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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