More must be done to attract quality childcare staff

Sydney Morning Herald

3 days ago

For the tens of thousands of NSW families who send their young children to childcare, it has been a difficult few weeks.
The news that an alleged paedophile had worked across several childcare sites in Melbourne has left parents asking: is my child safe?
As Emily Kowal and Nigel Gladstone write in today's Sun-Herald, concerns have now been raised about the reliability of publicly available quality ratings for Australia's childcare centres.
Parents are being warned that they cannot trust the National Quality Standard childcare centre ratings, with years passing between assessments (more than six for hundreds of centres in NSW).
In addition, NSW childcare centres in particular have become increasingly reliant on temporary waivers to excuse breaches of the standards, particularly in relation to staffing ratios.
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In Sydney's outer south-west, more than one in five centres have been excused to operate without meeting the requisite staffing level. The figure is also high in the city's north-west, south-west and on the Central Coast.
The reality is that we do not have enough childcare workers to meet demand. The presence of these waivers means parents in the city's western suburbs – a region where places are highly sought after – can return to work. To force centres to close until they meet staffing requirements would lock an unacceptable number of parents – especially mothers – out of the workforce.
As the heartbreaking stories in today's article reveal, the consequence of all this is, ultimately, children's safety: stories of injuries and improper first aid show what can happen to kids when their childcare is not providing adequate care.
The mothers who spoke to The Sun-Herald for today's story spoke of their guilt, regret and disappointment at sending their children to poor quality centres. That centres can be waived of staffing requirements is not ideal, but demands on the sector mean this cannot be avoided.