What the Whitlam ECEC will look like. Image: ACT Government.
New data from the Productivity Commission shows the child care sector is in crisis, with rising reports of serious incidents and declining workforce quality. Do not-for-profit centres co-located with schools provide a better model?
Both the Federal and ACT Governments are moving in that direction with a landmark funding announcement at the site of the Whitlam Primary School for a 130-place, $13 million early childhood education and care centre.
In the first deal of its kind for the ACT, the Commonwealth will contribute $10 million to the project from its $1 billion Building Early Education Fund and the ACT will contribute $3.7 million, as well as $4 million “in kind”.
The centre will open in 2028, a year after Whitlam’s new school takes its first students.
Education and Early Childhood Minister Yvette Berry said the ACT Government supported the expansion of the not-for-profit sector, particularly centres co-located with schools.
“We’re building more early learning services attached to our primary schools as we build them in new and growing areas,” she said.
“It’s an important part of the ACT government’s policy to build the community not-for-profit services that are growing in our city.”
Jess Walsh and Yvette Berry at the Whitlam School early learning announcement. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Federal Early Childhood Education Minister Senator Jess Walsh said the Federal Government was strengthening the sector with the delivery of more quality not-for-profit early education across the country in the places where families needed it.
Senator Walsh said early childhood education benefited children and prepared them for school and life, especially when it was co-located with schools, allowing them to avoid the double drop-off.
“They can see the school there, and they can see themselves getting ready for school as well, and it’s obviously great for families to avoid the chaos of driving around to an early learning service to drop one child off and then go to school,” she said.
The Productivity Commission Report on Government Services figures from 2024-25 will not comfort parents dealing with the troubled sector.
The rate of serious incidents reported in National Quality Framework (NQF) approved early childhood education and care services reached a new high in 2024 of 160 serious incidents per 100 NQF-approved services.
This rate has increased steadily since data collection commenced in 2016-17.
In 2024-25, nearly 8 per cent of serious incidents were associated with a confirmed breach, double the 4.1 per cent rate first available in 2019-20.
At the same time, staff quality, based on qualifications and experience, has declined since the 2021 workforce census. In 2024, three-quarters of paid contact staff had either formal qualifications at Certificate III or higher, or three or more years relevant experience, down from 82.1 per cent in 2021.
Senator Walsh said the data would be concerning for parents, but safety was the top priority for education ministers across the country.
She said that two major measures as part of the government’s $200 million program to strengthen the sector would begin within weeks: mandatory child-safe training for every educator in the system and the first nationwide register of early childhood educators.
The government passed legislation last year to withdraw funding from centres that did not meet national standards, putting 60 services on notice.
“Obviously, what we want to see is for them to improve, and we’re working with those services now,” Senator Walsh said.
“We developed these powers to use them. We developed these powers to hold providers who we think are putting profit ahead of child safety to account, and we are using those powers right now.”
Asked whether the for-profit sector was failing, Senator Walsh said that the government wanted to see more quality, not-for-profit early learning, and that was the purpose of the billion-dollar fund, which also prioritised co-location with schools.
But the majority of services were for-profit, whether they were corporate or small providers.
“We’ve been really clear that there is no place for providers who put profit ahead of child safety,” Senator Walsh said.
The Whitlam school has been delayed twice due to rising construction costs and skill shortages. The school will cater for up to 780 primary school students from preschool to Year 6.
It will open in stages, with the starting year levels still to be announced.
