TOR 5: The benefits and other impacts of regulatory changes in child care over the past decade, including the implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF) in States and Territories, with specific consideration given to compliance costs, taking into account the Government’s planned work with States and Territories to streamline the NQF.

Good Beginnings, through experience, has a strong appreciation for the benefits of work-based training and mentoring particularly to attract broad representation in roles working with families. As such Good Beginnings sees a place for competency-based assessment, when it is used as a strategy to engage recruits in formal training or is coupled with formal training opportunities. In the ECEC sector it is important that increasing qualification levels strikes the right balance between assessing competency and improving the skill level within the profession. High educator-to-child ratios are also imperative to ensuring quality. The positive or negative impact that early experience can have on children should be considered as the most important determinant when considering regulatory and assessment frameworks for quality. The negative impacts are too severe and the positive impacts present too great an opportunity to back away from a comprehensive quality assessment process. The risk of cutting costs of, or relaxing the regulation and quality assurances processes of ECEC services, that host the future potential of the country, is too high a price in relation to any savings achieved. Greater supports are required to ensure access and affordability of high quality services. Better supports to integrate 15 hours of universal access into LDC settings, 15 hours can equate to up to 3 days of sessional preschool or kindergarten, whereas it equates to only one and a half days of a LDC program. Options that enable access to high quality education [and care] programs within LDC settings should be explored to increase access without complicating or increasing costs for families. This is particularly important in the context of some states offering subsidised or free kindergarten and preschool programs. Structures that enable families to access a combination of State and Federal subsidies are required to ensure that families are supported to make the right choice for their family. This may require that funding be directed to ECEC services to ensure easy access, that is, based on achieving and maintaining quality standards. Key to achieving outcomes for children and families is flexibility for individual family circumstances and regional needs. There is an overlap between employment services and outcomes for children. This case study provides further context:

Social issues in Aboriginal communities are best addressed by local, respected community members where family, language and culture are at the forefront of effecting positive outcomes for children and their families and provides collaborative, strengths-based approach to addressing social issues. The mentoring of people in early childhood/community services provided by an organisation proficient in these skills provides an opportunity to address current capacity shortages in the long term workforce, and can have flow on impacts within a community. And the results (a case study): After a mentoring session at (an Aboriginal community), a student informed Good Beginnings staff, “I told my niece she had to come to crèche with her little boy, and I have been teaching her about healthy daga.” This student’s niece had previously been referred to Good Beginnings for parenting skills training and child development support, by Child Protection Authorities. Unfortunately the family did not engage with Good Beginnings. The student had seen a need and decided to implement support herself. She obviously felt confident she possessed the skills and knowledge necessary to help this family member and did not require professional intervention.

12 12 Good Beginnings Australia – Productivity Commission Issue Paper: Childcare and Early Childhood Learning - Feb 2014