a system of early childhood services
that not only supports child development but breaks down the
isolation of families
- Develop a system of early childhood services
that helps build and strengthen communities and contributes
to the building
of a healthy democracy
- Provide additional funding to ensure access to services
by disadvantaged children
- Fund local communities to develop
a better integrated and co-ordinated system of child and
family support services
The Australian Government will develop an early childhood system
based on the recognition that:
- Community owned child care plays a the critical
role in building community and strengthening democracy
- government
investment in community owned child care is an investment in
the social and economic life of Australia
- children and their families need a full range of children’s
services
- barriers between different types of early childhood
services must be broken down to better utilise community resources
- the full cost of delivering high quality early childhood
services that meet children’s diverse needs including
cultural and developmental differences needs
- well remunerated
staff capable of providing the high quality
care and educational opportunities critical in the early years
are essential to the wellbeing of our children
- many Australians
have a limited capacity to pay significant fees for early childhood
services
- geographic communities have varying capacity to develop
and sustain quality early childhood services
- Government funding is needed to ensure that Australia has
a high quality children’s services system
HOW COMMUNITY OWNED CHILDREN’S SERVICES BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL
Community owned children’s services are owned by community
groups or organisations, rather than by individuals. They are
run on a not for profit, break-even basis by voluntary parent
and community committees of management, local government, church
groups or tertiary institutions.
Any operating surplus is directed back to the service. There
are no owners, directors or shareholders requiring a financial
return on an investment.
Community owned children’s services, be they parent run,
or run by a non-profit organisation, have unique features which
enable them to contribute to community building and social capital
in a way which commercial services can never do.
Community owned services empower families through genuine partnership,
to advocate on behalf of their children and their children’s
services. Rather than passive consumers, parents are able to
actively participate in the care and education of their children.
It is a model in which professionals are “on tap, not on
top”. (Brennan 1994)
Fundamental to community owned services is the active involvement
of parents in the care and education of their child, not just
as consumers but as high level decision makers thus developing
a true partnership in the care and education of their children.
This high level collaboration can lead to new and innovative
ways of providing programs, thus ensuring programs remain truly
reflective of the needs of the children and the community. Because
they are owned by the community, there are no structural impediments
to the formation of partnerships with other not-for-profit community
service providers.
So the distinguishing features of community owned children’s
services are:
- empowerment i.e. genuine sharing of power between service
users, manager and service providers
- inclusion i.e. work to
respond to needs of everyone, including hard-to-service groups
such as refugees, people on low incomes
and geographically isolated families
- integration with other
community services i.e. operating as part of community infrastructure
- not for personal profit
STRATEGIES FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
In order to achieve the responsive system of early childhood
services that is needed by Australian families, their children
and the Australian economy the Federal Government must put
in place strategies which deliver:
- an investment of at least
1% GDP in services for children up
to 5 years of age
- a fee assistance scheme that limits parent
contributions to a maximum of 15% of nett household income
- in every community sufficient high quality early childhood
services, offering care and developmental opportunities over
a long
day for either part-time, full time or occasional usage, to provide
at least 2 days per week access to every child under school
entry age.
- participation by all early childhood services that are in
receipt of Government funds (either directly or through income
support)
in local networks of child and family support services so
that families can be connected with the supports they need for child
health, early intervention and family support
- one community
owned and managed early childhood service, offering a full
range of care and developmental opportunities, for
every 800 children under the age of 5 years
- all community owned services funded
to enable the volunteer committees of management to undertake
their obligations related to community
building, family strengthening and community participation
- capital funding made available for the development of community
managed services in areas of particular economic and social
disadvantage with ongoing recurrent funding tied to achievement of defined
Government outcomes related to community building achievements
- Federal Government commitment to early childhood service
funding to be enshrined in Legislation
- partnerships
with the community to develop and deliver a quality children’s
services system through expansion of the current Child Care
Advisory Group to establish a National Advisory
Council
- a nationally consistent system of high quality, affordable
and accessible early childhood services including Community
Building
Officers funded in each region to facilitate regional planning
committees and capital funding to disadvantaged areas
- review
the structure of Child Care Benefit in recognition of the need
for an appropriate remuneration package for early
childhood workers
- improved staff:child ratios
- at least one-tenth
of the working week of children’s
services staff recognised as non contact time for preparation
and on-going
training and professional development
- an improved quality
improvement and assurance system with alternative review methods
including spot checks and imposing penalties
for non-compliance
- targets for all funded services, including those whose
families receive Child Care Benefit, to ensure that disadvantaged
children and those with special need are accessing services
- increased indigenous
child care services
- funding to enable participation by children
with special needs in early childhood services, including refugee
children
and children from culturally diverse backgrounds
- an appropriately remunerated
and funded package for specially trained and experienced
early childhood workers to work
with children with special needs
In conclusion
NACBCS calls on the Federal Government in 2004 to act to
provide Australia’s children with the best possible
start by seriously investing in a system of quality children’s
services which can make Australia a clever and civilised nation
into the future.
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