Following the release of a damning report into early childhood care in NSW, the MP who instigated the investigations will join local education experts in Nowra for a free community forum.
Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, who chaired the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care, will address the implications of shocking failures in the sector, for children, families, and educators in the Shoalhaven.
“We need a fundamental shift in how early childhood education and care is valued, funded and governed,” she says. “Children’s safety and development must be placed unequivocally at the centre of the system.”
Ms Boyd has championed reforms to prioritise children and educators over industry investors after working closely with whistleblowers and investigative journalists to uncover the extent of the problems in a shocking ABC Four Corners exposé.
“Every dollar that is taken in profit by a corporate early childcare company, or real estate mogul, or labour hire provider, is a dollar not being invested in quality and safety,” she says.
“State and Federal governments have been willfully ignorant to the entirely predictable results of a market-driven, corporatised expansion of the early childhood sector.
“This was always a false economy. The sector is built on trust, and that trust emerges from quality.”
Boyd was the Chair of the NSW Education Committee when she began a legal fight to have documented reporting of abuse and neglect in centres released to the public.
The reports detailed breaches, enforcement actions, suspected criminal conduct and other serious problems afflicting the state’s early childhood system. What Boyd learned from these disturbing reports fueled her to fight for a radical rethink of the early childhood system as an “essential public service”.
Joining Boyd on at the forum on June 16 is Keiraville Community Preschool’s Margaret Gleeson, a veteran educator and Fair Work Commission ambassador fighting for pay parity for early childhood teachers and to secure funding for community preschools.
Cullunghutti Aboriginal Child and Family Centre CEO, Tara Leslie, will explore the role of cultural leadership and community partnerships in successfully supporting children with particular needs or coming from disadvantaged environments.
Professor Tonia Gray, a public education advocate and Innovative Learning and Teaching Environments expert will MC the event.
“It’s important for families and early childhood professionals to understand the pitfalls revealed in this scathing report,” Dr Gray says.
“But it’s also a critical opportunity for the sector to dramatically restructure in response to such clear findings about the failure of large for-profit providers to be safe services that deliver sound education – and to stop the exodus of staff.
“Change must be led by community need, not corporate greed.
