By Callum Ludwig
Victorian early year educators are facing staffing issues across the board, including here locally in the Yarra Ranges. There’s hope Victorian Government incentives for the sector could be used in the local region to address this issue.
These boosts can’t come any sooner, with analysis from Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute revealing in May that childcare access in the Casey electorate is the worst in Victoria and Millgrove Preschool recently announcing they have had to temporarily close for Term 3.
CEO of Yarra Ranges Kinders Gaby Thomson said the biggest issue facing the sector in the Yarra Ranges is staff numbers.
“The staff are very much impacted by Covid, kinders have remained open the whole time and they are exhausted. A lot of teachers and educators have left the sector, and not just in the Yarra Ranges,” she said.
“It’s very difficult to find staff to backfill to cover for a week that everyone needs to isolate due to Covid, and it’s been hard enough filling permanent positions. We have had to close at times and we do everything we can to avoid closing.”
A number of changes are coming to the industry as part of the Victorian Government’s Best Start, Best Life early childhood education reforms to improve access to early childhood education from a number of aspects: namely incentives for qualified early childhood educators to join, return or relocate to become a part of the workforce and making Three and Four-Year old Kinder free from 2023.
Ms Thomson said that at current, funding is a really uncertain issue that the sector has been facing.
“We have very dedicated teachers and educators but there just hasn’t been enough to do the job that is required, and for every hour they teach, there’s essentially half an hour where they need to do everything else. Obviously, kinders have a huge amount of compliance to be maintained to keep children safe,” she said.
“We really need to receive enough funding to be able to fund our teachers a bit more like primary schools where they’re employed full time, when you think about how much time they need planning sessions, planning contact with families, attending meetings, their notes, their compliance and even just answering emails.”
Yarra Ranges Kinders operates 21 kinders, 20 in the Yarra ranges and one in Knox, and only Warburton Preschool is classified and funded as rural.
The Best Start, Best Life reforms recently included location incentives of $9,000 are also available for educators willing to relocate to high-priority services across the state to deliver the nation-leading rollout of universal Three-Year-Old Kindergarten. There are also existing location incentives of $9,000 to $50,000 for early childhood teachers who take up a role at a high-priority service. Currently, a process to determine which services are considered high-priority is underway.
Ms Thomson said she is hopeful the Yarra Ranges will be considered for the incentives.
“At the moment, we really struggle to be able to get staff, particularly in areas up in the hills and out along the line to Warburton. it’s a real challenge both for ongoing staff and for casual relief, which is just as important at the moment, because of the amount of Covid knocking everyone around and taking people out of the workforce is huge,” she said.
“I would be thrilled, we have a lot of vulnerable communities out there. We know how important early education and support are for children’s development, it’s absolutely vital. We’re hoping and holding our breath to see what happens.”
Early childhood educators can view the Early Childhood Jobs site is the place to look and apply for or advertise early childhood education jobs and incentives. www.jobs.earlychildhood.education.vic.gov.au/.
“We’re supporting our early childhood workforce with more financial incentives and innovative courses to ensure we attract, retain and support dedicated staff to deliver the best educational start for Victorian children,” said Minister for Early Childhood Education and Pre-Prep Ingrid Stitt.
