Q&A Julia Davison CEO Goodstart Early Learning

Q&A - Julia Davison
CEO - Goodstart Early Learning

As a part of our monthly newsletter for child care providers we are running a series of profiles designed to further educate our readers about Australia's most important government departments, community and industry organisations and how they work to support the child care industry, and also to put a face to the names of these organisations.

This month we feature a Q&A with Julia Davison - CEO - Goodstart Early Learning.

What is your role within Goodstart and what is your professional background?
My name is Julia Davison and I am the CEO of Goodstart Early Learning. I have had extensive senior management experience in the health sector in Australia and the UK. Between 1999 and 2004 I was CEO at Flinders Medical Centre, a large teaching hospital in Adelaide. Most recently I held the position of CEO at WorkCover SA. I am also the Chair of Catherine House, a not-for-profit working to solve women's homelessness with sustainable long-term solutions in SA and a Director of Territory Insurance Office, NT.

How and when was Goodstart Early Learning formed?
Goodstart Early Learning is a not-for-profit organisation operating over 650 former ABC Learning centres across Australia with more than 14,000 staff serving some 70,000 children from birth to five years. Goodstart was created in 2009 by a partnership of organisations - Mission Australia, Social Ventures Australia, The Brotherhood of St Laurence and The Benevolent Society – who saw the potential of early learning to transform Australia.

What are the primary objectives/goals of Goodstart within Australia's child care sector?
Goodstart was created to help give all Australian children the best possible start in life. We realised that providing a high-quality service also gave us the opportunity to do so much more. Now, in collaboration with like-minded partners, our aim is to raise the importance of the first five years and elevate the impact early learning can achieve in the lives of both children and their families.

Our mission is to provide high-quality, accessible, affordable, community-connected early learning in our centres, as well as partner and openly collaborate with the sector to drive change for the benefit of all children. We have three key goals connected to our strategic priorities:

Quality: Raise the quality of early learning.
Inclusion: Enable all children's access to and inclusion in early childhood programs.
Stability: Ensure financial stability to generate a surplus to reinvest into quality and inclusion initiatives.

How is Goodstart working to achieve those goals?
Goodstart's three-year strategic plan outlines our eight strategic priorities, which are our means of achieving our goals. These priorities are:

Implement the National Quality Framework and Early Years Learning Framework.
Partner with the early learning sector to identify, share, and embed best practice.
Develop strong and empowered centre leadership.
Grow and retain our skilled and committed workforce.
Reach out, include and support more vulnerable children and their families.
Advocate for and elevate the importance of early learning for all children.
Invest in technology and facilities enhancements.
Adopt strong business disciplines in all we do.

What are Goodstart's biggest challenges now?
We know the first five years matter and last a lifetime. Our challenge is to build awareness and understanding throughout the wider community of the importance of the first five years and early learning.

We want the early childhood area to be an area of choice for education professionals and wages should reflect the incredibly important work they do. Goodstart recognises the importance and value of our early learning professionals. As a sector we need to partner together with Government and unions to ensure the existing funding model for wages is reviewed.

We want to continue to strengthen the quality of early learning in Australia. Goodstart is aiming to have one Early Learning Teacher in each of its centres by January 2013 which is a great outcome for children. We have instigated a range of initiatives including employer-funded training through the Goodstart Training College. We understand skill shortage is a problem being faced by the sector but we believe it is a question of attracting and retaining early learning professionals back to the sector.

There needs to be greater awareness and understanding of the importance of inclusion of vulnerable children in early learning in Australia. We want to use that understanding to overcome barriers to inclusion and to effect legislative and policy reform to improve funding of and access to early learning for vulnerable children.

What do you anticipate those challenges will be in the future?
Higher staff-to-child ratios and staff qualifications and training will raise the quality of early learning in Australia. We are actively working to deliver this while being sensitive to the financial impact the reforms will have on families now and in the future. We have worked hard to minimise the costs passed on to families to date and will continue to work towards improving early learning in Australia while ensuring we provide accessible and affordable early learning to families.

We need to continue to raise the profile of early learning as a career choice to attract education professionals to the sector now and in the future. As the sector shifts focus from 'child care' to 'learning' with a greater understanding of the importance of the first five years, we need to ensure we attract and retain a skilled and committed workforce to the sector. Goodstart is meeting this challenge with a range of initiatives including employer-funded training through the Goodstart Training College.

What in your opinion are the biggest challenges facing the Australian child care sector now?
Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world in investing in childhood development and education from birth to five years old. As a country, we should be supporting promoting and investing in early learning. There has been a 50 per cent increase in government expenditure since 2007, but Australia still lags behind in terms of qualification mix and spending. It is important for the sector to continue to raise the profile of early learning in Australia. As the largest provider of early learning in Australia, we are uniquely positioned to drive change for the benefit of all children.

The recent introduction of the National Quality Framework (NQF) has also placed the issue of skills and staff shortages back on the agenda. The perception is that there are not enough qualified educators to meet the NQF requirements. We believe this might not be the case – that there may be enough qualified professionals in Australia who are simply not working in the sector because of its perceived low importance reflected in low wages and (previous) minimal employment requirements.

If the sector is seen more broadly as we see it – that the early learning workforce is of critical importance to the future of our children and this is the area where educators can have the greatest influence on a child's life (reflected in pay and employment requirements) – we believe we would attract adequate professionals to this sector.

Why has child care become such a hot topic in Australia over the last few years?
More Australian families are requiring long day care than ever before. As at June 2011, there had been a 10.8 per cent increase over the past year in the number of children in approved care. Affordability continues to be an area of concern for families. With the rising cost of living, twenty per cent of households have reported high levels of difficulty with the cost of care for their children. This is why we want to work in partnerships with families to ensure they understand the importance of early childhood development and their children having access to and inclusion in quality early learning experiences.

There is greater recognition of early learning professionals and the important work they do.

An increasing trend across the children's services sector is the provision of integrated services designed to provide families with seamless access to a range of services for children.

The trend is towards a broader range of integrated services to children and families, including not only preschool and long day care but also maternal and child health, and family support services. The range of integrated services differs according to community need.

Australia is investing more in early education and care. The Government has increased expenditure by 50 per cent since 2007 which we applaud but Australia still has a long way to go.

How can child care professionals adapt to these changes?
Professionals have a role in supporting families through the transition of child care to early learning. They have a role to play in helping families understand the importance of the first five years and how all learning opportunities impact a child.

There is also an opportunity for early learning professionals to support families with additional needs. Social inclusion is critical for future generations of Australians and our early learning professionals can work with their communities to ease these transitions for families in these circumstances.

Is there anything else you can add which would be helpful for our audience, of mostly child care professionals, to know?
Our early learning professionals have the opportunity to make a real difference in a child's life and we value the important work they do. We have increased places in our Goodstart Training College by 40 per cent and offer structured career growth opportunities to ensure our staff get the right training to achieve their career goals.

We have also recently appointed a Director of Early Learning and Research. Professor Deborah Harcourt has 25 years' experience as an early childhood educator, academic, researcher and children's rights/social justice advocate and will be assisting in the development of Goodstart's professional practices to ensure the best outcomes for children and families.

Investing in our professional development programs and partnering with leading early childhood development experts is invaluable for Goodstart to raise the quality of early learning in Australia and ensure the best learning outcomes for children from birth to five.

If you'd like to nominate a key child care organisation or someone you'd like to see profiled please drop us a line at editor@careforkids.com.au