Decision details

Moved by Councillor Ellsmore, seconded by the Chair (the Lord Mayor) –

It is resolved that Council:

(A)       note that:

(i)         local government is the largest provider of public early childhood education. Access to public early childhood education is vital to support working families, and the economic independence of families, and particularly women;

(ii)        the sector is currently undergoing a crisis, with 74 per cent of the workforce planning on leaving within the next three years due to low wages and high workloads, and relatively few students entering the sector to replace them;

(iii)       unpaid placements currently require students to sacrifice thousands of dollars in pay, in order to enter into a sector they are likely to ultimately leave;

(iv)       child-care fees are rising substantially and there are large parts of the state, especially in regional NSW, where families cannot access any services for their children; and

(v)        the costs of addressing this crisis should be borne by state and federal governments, not by councils who face increasing financial pressure, or early childhood educators who are some of the lowest paid essential workers in our communities; and

(B)       submit the following motion for consideration at the upcoming 2023 Local Government NSW Annual Conference:

Topic: Support for Early Childhood Education in the Local Government Sector

That Local Government NSW commits to supporting councils to recruit and retain early childhood educators by:

(a)     calling on the NSW Government to:

(i)      increase support for public early childhood education services, including extending the paid placement funding offered to ECT students to Diploma and Certificate III students; and

(ii)      support councils to expand high-quality early childhood education and care through long daycare, out-of-hours care, pre-school, and occasional care; and

(b)          bargaining with the United Services Union and its members in good faith to achieve an increase to wages for early childhood educators above inflation, as well as leave provisions and hazard pay that reflect the risk of infection associated with work in early childhood education.

Carried unanimously, as part of an in globo motion.

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