Child Care Workers Talk to Minister About Ratios and Pay Child care professionals have urged the Australian Government to adopt best practice staff to child ratios at a meeting with the Hon Kate Ellis MP, Minister for Early Childhood Education and Care and Minister for Childcare and Youth. The workers advised the Minister that COAG's vision for Australian children and families is unlikely to succeed unless the reform agenda is fully extended to cover the sector's workforce. Anje Errey and Sue McSullea (NSW), Bronwen Jefferson (Vic), Monique Wickham (Tas) and Katie McCarthy (ACT) spoke to the Minister on behalf of Australia's 100,000 plus child care workers. Monique Whickam, who has 15 years experience in the sector, told the Minister that child care workers across the country are excited by the national quality reform of early childhood education and care but said pay was still an issue. ‘Unless wages are lifted to professional levels the reforms will not be sustainable,' she said. Sue McSullea, from a KU centre in NSW also raised the issue of low pay with the Minister: ‘Many of us leave child care because it is still a low paid job. We are losing experienced and dedicated people because they cannot survive financially - some even work a second job. This is a great cost to the industry. The Government needs to support better wages in the industry to attract and retain the best staff to work with children and families,' she said. Another issue the workers raised with the Minister was the level of recognition given to the role of child care workers: ‘It's important we raise the profile of child care professionals. We need to win better conditions to deliver quality care. The Government wants to increase formal qualifications in child care. We told the Minister higher formal qualifications in the sector will improve quality but only if the Government makes training for child care professionals more accessible,' said Katie McCarthy, a degree qualified early years teacher from Canberra. The workers also delivered the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union's submission on COAG's Early Childhood Education and Care Quality Reforms. In the submission LHMU calls on Australian Governments to commit to: Option four and more: Adopting the highest possible standard (Option four in the Regulation Impact Statement) with the additional improvements required to meet superior standards currently existing in each state and territory. These ratios are: one staff member for every three babies/infants (up to two years) one staff member for every five toddlers (up to three years)  one staff member for every eight preschoolers (up to school age) the infant ratio of one to three must be brought in by 2012 Quality through professionalism: incorporating qualification articulation, up-skilling, programming and professional development criteria into the National Quality Standard framework so that it can be regulated for, as a contributing and measurable quality indicator. An inviting and sustainable career: extending funding through the TAFE system of all qualifications required in the new standard including the Certificate III, Diploma, Advanced Diploma, and three and four year degrees until staffing shortages abate. Securing fair wages: lifting wages to professional levels. We need reform of Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate and an investigation into the capacity of the sector to fund decent wages. Some funding will need to come from governments and be paid directly to centres. This funding should be tied to wages through collective agreements.

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