The Advisory Board responsible for overseeing the allocation of the $300m Early Years Quality Fund (EYQF) to be used specifically for wage increases has been announced by the Minister for Early Childhood and Youth Peter Garrett.

Mr Garrett said the seven-member Advisory Board will help deliver better outcomes for both workers and the children in their care.

"Board members represent both employee and employer organisations and will bring a variety of expertise as they advise Government on needs across the sector," he said.

Rachel Hunter – Chair, ACECQA

Samantha Page – CEO, Early Childhood Australia

Michael Crosby AM – National President, United Voice

Julia Davison – CEO, Goodstart Early Learning

Tom Hardwick – CEO, Guardian Early Learning Group

Prue Warrilow – National Convenor, Australian Community Children’s Services

Jennifer Taylor – Dept of Education Employment and Workplace Relations

Mr Garrett says the additional funding will enable child care services to offset the cost of employing more qualified staff while still maintaining quality standards and affordability for parents. The new Advisory Board will advise the government on how the funds should be allocated to eligible services.
continued…

Have your say: is this Advisory Board a good representation of the interests of the child care sector? Are you confident the funds will be allocated appropriately?

The vaccination debate has raised its head again in recent weeks with the head of the Australian Medical Association, Steve Hambleton, claiming that unvaccinated kids should be kept away from school.

Dr Hambleton's comments came in response to a report by the National Health Performance Authority titled Healthy Communities: Immunisation rates for children in 2011-12 which reveals that some local areas in Australia may be at risk of a disease outbreak due to low vaccination rates.

Dr Hambleton says there are pockets across the country where vaccination levels are falling below the levels necessary to keep children safe.

"No vaccine's 100 per cent effective so we need to vaccinate more people than we need to to get above that 90 per cent rate. So 93 per cent of kids need to be vaccinated to stop the spread… and we're nowhere near 93 per cent in probably 60 areas around the country, which is really disturbing," he said.
continued…

There are plenty of ways to nurture the development of verbal communication skills in young children in the early childhood education and care setting. Encouraging great communication is something that benefits even the youngest children in a child care environment and is fairly straightforward to do.

What you can do:

1. Use instructional practices that support children’s language learning:

Create a language-rich classroom

Make an effort to ensure that children are engaged in meaningful conversations and language used throughout the day. To create and sustain an environment like this early childhood education and care professionals can:

• engage children in extended conversations
• encourage children to tell and retell stories and to describe events
• discuss a wide range of topics
• model the use of new and unusual words
• discuss word meanings
• ask open-ended questions
• give explicit guidance on vocabulary, syntax and pronunciation
• challenge children to justify their thinking
• focus on the expression of ideas.

continued…

This is a great opportunity to promote your service's achievements and Quality Improvement Plan so let us know