Thrive by Five rolls out Western Australian local campaign
Event Alert: Thrive by Five CEO Jay Weatherill will attend a family picnic at midday today at Woodbridge Riverside Park, First Avenue, Woodbridge and will be available for interview.
24 August 2021 – Thrive by Five is today kicking off a round of local campaign activities in Western Australia, highlighting the need for better Commonwealth investment and early learning reform in the state.
Thrive by Five CEO, Jay Weatherill said he was taking our message on the need to make early learning and childcare high quality, universally accessible and affordable on the road.
“The Commonwealth invests $1,478 per year for every WA child in early learning, $574 less than the national average of $2,052,” he said.
“Only 71 per cent of early learning services in WA meet or exceed the national standards, compared to the national average at 81.3 per cent.
“This should serve as a wake-up call for the Federal Government. We must urgently invest in and improve early learning and childcare in WA or else we risk leaving a generation of children behind.”
Thrive by Five is planning a series of local events in the state from now until the end of the year, to engage with parents, early learning providers, educators, and stakeholders to build momentum for early learning reform.
“The benefits of high quality early learning for children are undeniable. It helps give children the best start in life and impacts on their future health, wellbeing, working potential and social participation.
“We continue to urge the Commonwealth and the National Cabinet to make early learning and childcare reform a priority,” Mr Weatherill said.
Thrive by Five has been calling on the National Cabinet to implement a five point plan for reform:
- Agree to a new Federal-State agreement to deliver universal three-year-old preschool across the country to match the partnership agreement in place for four-year-old preschool.
- Lift the childcare subsidy to 95 per cent for all children and set agreed fee caps.
- Make the childcare subsidy available to all children regardless of the service type and the income or work status of the parents.
- Start workforce planning for a universal system and fund appropriate pay and conditions for educators to end the problem of skill shortages, high vacancy rates and high staff turnover rates across the sector.
- To achieve these outcomes, we ask that early education and childcare become a part of the National Cabinet reform agenda to deal with complexities of the system and build a true national universal system.
