ACA Queensland President’s Report Over the past six months, the ACA Qld team has been actively involved in advocating for political reform to improve outcomes for children, families, workforce, and services. ACA Qld has been advocating for reform to improve outcomes for children, families, early childhood educators, and service providers. We met with over forty Ministers and candidates from all sides of politics to discuss our ACA Qld State election manifesto – What Queensland parents want. What our children need and numerous media engagements. I would like to thank ACA Qld Vice President Jae Fraser and CEO Brent Stokes for their assistance with this enormous task. We congratulate Labor for retaining government for the next four years. ACA will continue to advocate with all sides of the government to ensure children have the #BestStartInLife. Labor committed to supporting our advocacy for the long term (5 years) extension of the Universal Access (kindergarten) funding. We would like to acknowledge Queensland Greens who provided a written endorsement for all of our policy recommendations outlined in our manifesto. Our focus shifts to end of year celebrations as an important feature in the calendar for most services, in particular for children making the transition to Prep. As Queensland transitions to stage 5 and 6 restrictions over the coming months, subject to the results of the COVID Safe Check Points, social distancing requirements and other restrictions continue to remain in place. Services will need to continue to follow their COVID Safe plans and stay up to date with current Queensland Health advice in relation to gatherings. We were pleased to host another successful sponsor evening on Monday 16 November, thank you to all those who attended. ACA Qld is incredibly grateful for the support of our Supporter Members, in particular our foundation member, The Guild Group.
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EARLY EDITION > SUMMER 2020
All sectors have been impacted by COVID-19 however we were already experiencing workforce shortages, magnified by the additional requirement for many services to engage a second early childhood teacher from January. This places our sector in a unique position that when unemployment is at the highest levels experienced in many years, we are conservatively looking at recruiting more than 1000 Queenslanders now. ACA is exploring a range of options with Government to address these shortages and improve recruitment. While more needs to be done, we welcomed the $1.2 billion Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidy, supporting service providers to take on new trainees and apprentices, to build a pipeline of skilled workers to support sustained economic recovery. With subsidies of 50% of wages paid between 5 October 2020 and 30 September 2021, to a maximum of $7,000 per quarter, now is a great time to put on a trainee at your service and what better way to train them but through your very own college, the College for Australian Early Childhood Educators (CAECE). A registered training organisation committed to delivering high quality and practical training to the early childhood education and care sector. CAECE currently offers the CHC30113 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and CHC50113 Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care. For more information please contact the CAECE team at admin@ caece.com.au or phone 07 3299 5784. With 2021 just around the corner, now is the time to order any additional copies of the ACA Qld 2021 Diary! To attain this amazing resource please visit the shop located on our website or contact the office on 07 3808 2366 or qld@childcarealliance.org.au.
I hope many of you are aware of Brent’s difficult decision to depart ACA Qld and CAECE as your CEO at the end of 2020. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Brent for everything that he has achieved for our members and the sector during the past four years, his dedication and hard work never go unnoticed. It has been an absolute pleasure working with Brent and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavors. We are excited to announce that Brent has indicated his intention to remain on the ACA Qld Management Committee. So, we are pleased to say this will not be the last time we see Brent! We look forward to catching him at a member meeting or our 2021 conference. I would like to thank the amazing ACA Qld office team and committee for their ongoing support for the early learning sector, especially during this unprecedented year. We truly value your dedication and aspiration in working towards giving all children the #BestStartinLife. Lastly and most importantly I would like to thank you, our valued members and supporter members for your ongoing support, we value everything you do for our sector and we hope you all have a safe and enjoyable festive season. We look forward to an amazing year in 2021 and wish you all a Merry Christmas, happy and safe New Year!
Majella Fitzsimmons ACA Qld President
