ASU push for ABC Learning Centres
Date: 27 November 2008
Australian Services Unions renews calls for to bring forward plans to transfer as many as possible ABC Learning Centres to local government.
ASU National Secretary Paul Slape said ABC Learning's receivers had listed more than 300 child care centres as facing possible closure.
"This will potentially affect about 30,000 children in their care," he said.
"The problem is here and now. We need a plan to transfer, wherever possible, these child care centres to local government.
"Parents who are already facing difficulty making ends meet, now face the prospect of not having child care in the new year.
"We now have to move quickly to minimise the disruption to families across Australia."
Mr Slape said the recently announced Senate inquiry into child care was welcome and the ASU planned make a submission, but action needed to be far more urgent.
The ASU covers child care workers in local government and it is the largest union in local government and community run centres.
Mr Slape said the ASU had approached the Australian Local Government Association, other local government bodies, and the Federal Government to find a better long term solution to the current child care crisis.
"The ASU believes that the collapse of ABC Learning has provided an opportunity to reconnect families to their local community services through a major return of child care services to local governments," he said.
"Local government already provides maternal and child health services and it simply makes sense that it is the long term home for child care services.
ASU National Conference endorses position on child care
At the meeting of the ASU National Conference held last week in Melbourne, the following position on child care was endorsed by all delegates:
Child care is not as simple as ABC
Australia needs a better child care solution
Over 120,000 children attended ABC Learning child care centres across Australia at the time of its collapse. They were cared for by thousands of hard working professional child care workers whose services were relied upon by many more thousands of mums and dads. Now, because of mismanagement and poor commercial decisions, the fate of ABC Learning's 1100 centres is unclear.
What is clear is that a vital and essential service like child care cannot be left to the volatility of a commercial market. The debate should not be about what child care services are profitable - but should be about access to quality and sustainable child care. Families in our community deserve certainty. They deserve quality service. They deserve good governance and experienced management.
An opportunity for something better
The Australian Services Union (ASU), with over 100 years representing local government workers and local child care workers, believes local government should play a role. The ASU believes that the collapse of ABC Learning has provided an opportunity for something better: an opportunity to reconnect families into their local community services through a major return of child care services to local governments.
This means connecting them back into the organisations that provide maternal child health services, immunisation programs, mobile libraries, baby capsule hire, health services and so on. Local government simply provides the best child care services within an integrated service to the community.
The ASU will also publish a report highlighting the benefits of public sector child care, comparing private and public provision of child care.
Who benefits from child care services in local government?
The best solution for child care centres is for them to be owned and run by local councils. That means everyone wins with better quality services and secure jobs as well as local integration with families and other vital local government services.
KIDS: Better local services mean better care for kids.
PARENTS: Better local services mean their children receive a higher standard of care. It means access to an integrated service including maternal health and immunisation.
CHILD CARE STAFF: Better local services mean better rewards for hard working staff. It means broader career opportunities as well as higher levels of training and skills development.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Better local services mean no need to bailout failed businesses.
The ASU believes that priority must be given to local governments expressing an interest to the ABC Learning administrator in buying and operating centres.
And to ensure that families are not faced with such uncertainty again, a federal body overlooking the sector needs to be created to improve regulation, provide quality measures and use information to track the demographic needs of young families in our communities.
The ASU calls upon the State and Federal Governments to address the supply of child care centres, to review and regulate where future centres are opened to ensure they meet local needs. This means allowing local authorities to decline development applications, without penalty, for the creation of centres where no local need exists.
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