Joint Media Release with The Hon Verity Firth MP, NSW Minister for Education and Training, and The Hon Linda Burney MP, NSW Minister for Community Services
The Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, Ms Maxine McKew has today announced arrangements for the nine remaining Early Learning and Care Centres (ELCCs) to be built in New South Wales.
When completed the new Centres will provide additional child care places in a long day care setting for up to 450 children.
“These centres represent another down payment by the Rudd Government on the future of Australian children,” said Ms McKew.
“As a Government we understand the crucial importance of the first five years of life in giving a child the best possible chance for future success.”
“These centres will play a key role in delivering our Education Revolution in child care, in particular our goal of a high quality early education system that is affordable and accessible for children and their parents.”
Establishment of the centres will be the joint responsibility of the Australian and NSW Governments, with the Commonwealth allocating approximately $14.4 million in funding towards completion.
Ms McKew made the announcement to members of the school community at North Ryde Public School, accompanied by NSW Education Minister Verity Firth and NSW Community Services Minister Linda Burney whose portfolio takes in child care services.
The North Ryde ELCC will be one of five centres to be built on primary school land contributed by the NSW Government.
The other four NSW primary school sites that will host ELCCs are:
- Faulconbridge Public School (Faulconbridge)
- Queanbeyan South Public School (Queanbeyan)
- Panania North Public School (Milperra)
- Merewether Heights Public School (Newcastle).
Ms Firth welcomed the announcement, saying the centres would help children make the smooth transition to school so vital to securing their future success.
“Locating early learning child care centres on school grounds means children already feel part of the broader school community,” said Ms Firth.
“The NSW Government is proud to be supporting this Commonwealth initiative.
“It is an exciting opportunity for the development of world class early child care facilities that will boost both local employment and provide much needed child care support for working families.”
Ms Burney was pleased to be working in partnership with the Rudd Government to improve NSW families’ access to quality early childhood services.
“Quality early learning centres enhance children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development and build children’s foundation skills in literacy and numeracy,” Ms Burney said.
“These new centres are expanding education and care opportunities, with strong linkages to local schools.”
“The local construction and child care industries will particularly benefit from the establishment of these centres in these difficult economic times,” added Ms McKew.
The Rudd Government has committed $114.5 million for 38 priority Early Learning and Care Centres to operate across Australia by 2010. Arrangements for 22 out of the 38 ELCCs are now in place across the country.
Details for all 11 ELCCs in NSW have now been made public. This follows the announcement last month of an autism-specific Early Learning and Care Centre in Liverpool in Sydney’s west, and a call for proposals for the establishment of an ELCC at Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains.
A request for proposal (RFP) for the construction of the 5 NSW Centres at school sites announced today and for service provision at those sites will be advertised by the Australian Government later this month.
A separate request for proposal (RFP) will be advertised tomorrow for the remaining four centres to be located in Bondi Junction, Fairlight, Killara or surrounding areas and Sydney’s Inner West.
At a national level, arrangements for ELCCs have already been announced at Craigieburn, St Kilda, Port Melbourne, Upwey and Yarraville in Victoria, Beaconsfield in Tasmania, Weipa in Queensland, and Darwin and Palmerston in the Northern Territory. Arrangements for autism-specific centres have also been announced in Melbourne and Adelaide.
Ms McKew said, “Australia’s future will be shaped by the support we provide for our children’s development today. The Government recognises that across Australia there are communities with an ongoing need for high quality, affordable child care and we are acting to meet that need.”
- The Early Learning and Care Centre initiative is part of the Rudd Government’s Education Revolution that will ensure Australia's early childhood care and education system is well placed to improve outcomes for children and their families. The initiatives include:
- $1.6 billion over four years to help families meet higher costs of living by increasing the Child Care Tax Rebate (CCTR) from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of out of pocket costs to a maximum of $7500;
- $970 million over five years to provide all Australian children access to 15 hours per week of early learning programs for 40 weeks a year in the year before formal schooling;
- $126.6 million over four years in fee relief for at least 8000 TAFE students per year, additional university places for early childhood teachers (starting with 500 places in 2009 and rising to 1500 additional places by 2011) and significant reductions in the HECS-HELP debt of early childhood teachers working in regional and remote areas, Indigenous communities and areas of high disadvantage.
For more information about early childhood education and child care, please visit www.mychild.gov.au.
Request for Proposal documentation will be published at www.deewr.gov.au/earlychildhood